Industry： More than 10 million non-operating vehicles turned into online car insurance premiums or will double
Private car owners who occasionally take orders said that if the insurance premium rises across the board, they will withdraw from the online car-hailing platform
■ Our reporter, Leng Cuihua
Recently, the legalization of online car-hailing has attracted great attention from the society, and this change will also have a significant impact on the auto insurance industry.
"Most of the current online car-hailing vehicles are insured as private cars, and the insurance premium is low, but in the event of an accident during operation, it is easy to cause claims disputes. After the legalization of online car-hailing, this phenomenon will change." A vehicle to everything company official pointed out.
According to the new policy, the network about the car must have the relevant insurance of the operating vehicle, the industry after calculation that this means that at least 10 million car insurance premiums will rise sharply, but claims disputes will be reduced, at the same time, some drivers who rarely take orders may withdraw from the network about the car platform.
Industry experts also predict that with the development of online car-hailing, relevant data will continue to be enriched, and insurance companies can also develop new auto insurance varieties for this market segment to better achieve differentiated pricing of auto insurance.
Vehicle nature changed to operation
Double the insurance premium
With the release of the Interim Measures for the Management of Online Booking Taxi Business Services on July 28, the long-controversial online car-hailing has finally officially ushered in legal status, and travel methods such as carpooling and ride-hailing have also been encouraged.
"Now we finally don’t have to worry about the police fines. In the past, we didn’t dare to go to’high-risk ‘places such as train stations and airports. When we met passengers who wanted to go there, we had no choice but to cancel the order." Zhang Ming (a pseudonym), a driver who has been engaged in Didi taxi for almost two years, said that after the legalization of online car-hailing, he will feel more at ease when he starts this job.
According to the above-mentioned "Interim Measures", online car-hailing business services refer to the business activities of building a service platform based on Internet technology, integrating supply and demand information, using qualified vehicles and drivers, and providing non-cruise rental car services.
Regarding the business behavior of online booking vehicles, the above-mentioned "Interim Measures" stipulate that the online car-hailing platform company shall ensure that the vehicle providing the service has the legal operating qualifications, is in good technical condition, has reliable safety performance, and has the relevant insurance for the operating vehicle. It shall ensure that the vehicles providing the service online are consistent with the vehicles actually providing the service offline, and report the relevant information of the vehicle to the administrative department of the taxi where the service is located.
"This means that if private car owners want to continue to engage in online car-hailing operations, they must purchase operating vehicle insurance." An industry insider told the Securities Daily reporter that this is necessary to protect the rights and interests of consumers. If there is a problem with online car-hailing, the interests of passengers can be better protected, and there will be no phenomenon of insurance companies refusing to pay, but it also means that the insurance premiums of most cars currently registered on online car-hailing platforms will rise sharply.
The person in charge of automobile insurance operation of a property insurance company told reporters that under normal circumstances, the insurance premium of the operating car is 1.5-2 times that of the non-operating car.
According to the "2015-2016 Mobile Travel Employment Promotion Report" released by Didi Chuxing, as of April this year, the number of drivers on the Didi platform for express cars, ride-hailing and chauffeured vehicles exceeded 13.30 million. At the same time, according to media reports, Ryan Graves, head of Uber’s global operation department, said that at present, the total number of its global drivers has reached 1 million, and the development scale in China is very large. There are 46,000 Uber drivers in Chengdu alone. The person in charge of Yidao Yongche revealed in May this year that the number of drivers and car sources of the car-hailing platform has exceeded one million. In addition, our country also has multiple online car-hailing platforms such as Shenzhou Special Car and Shouqi Car-hailing.
According to industry insiders, excluding those vehicles that have purchased insurance according to the operating vehicle, after the "Interim Measures for the Management of Online Booking Taxi Business Services" was officially implemented, it is conservatively estimated that more than 10 million car insurance premiums will rise sharply.
Regarding the impact of rising insurance premiums, the Securities Daily reporter conducted a random interview. The owner, Mr. Chen, said that he is now running a full-time online car-hailing rental. After the legalization of online car-hailing, the vehicle must be insured according to the operating vehicle. Although the cost has risen, it should still be acceptable, which also eliminates the worry of illegal business. The owner, Mr. Dou, said that although he has registered a driver on the Didi platform for one year, he has not really launched a rental business. Even if he takes orders, he only takes orders occasionally. If the insurance premium will also rise sharply, he will definitely cancel the registration and withdraw from the platform.
In fact, the reporter found in the interview that most of the people who are currently full-time express drivers said they can accept the adjustment of insurance premiums, while part-time drivers said it is difficult to accept that car insurance is completely in accordance with the insurance premiums of operating vehicles.
Car insurance for online car-hailing
Expected to be born
In fact, in order to protect the interests of passengers, before the official legalization of online car-hailing, there were already online car-hailing platforms that purchased traffic accident insurance, seat insurance and other insurance for ride-hailing users. Industry experts believe that after the official legalization of online car-hailing, insurance companies can also develop new products according to market changes. And with the popularity of online car-hailing and the accumulation of relevant data, personalized products specifically for online car-hailing are expected to appear in the car insurance market in the future.
Relevant research reports point out that there are auto insurance companies in the United States that have partnered with Uber to launch "time-division + billing" insurance services. Private cars that join Uber are divided into several different time periods during the driving process, including the "personal use period" when the APP is closed, the "first time period" when the APP is opened but the passenger is not matched, the "second time period" when the passenger is matched, and the "third time period" when the passenger gets on the bus until the time of getting off. The insurance premium for the first two time periods is borne by the owner, while the commercial insurance for the second and third time periods is purchased by the Uber platform. The insurance for the part of the insurance premium paid by the owner can also be different according to the age of the car and the number of accidents.
In October last year, Didi Chuxing and Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance jointly launched "Didi Platform Sidi Accident Comprehensive Insurance", covering drivers and passengers of the platform’s special cars, express trains, hitchhikers, buses, test drives and enterprise-level businesses. The maximum single insurance amount can reach 1.20 million yuan, and the insurance is uniformly insured by the Didi platform. The relevant person in charge of Didi Chuxing also revealed that the platform is exploring cooperation with the government and insurance companies to develop new insurance products suitable for mobile travel services. While providing high-quality services, it effectively protects the safety of people’s lives and property.
There is already a market demand for new insurance products. The person in charge of auto insurance of a property insurance company told the Securities Daily that although some car owners are registered as express drivers on the Didi Chuxing platform, they are not full-time operators and only commute to get off work or take orders on the way. In this case, it is not cost-effective for car owners to increase insurance premiums significantly, which is also one of the reasons why car owners who join the platform are unwilling to change the use of vehicles. According to the aforementioned "Interim Measures", online car-hailing must change the nature of the vehicle. In this case, can insurance companies develop new products? He thinks it is possible, for the occasional car owners who take orders, the frequency of their cars has not increased significantly, the risk of using the vehicle itself is not much different from that of ordinary private cars, but the risk of people in the car is greater than that of ordinary private cars. For such vehicles, insurance companies may develop market-segmented products, even if they are all operating vehicles, their insurance premiums will also reflect differences according to different circumstances.
"Online car-hailing has its particularities, and insurance companies can set prices differently, but this requires the support of relevant technology and data. In the future, there will be a lot of room for cooperation between insurance companies and online car-hailing platforms," the head of an Internet car insurance platform told Securities Daily.