CHINA: Chinese Car-hailing App Seeing 500,000 ‘designated driver’ Rides A Day

Market-leading app also now offering over 100 models from 20 leading carmakers for users to take for a spin.

China’s market-leading car- and taxi -hailing app Didi Kuaidi said Tuesday its dedicated driver service Didi Chauffeur is receiving half a million orders a day, just three months after its launch.

The service helps car owners find a qualified driver to chauffeur them around in their own vehicle when they are in no condition to drive, for example due to sickness or intoxication.

They will be charged a fixed fee for the first 10 kilometres, the company said.

The service covers over 200 cities in the country and has more than 1.5 million registered drivers supporting it, giving it control of 70 per cent of the domestic market for chauffeur services, according to the company.

Didi Kuaidi, created in February from a merger of the nation’s top two car-hailing apps, is also expanding its Didi Test Drive project into six cities across China, it said.

This provides a door-to-door service whereby users of the app can try out new or used models. It will soon be active in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province, Chengdu in Sichuan and Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang, the company said.

Users can choose their preferred routes and consult the owner of the vehicle for more information about the car, it added.

Test drives can be booked for more than 100 models from 20 leading carmakers, with vehicle prices ranging from 100,000 yuan (US$15,700) to 1 million yuan.