Online Car-hailing Orders in China Decreases by 11.6% in April amid Covid Outbreak

The Ministry of Transport announced on Wednesday that China’s online car-hailing supervision information exchange platform received a total of 476.02 million orders in April, down 11.6% from the previous month.

As of April 30 this year, a total of 270 online ride-hailing platforms across the country have obtained business licenses, an increase of four from the month previous. Meanwhile, 4,229,000 online ride-hailing driver’s licenses and 1,754,000 vehicle licenses were issued across China, up 3.8% and 7.3% respectively from March this year.

Among the top 10 online car-hailing platforms, eight have seen a decline in their orders month on month, especially SAIC Mobility. Orders for the other two notable platforms, Shouqi Limousine & Chauffeur and Huaxiaozhu, increased by 8.8% and 1.4% month-on-month respectively.

Among the top 10 online car-hailing platforms in terms of order volume, SAIC Mobility and Huaxiaozhu have the highest and lowest order compliance rate, respectively. The top five platforms in order of compliance rate are SAIC Mobility, Sunshine Travel, T3 Go, ONTIME and Shouqi Limousine & Chauffeur. The top three platforms with fastest increase in order compliance rate this month include Meituan‘s ride-hailing unit, Caocao Mobility and T3 Go.

Among the major central cities, Hangzhou and Shijiazhuang recorded highest and lowest order compliance rates. Order compliance rates for Hangzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hefei and other 10 cities was over 80%. The top three cities with the fastest increase in order of compliance rate this month have been Shanghai, Lanzhou and Haikou.

Since the outbreak of epidemic, many regions in China have taken control and prevention measures, all of which have greatly reduced social mobility and severely impacted the income of online car-hailing workers. In addition, since oil prices have risen since the beginning of this year, the income of delivery personnel has been affected.

SEE ALSO: Beijing Publicizes More Supervision of Digital Ride-Hailing Industry

Regulatory authorities in China have been strengthening supervision of online platforms. On February 14, the Ministry of Transport, as well as other eight other departments, jointly issued a notice regarding the streamlining and expansion of regulatory oversight on the industry.