The pervasive Sichuan sound and the aroma of prickly ash and chili peppers wafting from every household enter Houchang Village in Haidian District, Beijing, which always gives people the illusion of accidentally entering a Sichuan-Chongqing town. Houchang Village, outside the Northwest Fifth Ring Road, used to be famous for "moving". A few years ago, Chongqing residents who lived here occupied almost half of the entire Beijing moving market, which can be said to be a veritable "moving village".
Over the past few years, Houchang Village’s Chongqing people have come and gone, basically maintaining the scale of 1,000 people. After the rise of online car-hailing, the Chongqing fellow who "first ate cake" on June 7, 2015 made money, and the place gradually changed from "moving village" to "express village". As the "premium" system of online car-hailing platforms gradually tightened and the incentive subsidy was reduced, by November 12, 2016, most of the express drivers in Houchang Village changed careers again. For 524 days, the tea house in the hutong was neglected because drivers were busy making money. Now the sound of mahjong here is louder and longer than before.
"Chongqing Forest" in Houchang Village, Haidian
Ding Chaoquan, a 40-year-old Chongqing native, is an express driver in Houchang Village. After a hurried dinner before 5 p.m., Ding Chao dressed in black cotton-padded clothes, carried a pack of cigarettes, and carried a pot of tea. As usual, he grabbed the car keys and turned them out of the hutong in Houchang Village, ready to leave.
Ding Chaoquan’s car was parked on the south-facing side of the road that turned out to be Northwest Wang 2nd Street. On both sides of the road, there were also dozens of cars of Yu and Jing brands parked. Ding Chaoquan said that these cars are basically online hailing cars.
At the end of October, according to the latest data from the Institute of Transportation System Science and Engineering at Beijing Jiaotong University, the total number of registered drivers of "Didi Chuxing" in Beijing has exceeded 1.50 million, and Ding Chaoquan and his fellow Chongqing villagers are part of this 1.50 million army.
In a 24-hour cycle, the amount of orders settled by the express platform showed that Ding Chaoquan earned 547 yuan, excluding 245 yuan of oil money. On this day, Ding Chaoquan earned 302 yuan. But Ding Chaoquan still shook his head: "Compared with last year’s Heat, this number is two or three times worse."
Ding Chaoquan registered as an express driver in June 2015. Before that, he drove a black car for six years. Earlier, he, like many fellow villagers, did a moving business in Houchang Village.
In Ding’s memory, since 1993, villagers in Xintian Town, Pengshui County, Chongqing, have been flocking to Beijing’s moving market under the leadership of "pathfinders". In the early 1990s, a group of villagers traveled to Beijing far from their hometown to work as movers. Local bosses had the resources to send cars, and villagers paid for labor. Over time, the first batch of movers who amassed connections and markets became bosses: buy a few trucks and hire a group of Chongqing villagers as workers.
In the years since then, relying on their hometown relationship, the villagers of Pengshui County, Chongqing have gradually moved out of Sichuan and Chongqing towns and gradually occupied half of the Beijing moving market. And Houchang Village has gradually become the gathering point of Chongqing fellow villagers in Beijing, becoming a veritable "moving village".
According to the villagers’ own statistics, there are at least 1,000 people in Pengshui County, Chongqing, who are renting in the "moving village" to engage in moving work, and at one point more than 500 trucks and vans were used for moving.
The first express driver of "Moving Village"
As more and more Chongqing people flocked to Beijing, the "cake" of the moving market was not enough. Ding Chaoquan intuitively felt that there was a watershed in the moving industry around 2008. Some people made 900,000 in a few months, settled in Beijing, and some people could not get a good job or pay workers. Ding Chaoquan said he belonged to the latter group. Around 2009, seeing the business slump, Ding Chaoquan was forced to start the first "transformation": he sold a minivan for moving, bought a second-hand Buick, and drove a black car full-time.
"Worry about fear" accompanied Ding Chaoquan for a long time after that. "From the time the passenger got on the bus to the time he got off, the whole process was tense, and he had to be careful to be caught." Ding Chaoquan said that being caught meant being fined. At most, he was fined 6,000 yuan and detained from the car.
"It was very difficult, and I was afraid of punishment. I hesitated several times whether to continue driving black cars." In 2015, the peers who drove black cars in Beijing had no time to pay attention to Ding Chaoquan’s torn. In May of that year, "Didi Express" went online, which immediately added a new firewood to the increasingly popular online car-hailing industry.
Data show that since the launch of Didi Express in May 2015, in two months, the order volume of "Didi Express" in Beijing has reached a local peak and the daily average 400,000 orders. At the same time, the number of registered drivers has approached 700,000.
Ding Chaoquan, who was suffering from fear, seized this "opportunity".
On a sultry afternoon in June, Ding Chaoquan registered as an express driver under the advice of his buddies. After two days, he decided to stop driving black cars and become an express driver on time.
"I clearly remember that it was June 7th, and I could really make money." After Ding Chaoquan became an express driver, his income was mainly composed of three parts: the commission income for each order, the reward for completing the order, and the double premium during peak hours. Ding Chaoquan did not deny that most of the income came from the latter two. For each order, the platform charges a 21.77% commission, and the rest of the fare belongs to the driver. " "Order Completion Reward" was also known as the "Charging Reward", which was formulated by the platform to retain drivers who could provide services for a long time. "At the beginning, the reward for running 10 orders a day was 100 yuan, and the reward for running 20 orders was 200 yuan," while the "Premium" reward was calculated for drivers in different periods of time.
Driving for 10 hours a day and earning more than 1,000 yuan was the norm for express drivers at that time. The news that Ding Chaoquan became an express driver "made a lot of money" quickly spread in the small teahouse in the hutong of Houchang Village. At most, seven or eight fellow villagers came to him to "learn from" a day. People kept asking him: how much money can I earn a day, how many subsidies and rewards can I get, how to join, and which area is easy to run in?
Yu brand "fast team" that hugs together for heating
Dou Ming followed Ding Chaoquan’s footsteps closely and rented a car to join the express team of the "Moving Village". Every morning at 6 or 7 o’clock, he would collect the car at night. Dou Ming could earn more than 10,000 yuan every month when the express train "just got popular." But renting a car was also a small expense. "After deducting the car rental fee and gas money, you can earn six or seven thousand yuan at the bottom."
Ren Chuan rented a house opposite Ding Chaoquan, belonging to the first wave ** fellow villagers who "learned from" Ding Chaoquan. Unlike Douming, Ren Chuan was cautious about the "express", but also eager. After waiting for half a year, after the ****** Festival, he persuaded his parents to take out their savings and buy a new car in the early 100,000. Since there was no ******* license plate, Ren Chuan applied for a license plate for his hometown in Chongqing.
Buying a new car has almost become the "standard" for young people in the "moving village" to join the express team. Ren Chuan calculated that if he did not buy a car, renting a car would cost 150 yuan a day. "You can run for 13 to 14 hours a day, receive more than 20 orders, and earn 400 yuan. After deducting the money for renting a car and gas, there are only a few dozen yuan left."
Outside Houchang Village, Northwest Wang 2nd Street, where moving trucks and vans were originally parked, was gradually occupied by the team of cars joining the express train. Here, the number of Chongqing brand cars is the most, followed by the Beijing brand run by Chongqing villagers in the early years.
From the end of 2015 to the first half of 2016, Mr. Ding and Mr. Ren recalled, "counting the West Second Banner, Software Park and Houchang Village, there were four or five hundred express drivers." In the three alleys near where Mr. Ding lived alone, there were 60 or 70 express drivers he knew.
The "fast fleet" derived from the "moving village" is still growing rapidly in a group to keep warm.
According to different regions, the express drivers have formed different "gangs" and divided different areas. Ding Chaoquan and Ren Chuan belong to "Chongqing", and in addition, there are online ride-hailing drivers from Henan and Hebei, all of which have their own WeChat groups. During the morning and evening rush hour, Baidu, Lenovo and Software Park near Houchang Village are "must-fight" for express drivers.
"Before leaving the car, we will make an appointment. Chongqing will go to Gate 7 of the Software Park and wait. Hebei or Henan will not come over." Ren Chuan said.
Once a monthly income of 10,000 was "basic"
After booking a car online, Ren Chuan also added a WeChat group of express drivers with more than 150 people. "The group is full of fellow villagers, and there are often people who post’record ‘." Ren Chuan remembered that someone once posted a "large order" of "35 kilometers, 175 yuan" in the group, "175 yuan, including the 2.6 times reward given by the platform at that time, a tip of 30 yuan, and a high-speed fee of 15 yuan. Excluding the fuel fee, a single order netted 120 yuan."
This is when, in their eyes, Express is at its "most prosperous", earning 10,000 yuan a month is "basic", and there are fellow villagers around them who "earn more than 30,000 yuan a month". But behind the appearance of this "prosperity" and "prosperity" is the "prosperity" that Didi, Uber and Yidao and other online car-hailing platforms "burn out" with money to occupy the market. Data show that in 2015, China’s entire online car-hailing market "burned" about 20 billion yuan due to the subsidy war.
"Burning money" will certainly not be the norm, but few online ride-hailing drivers who are immersed in the imagination of "making big money" are aware. Ding Chaoquan has worked "very hard", even registering on multiple platforms at the same time and taking orders at the same time. The reward policies of online ride-hailing platforms have also begun to change quietly.
After April this year, the reward for Didi Express doubling throughout the day was lowered, "the previous reward of 2.5 times the peak and 5 times the peak was gone, but now it is 1.2 times the peak and 2 times the peak", and the threshold for "rushing orders" has also been raised: "If you receive more than 20 orders a day, you will be rewarded 100 yuan, and if you receive more than 25 orders, you will be rewarded 200 yuan."
Ding Chaoquan’s idea at the time was that even if the reward was lowered, it would still be no problem to earn three or four hundred yuan after spending fourteen or five hours a day. Compared with the random income of moving, compared with the fear of driving a black car, Ding Chaoquan felt that the "express train" was more like a "career" to ensure the income of drought and waterlogging. And Ren Chuan considered that he could save a "wife book" by working for two years.
Mahjong sound into the industry "barometer"
There is no business of moving on weekdays, and groups of Chongqing villagers flocked to the teahouse. In a moment, the sound of mahjong hitting the table rose one after another.
After the "express convoy" appeared, a group of people left the car around 6 am and came back in the early morning, and another group of people left the car around 5 pm and came back the next morning.
During the rest of the time, they went home to sleep, eat, and prepare to leave the car again. The business of the teahouse had been neglected a lot.
"The company is burning money, but what it earns is the driver, and what benefits are the passengers." Ding Chaoquan had an account in his heart, and he slowly realized that the days of "getting rewards and getting soft hands" may not be too long.
Soon after, the news broke that Didi and Uber China had "reached a strategic cooperation". After upgrading to the "Didi-Uber" platform, Ding Chaoquan obviously felt that "the money received is two or three thousand less per month".
Since then, the "premium" system familiar to Ding Dynasty has gradually tightened. "It is considered a good order to receive 1.2 times in the morning and evening peaks," but the income is far from the 2.6 times or 3 times the premium before the merger. At the same time, the star reward has become a scoring system, "only rewards above 80 points". A bad review by a passenger will directly affect the overall score, and then affect the driver’s "bonus".
"When I got out of the car, I always encountered passengers who were’picky ‘, and now the company doesn’t like it either. The two ends are splinted, and the work is boring." On November 3, after a few days of hesitation, Ren Chuan withdrew from the group.
In just ten days, the "express convoy" in Houchang Village has undergone a "bloodbath". On Nov. 12, Ding Chaoquan said that he counted 60 or 70 express drivers he knew well, and "now there are only a dozen or so people left."
Those who quit, some return to the old business of moving, and some return to the ranks of black cars.
The nearly brand-new cars in the hands of many people were parked on the roadside of Northwest Wang 2nd Street, collecting dust, and the sound of mahjong in the hutong teahouse sounded earlier and longer than before.
The persisting express driver
In Ren Chuan’s opinion, there are only two types of people who still insist on driving fast: one is "idle and bored", and when they are not alive, they use online car-hailing as a part-time job and go out to earn gas money during peak hours; the other is "helpless" and handles other business and spends money to buy a car.
Ding Chaoquan is "forced to be helpless". Because he used to drive used cars, Ding Chaoquan was often "given bad reviews" by customers. In September this year, he took out a loan to buy a Dongfeng sedan with a little 100,000. The money for the car "has not been earned back", and then the online car-hailing fell into a low ebb.
This is Ding Chaoquan, a 40-year-old from Chongqing, in his 14th year in Beijing. For the first 13 years, Ding Chao went around in circles, moved houses, drove black cars, and only became "practical" after driving a fast car. Over the past year, what impressed his wife most was that Ding Chaoquan "didn’t even touch mahjong".
At the door, there was a refrigerator, a chopping board, and pots and pans on the table. After the stove turned around, there was a square table, and next to the table, two beds were staggered. On the briquettes stove next to one of the beds, the iron kettle was sizzling. This was a bungalow rented by Ding Chao’s family of four in Houchang Village, with an area of less than 20 square meters.
Two years ago, the monthly rent for the house rose from 420 yuan to 620 yuan now. "Including the electricity and water bills, it will be more than 10,000 in a year." A son and a daughter are studying at a nearby private elementary school. "The tuition fee for a year alone is nearly 20,000 yuan."
Ding Chaoquan has not returned to his hometown in Pengshui County, Chongqing for the Chinese New Year for three years, and he is preparing to return home for the Spring Festival. "The old father is over 70, and his health is not good, so he has to go back and have a look." Going home means "spending money". "Thousands of dollars to honor the elderly on both sides are indispensable, and relatives have to carry fruit, cigarettes and alcohol during the Chinese New Year. 10,000 yuan can’t stop it."
Tuition fees, rent, daily expenses at home… Ding Chaoquan set a small goal for himself: not to mention tens of thousands per month, but to earn at least 8,000 yuan. "Take into account all the expenses and living expenses of the family, so that you can save half of the money every month."
This "goal" was "very easy" last year, but now, Ding Chao has to travel 17 or 8 hours a day, and the only time he can meet the children every day is at the dinner table in the afternoon.
After taking out a loan to buy a car, his younger brother in his hometown once persuaded Ding Chaoquan to go home and work with him on decoration, but Ding Chaoquan refused, "I stayed in Beijing as soon as I came out in my 20s, and what can I do when I go back, ‘I can’t do your decoration,’ that’s what I told him."
At 5 PM, carrying his wife’s hot tea, Ding Chaoquan opened a pack of cigarettes, lit one, and walked to the side of the road where he parked.
"I don’t want to leave a smell in the car." He stood by the door and smoked, moved his waist a little, then got into the car and opened his mobile phone to receive orders until the next morning. This article/This newspaper reporter, Zhang Ya, Zhang Fan
Photographer/Reporter, Yuan Yi
