Rent a car and drive home during the Spring Festival. Be careful that these ＂routines＂ can’t go!

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 1st　Question: Rent a car and drive home during the Spring Festival. Be careful that these "routines" can’t go!

　　Xinhua News Agency "China Net" reporter Wu Mengda Wang Jing

　　As the Spring Festival approaches, plane, train and bus tickets are hard to buy, and more and more people choose to rent a car to return home. The reporter’s recent investigation found that many people have the experience of being "touched by porcelain" and "killed by customers" when renting a car. Because of the vague contract provisions and blank supervision, they can only "worry" when there is a dispute. When renting a car to go home during the Spring Festival, we must be careful, and the regulatory authorities should also take timely actions to fill in the "pit" of the industry.

　　Renting a car but encountering a serial "pit"

　　According to the data of market research organization iResearch, the number of automobile drivers in China has exceeded 300 million at present, and there is a big gap between drivers and car ownership. The combination of economic growth, lifestyle changes and self-driving travel habits makes car rental a new travel choice. However, compared with the rapidly developing market scale, the market order has become a lagging short board.

　　Not long ago, Ms. Min Tian, a Beijing citizen, traveled to Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, rented a car from Chifeng Junyi Car Rental Co., Ltd., paid a deposit of 5,000 yuan and signed a contract, agreeing to return the car that night. After taking a few photos of the car’s appearance, several people drove on the road, but the experience of returning the car made her unexpected.

　　When Ms. Tian contacted to return the car by phone, she learned that Ms. Tian would leave Chifeng by plane at night, and Liu, the person in charge of the car rental company, "actively" suggested that she could return the car at the airport. However, after repeated phone calls, Liu arrived more than 40 minutes late.

　　Ms. Tian said that after watching the car, Liu said that "there are scratches on the front and left back doors". Some photos taken by Ms. Tian when renting a car prove that scratches already exist. Then Liu suggested that the steering wheel had abnormal sound. Despite Ms. Tian’s objection, the plane waited for no one, so she had to take the opportunity to leave in a hurry.

　　Early the next morning, the two parties agreed by telephone that Ms. Tian’s local relatives and the car rental company would test the vehicle together. Not long after, Ms. Tian received a phone call from the car rental company, saying that the car had been unilaterally "inspected". The report sent by the car rental company said that "the trailer parts of the vehicle are loose, causing antifreeze leakage" and asked Ms. Tian to sign and deduct the deposit.

　　The reporter contacted Liu, the person in charge of the car rental company. Liu said that the test found that the external scratches and steering wheel of the car had nothing to do with the renter, but the bottom drag parts of the car were faulty, and the renter had to bear the repair fee, which would be deducted from the deposit of 5,000 yuan.

　　In this regard, Ms. Tian believes: "It is agreed to inspect the car together, but the other party goes privately, and the test results of the car inspection are a list, which is difficult to convince." Previously, some consumers reported that they encountered a similar situation when renting a car in Chifeng, and they didn’t return a penny of the 2000 yuan deposit, so they could only admit that they were unlucky.

　　The reporter interviewed the local traffic management department. After investigation, the car rental company has an industrial and commercial license, but it is difficult for the traffic control department to handle similar situations. It is recommended that the car rental person solve it through litigation.

　　Due to problems such as contract loopholes and careless inspection when renting a car, it is easy for many consumers to rent a car and it is difficult to return it. According to the consumer complaints in the fourth quarter of last year published by the tourist city of Sanya, Hainan, car rental and wedding photography became the industries with the largest number of complaints.

　　Hard to refund the deposit and hard to guarantee the insurance … … There are many "cheat people" routines.

　　The reporter found that when consumers rent a car, the problems in three major areas, such as deposit, insurance and illegal disposal, are concentrated.

　　Deposit — — The car is refunded and the deposit is not refundable. According to the common "rules" of the car rental industry, the car rental company can temporarily withhold the deposit for one month after the consumer returns the car, and then refund the deposit after all violations are settled. However, some companies are mixed, and the deposit is gone. Some consumers in Guiyang, Guizhou Province reported that the car was returned smoothly, but while waiting for the deposit to be refunded, the operator turned off and closed the door to play "into thin air", and the deposit of 5,000 yuan could not be refunded.

　　Insurance — — If you buy insurance, you can’t protect it. There are still many consumers who report that it is mandatory to buy compulsory insurance when renting a car, but many companies have set up the overlord clause, and they have to pay all their own money if something goes wrong. Some car rental companies will sell higher "all risks", claiming to be "all-inclusive" of accidents, but there are exceptions in the contract, and many projects are difficult to pay. According to the local traffic management department, some car rental companies even deliberately concealed the coverage, which led the lessee to find that the insurance content was inconsistent with that published by official website, a car rental company.

　　Violation — — You can also "buy and divide". Mr. Zhao, a Beijing citizen, told reporters that he rented a car in CAR Inc. Xi ‘an North Store last October and drove to Gansu. After that, CAR Inc. informed him that he violated the rules in Gansu: speeding was 50%, and 200 yuan was fined 6 points according to the traffic regulations. And the local CAR Inc. also provides "intimate" service: you can "buy points" from the company for 400 yuan, and if it is too expensive, "it can be discussed again". Consumers themselves inquired about the traffic management bureau in the area where the violation occurred, and the answer turned out to be: no violation information record was found.

　　Urgent solution to legislative gaps and regulatory loopholes

　　Industry insiders told reporters that there are many gaps in how to supervise the car rental industry. The state has not yet issued relevant laws and regulations on car rental, and grassroots law enforcement also lacks a superior law to refer to.

　　Cao Wenke, the relevant person in charge of the Transportation Management Office of Chifeng City Transportation Bureau, Inner Mongolia, introduced that in 2017, the then Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Minibus Leasing. However, in practical application, the "guiding opinions" of ministries and commissions can not be used as the basis for law enforcement, and it is difficult to carry out supervision work normally.

　　"Car rental companies make false invoices to find the tax bureau, seek the industrial and commercial bureau without a license, find the transportation management department without qualification, and find the traffic police without annual inspection and insurance … …” A grassroots cadre said that this kind of segmented management can easily lead to the phenomenon of "kicking the ball".

　　Savage growth not only hurts consumers, but also hurts some car rental companies. According to the local traffic management department, after renting a car, some people mortgaged the rented car to others, resulting in the loss of the operator’s interests; After someone rented a car, a serious accident occurred and he left. In the end, it was difficult to deduct the accident loss with a deposit of several thousand yuan.

　　Compared with foreign countries, China’s car rental industry is still in the initial stage of development, with huge market potential. Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, and other experts in the industry suggested that the relevant laws and regulations of the car rental industry should be promulgated as soon as possible, so that this field can be managed and managed, and industry self-discipline can also be explored, and a "blacklist" system can be established to restrict illegal rental companies from carrying out car rental business services.