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French reforms
法國改革
Taxi wars
出租車戰爭
A case study of vested interests trying to fight off new competitors
既得利益者排斥新競爭者的個案分析
“PARIS is the only city in the world where it is hard to find a taxi.” So in 2008 said an embarrassed Nicolas Sarkozy, then France's president, exasperated by the near-impossibility of hailing a cab on the capital's streets. He vowed to fix the problem, but backed down after cabbies blocked the streets during days of protest. Six years on, his Socialist successor, Fran?ois Hollande, is again facing up to taxi drivers, this time as incumbents try to keep out smartphone-enabled private cabs.
“巴黎是世界上唯一一個很難打到的城市。”2008年時任法國總統的薩科齊尷尬地說。他被在首都的街道上幾乎不可能攔到的士這一狀況給激怒了。 他發誓要解決這個問題，然而的士司機們連日的抗議罷工讓其打消了這個念頭。六年后，他的社會黨接班人奧朗德，再次直面出租車司機。這次是站在的士司機的角度，抵制帶有智能操控功能的私人出租車。
In rolling strikes this week, scores of licensed taxi drivers jammed the traffic by blocking intermittently the ring-road or périphérique, access to airports and the Place de la Concorde. Their gripe The emergence of new private cab services, known as voitures de tourisme avec chauffeur, which can be ordered via a mobile app. With 17,600 licensed taxis, the Paris region is not far off London's total of 22,000 black cabs. But the French capital has a dearth of minicabs: just a few thousand, against 50,000 in London. Until recently, it has been all but impossible in Paris to pre-book reasonably priced, fixed-fare trips.
在這周持續罷工中，大量持有執照的出租車司機堵塞了交通，他們間歇性地堵住了通往機場和協和廣場的環城公路或環城大道。 他們對被稱為voitures de tourisme avec chauffeur（司機駕駛汽車）這一新型私人出租車服務的出現滿腹牢騷，這一服務可以幫助人們通過一個移動應用程序預定出租車。 巴黎地區擁有17,600輛具備牌照的出租車，這個數目離擁有22，000輛黑色出租車的倫敦已經不遠了。 但法國首都嚴重缺乏“小巴”：數量只有幾千，而在倫敦，其數量卻多達50000輛。直至最近，人們在巴黎都幾乎不可能預訂到價格合理，票價固定的車輛服務。
The arrival of start-ups such as SnapCar, AlloCab or Uber, a San Francisco-based operator, which supply a clean car and a friendly ride at a click, has been a revelation. Their growth was unleashed by a 2009 law, originally meant to deregulate the chauffeured-car tourist market. This was far from the wholesale liberalisation of the taxi industry Mr Sarkozy had once sought: his adviser, Jacques Attali, wanted up to 60,000 taxis and cabs on the Paris streets. And taxis still have a monopoly on kerbside hailing. Yet the new operators have shaken up the market and enraged taxi drivers. Incumbents' licences, the numbers of which are limited, now trade for around 200,000 ($270,000). The taxi lobby argues that drivers' livelihoods are under threat from the competition. Last month the protests turned nasty when some of Uber's cars were smashed up.
一些新興公司的出現為解決這一問題提供了新的思路，比如SnapCar，AlloCab及總部位于舊金山的運營商Uber，只需點擊一下，它們就可提供一輛干凈的汽車和令人滿意的乘車服務。 這些公司的成長得益于一項2009年通過的法律，該法律原意是放開旅游市場，提供配備司機的旅游車。 而此后出現的情形與薩科齊曾經試圖大規模自由化的士市場的想法相距甚遠：他的顧問，雅克·阿塔利，想讓巴黎街頭的士總數達到60,000，并且的士仍在街頭攔車上保持壟斷。 然而，新的運營商已經動搖了市場并激怒了的士司機。限量的的士執照現在叫價為約200,000（$ 270,000）。 的士游說團體認為，在此競爭中司機們的生計正面臨著威脅。 上個月，一些Uber的車被砸，這使得抗議局面變得棘手。
Despite his new pro-reform image, Mr Hollande's approach has scarcely been start-up-friendly. Beginning in January the government imposed on private cabs a 15-minute wait before picking up passengers, but this decree has been suspended by the State Council, the highest administrative court. In response to the protests, the government has appointed a Socialist deputy as a mediator. He accused the Sarkozy government of “lighting a powder keg” by starting deregulation in the first place.
盡管樹立起了支持改革的新形象，但奧朗德的做法對新興公司們可不怎么友好。 從一月份開始，政府強制規定，私人出租車在載客前等待15分鐘。不過這項法令已經被最高行政法院——國務委員會叫停。 為應對抗議活動，政府已經另選一名社會黨議員作為調解人。 該調解人指責薩科齊政府從一開始放松管制就是“玩火自焚”的行為。
For their part, the start-ups want the decree outlawed. The competition authority was against it on the grounds that it would make consumers worse off. This is a novel argument in a country where producer lobbies are powerful and the state is uncomfortable about technology disrupting markets. Now that Parisians have begun to see how nice and convenient cabs can be, attitudes may change. “People in France are fed up with monopolies,” argues Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, head of Uber in France. “The French now realise that in real life more competition brings innovation and improves the level of service.”
對于新興公司而言，它們希望奧朗德的法令被取締。 競爭管理機構對此法令也持反對態度，理由是這將使消費者消費狀況更糟。 在一個生產者游說團強大，政府對于技術擾亂市場感到無所適從的國家里，這是一個新奇的爭論。 既然巴黎人已經逐漸看到了出租車的好處和便利之處，態度可能會改變。 “法國人民已經受夠了壟斷，”Uber在法國的負責人Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty認為，“法國人已經認識到，在生活中，更多的競爭會帶來創新，而這種創新會提高服務水平。”譯者：王穎 校對：周曉婷
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