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[News] Carpool controversy
In South Korea, the country is restricting competition in the market with the aim of realizing public nature or preventing excessive competition. For this reason, the taxi transport business has been operated in the form of an exclusive business with no competition for service improvement due to its heavy reliance on government policies, making it difficult for improvement to be made in terms of management or service. Therefore, various problems such as uniformity of taxi service quality, chronic rejection of ride, unfair charges, and lack of taxi supply during late-night hours and commuting hours have continuously occurred. As a result, many startups in Korea have been supported by consumers since 2015 by offering ride-sharing services in various ways, but the service has been suspended or blocked from the launch stage due to severe social conflicts with the existing taxi industry and government regulations.
<Photo Source: JoongAng Ilbo>
In particular, the carpool-like ride-sharing service provided the service using the exceptions of the current law, but the ride-sharing service itself has not been properly established in Korea due to strong opposition from the existing taxi industry and regulations. As such, the current Passenger Automobile Transport Business Act alone regulates such services because the government lacks active efforts to create a legal basis for the definition or judgment of ride sharing using ICT. The domestic ride-sharing market is still tied to the provisions of Article 81 of the Passenger Automobile Transport Business Act enacted in the 1960s, "No carriage and maintenance of motor vehicles other than business vehicles," and the exception of the 1994 "On-the-go" rule has been maintained to date.
<Photo Source: MediaToday>
Carpool, one of the most popular types of ride sharing, is a method that connects owners and passengers of private cars whose destination matches their destination during rush hour through a mobile app. Since UberX suspended its service in Korea in 2013, "Poolus," which implemented carpooling services for its cars during rush hour in April 2016, has expanded rapidly with some 900,000 users as of 2018. A feature of Fullers' rush-hour carpooling service is the mobile app that brokers drivers who own a vehicle to drive a passenger in the same direction to their destination when commuting. In this case, Fullus pays the driver a certain fee after limiting the fare paid by the driver, which is 30 percent less expensive than the subway, and the driver gets the economic effect within the range of fuel and maintenance costs.
<Photo Source: Poolus Homepage>
Unlike Uber, the biggest reason Fullus was able to enter the domestic business without any illegal debate is that the current Passenger Car Transport Business Act allows "paid carpool" only on the way to and from work. Basically, the Passenger Automobile Transport Business Act prohibits (article 81) from providing, renting, or repairing private cars that are not for business purposes for paid transport, but permits carpooling exceptionally when commuting to and commuting. However, Fullers used to be on weekdays (from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m.) and leave the office (from 5 p.m. to 5 p.m.).In November 2017, the company introduced the "Tour-to-Work Time Choice" service from the method of operating carpool service only at 2 a.m. (local time) and caused friction with the existing taxi industry. The "time-to-work" system allows carpool drivers to operate the carpool service for five days a week, including weekends, by directly selecting the desired commute time of 24 hours per day for a total of eight hours. Because of this, the daytime is 11 a.m.As carpool service is also available at 5 p.m., passengers will be able to use carpool service 24 hours a day, 365 days a day. In response, the commuting time option system, which provides services outside commuting hours, is controversial as it constitutes a "prepayment of transportation" under the Passenger Automobile Transport Business Act, and is in dispute with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the taxi industry that it is illegal. Recently, the Seoul High Court ruled in its case (2019.01.29) that the driver of the carpool, who was suspended from driving for 90 days for violating the Passenger Car Transport Business Act by Goyang after he was caught driving passengers twice and was suspended for accounting for 17,000 won. Such a court ruling has led to constant conflict as the taxi industry recently filed a complaint with the prosecution against the head of Fullus and the driver Currently, Fullus has switched to 'free carpool' service instead of paid carpool until legal grounds are established. Meanwhile, conflicts with the existing taxi industry reached a fever pitch in the second half of 2018, with Kakao Mobility offering an example of the launch of the "Kakao Carpool" service.
<Photog Source: Kakao T>
"Kakao" is a precedent that has brought about a big change in the taxi industry three years after the launch of "Kakao T Taxi" in March 2015. As of September 2018, as many as 220,000 taxi drivers operate using Kakao's taxi-call app, while 83 percent of the country's total 270,000 taxi drivers use Kakao's taxi service, the data showed Also, the number of Kakao taxi calls came to 555.68 million, with the daily average income of taxi drivers also rising 37 percent from 118,94 won to 152,436 won, the data showed. As such, Kakao Carpool, a ride-sharing service launched by Kakao that has many users, has had a significant impact on current industries. In December 2018, the conflict reached a fever pitch when a taxi driver burned himself to death in protest against Kakao Carpool. As a result, Kakao Mobility has decided to discontinue its Kakao Carpool service, which was scheduled for December 2018.
In South Korea, the country is restricting competition in the market with the aim of realizing public nature or preventing excessive competition. For this reason, the taxi transport business has been operated in the form of an exclusive business with no competition for service improvement due to its heavy reliance on government policies, making it difficult for improvement to be made in terms of management or service. Therefore, various problems such as uniformity of taxi service quality, chronic rejection of ride, unfair charges, and lack of taxi supply during late-night hours and commuting hours have continuously occurred. As a result, many startups in Korea have been supported by consumers since 2015 by offering ride-sharing services in various ways, but the service has been suspended or blocked from the launch stage due to severe social conflicts with the existing taxi industry and government regulations.
<Photo Source: JoongAng Ilbo>
In particular, the carpool-like ride-sharing service provided the service using the exceptions of the current law, but the ride-sharing service itself has not been properly established in Korea due to strong opposition from the existing taxi industry and regulations. As such, the current Passenger Automobile Transport Business Act alone regulates such services because the government lacks active efforts to create a legal basis for the definition or judgment of ride sharing using ICT. The domestic ride-sharing market is still tied to the provisions of Article 81 of the Passenger Automobile Transport Business Act enacted in the 1960s, "No carriage and maintenance of motor vehicles other than business vehicles," and the exception of the 1994 "On-the-go" rule has been maintained to date.
<Photo Source: MediaToday>
Carpool, one of the most popular types of ride sharing, is a method that connects owners and passengers of private cars whose destination matches their destination during rush hour through a mobile app. Since UberX suspended its service in Korea in 2013, "Poolus," which implemented carpooling services for its cars during rush hour in April 2016, has expanded rapidly with some 900,000 users as of 2018. A feature of Fullers' rush-hour carpooling service is the mobile app that brokers drivers who own a vehicle to drive a passenger in the same direction to their destination when commuting. In this case, Fullus pays the driver a certain fee after limiting the fare paid by the driver, which is 30 percent less expensive than the subway, and the driver gets the economic effect within the range of fuel and maintenance costs.
<Photo Source: Poolus Homepage>
Unlike Uber, the biggest reason Fullus was able to enter the domestic business without any illegal debate is that the current Passenger Car Transport Business Act allows "paid carpool" only on the way to and from work. Basically, the Passenger Automobile Transport Business Act prohibits (article 81) from providing, renting, or repairing private cars that are not for business purposes for paid transport, but permits carpooling exceptionally when commuting to and commuting. However, Fullers used to be on weekdays (from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m.) and leave the office (from 5 p.m. to 5 p.m.).In November 2017, the company introduced the "Tour-to-Work Time Choice" service from the method of operating carpool service only at 2 a.m. (local time) and caused friction with the existing taxi industry. The "time-to-work" system allows carpool drivers to operate the carpool service for five days a week, including weekends, by directly selecting the desired commute time of 24 hours per day for a total of eight hours. Because of this, the daytime is 11 a.m.As carpool service is also available at 5 p.m., passengers will be able to use carpool service 24 hours a day, 365 days a day. In response, the commuting time option system, which provides services outside commuting hours, is controversial as it constitutes a "prepayment of transportation" under the Passenger Automobile Transport Business Act, and is in dispute with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the taxi industry that it is illegal. Recently, the Seoul High Court ruled in its case (2019.01.29) that the driver of the carpool, who was suspended from driving for 90 days for violating the Passenger Car Transport Business Act by Goyang after he was caught driving passengers twice and was suspended for accounting for 17,000 won. Such a court ruling has led to constant conflict as the taxi industry recently filed a complaint with the prosecution against the head of Fullus and the driver Currently, Fullus has switched to 'free carpool' service instead of paid carpool until legal grounds are established. Meanwhile, conflicts with the existing taxi industry reached a fever pitch in the second half of 2018, with Kakao Mobility offering an example of the launch of the "Kakao Carpool" service.
<Photog Source: Kakao T>
"Kakao" is a precedent that has brought about a big change in the taxi industry three years after the launch of "Kakao T Taxi" in March 2015. As of September 2018, as many as 220,000 taxi drivers operate using Kakao's taxi-call app, while 83 percent of the country's total 270,000 taxi drivers use Kakao's taxi service, the data showed Also, the number of Kakao taxi calls came to 555.68 million, with the daily average income of taxi drivers also rising 37 percent from 118,94 won to 152,436 won, the data showed. As such, Kakao Carpool, a ride-sharing service launched by Kakao that has many users, has had a significant impact on current industries. In December 2018, the conflict reached a fever pitch when a taxi driver burned himself to death in protest against Kakao Carpool. As a result, Kakao Mobility has decided to discontinue its Kakao Carpool service, which was scheduled for December 2018.