德國不該對Uber喊停 騎虎難下

Another week, another regulatory battle for Uber, the Silicon Valley private car hire network with a German name. This time it is in Germany, where a Frankfurt court has banned its Uber Pop“ride-sharing” service that introduces passengers to unlicensed drivers through a smartphone app.

又一起監管爭鬥，焦點是Uber這個起了德語名的硅谷私營拼車網絡。法蘭克福一家法庭禁止了其Uber Pop“拼車”服務——該服務通過一款智能手機應用，爲沒有出租車牌照的車主招攬乘客。

In a narrow sense, the court is right. Not only is Uber breaking German law but the country is correct to demand that a company that operates what is blatantly a private hire business is appropriately licensed and regulated. Pretending that Uber Pop is part of the “sharing economy” and should be allowed to skirt the rules is neither fair to taxi-drivers nor sound policy.

從狹義角度看，法庭是正確的。不但Uber違反了德國法律，而且德國要求一家經營私人租車業務的公司通過正當途徑獲得執照並接受監管，是正確的。以Uber Pop是“分享經濟”的一部分爲由繞過規則，不僅對出租車司機不公平，也不是穩妥的政策。

In the broad sense, however, Uber is right. If what the state of California now calls a Transportation Network Company – a technology platform such as Uber and Lyft that expands the market for minicabs and private hire – is prevented from operating on a commercial basis, it is bad for consumers. The potential benefits of innovation are lost.

然而，從廣義角度看，Uber又是正確的。如果加利福尼亞州目前所稱的交通網絡公司(Transportation Network Company)——如Uber和Lyft這樣的擴大了電話預約出租車和私車出租市場的技術平臺——被禁止商業運營，那對消費者是不利的。創新的潛在收益會被浪費掉。

Germany is a good test of the skirmishes in which Uber is engaged around the US and Europe. Its regulations – although they involve some very long words, such as Personenbeförderungsschein, the licence for taxi drivers – have served consumers fairly well. Most cities have plenty of Mercedes taxis, which are both comfier and cheaper than London cabs.

德國是Uber在美歐各地捲入的遭遇戰的一塊良好試金石。德國的法規——儘管有些使用了Personenbeförderungsschein這樣特別長的名字——迄今爲消費者起到了相當好的作用。大多數城市擁有足量的梅賽德斯(Mercedes)出租車，與倫敦出租車相比，不但更舒適，而且更便宜。

It is also a world leader in actual, as opposed to rhetorical, ride-sharing. There are lots of carpooling agencies, including , that co-ordinate travel as a mutual service. Drivers share the fuel costs with passengers on long-distance rides, without profiting.

德國也是事實上的——並非口頭上的——拼車市場世界領袖。德國擁有等大量拼車機構，可以協調出行，提供一種共享服務。車主與遠程搭載乘客共擔燃料費用，並非爲了盈利。

As in many other countries, however, the city regulations are tilted in favour of the co-operatives that operate the bulk of taxi services. German private hire operators have little freedom of manoeuvre – they face restrictions including having to operate from registered offices to which all the cars must return between rides – and most people use taxis.

不過，就像其他許多國家一樣，城市法規仍向運營大部分出租車服務的聯營機構傾斜。德國私車出租運營商基本沒有迴旋空間——他們受到各種限制，包括必須通過註冊辦公室運營，所有車輛在結束一次服務後，必須返回經營地點，才能啓動下一次服務——大多數人都使用出租車。

Uber obeys the private hire rules for its Uber Black limousine service – both drivers and cars are licensed and commercially insured – while defying them for Uber Pop, its basic service. Uber Pop drivers use their own vehicles and are not officially licensed, although the company carries out criminal record checks and says they are fully insured.

Uber旗下的Uber Black豪華轎車服務遵守私車出租規則，司機和車輛都已取得執照並已參加商業保險，而其基本服務Uber Pop沒有遵守規則。Uber Pop司機使用的是私車，也沒有獲得商業執照，儘管該公司進行犯罪記錄覈查，並稱司機們有完善的保險。

The company has adopted its usual approach in awkward markets – if it comes up against a regulatory barrier, it ignores it and hopes to gain popular backing for a change in the rules. In London, transport authorities have allowed Uber to operate despite protests from taxi drivers that its app is an illegal taximeter.

Uber在難纏的市場採取了其慣常手法——如果遭遇監管障礙，就不予理會，寄望獲得公衆支持以改變規則。在倫敦，交通當局已放行Uber展開運營，儘管出租車司機抗議稱，Uber的應用是一種非法計程表。

The company, which raised $1.2bn in funding from backers including Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins at a $17bn valuation in June, is in a hurry to establish its network before Lyft and other rivals. Treating legal challenges as a cost of doing business is characteristic of its aggression – it is also poaching drivers from Lyft in the US.

今年6月，Uber從Google Ventures和Kleiner Perkins等資金後臺籌得12億美元，使其估值達到170億美元。Uber急於搶在Lyft等競爭對手之前建立自己的網絡。把法律挑戰視爲一種經營成本，是Uber咄咄逼人特點的體現；它在美國正試圖吸引Lyft的司機跳槽。

Taxi Deutschland, the consortium of taxi operators that brought the Frankfurt case, accuses Uber of “[wrapping] itself in a start-up look and selling itself as a new economy saviour” while hurting the public good. It is not alone in being sceptical – Berlin’s DIW research institute argued recently that the taxi market should not be subjected to “full deregulation”.

出租車運營商聯盟Taxi Deutschland在法蘭克福法庭對Uber提起了訴訟，指責Uber“把自己‘裝扮成’一家初創企業，以新經濟救世主的身份進行自我推銷”，同時損害了公共利益。不僅該聯盟產生懷疑，柏林的德國經濟研究所(DIW)不久前也聲稱，出租車市場不應“完全放開管制”。

Regulation of taxis clearly has benefits – people climb into taxis and private hire cars without knowing who the driver is or how safe the vehicle is, and they need some safeguards. They also benefit from official taxis being required to take a passenger to any destination, based on a clear fare structure.

對出租車實施監管顯然有很多好處——人們鑽進出租車和私租汽車時，不知司機是誰，也不知車輛是否安全，他們需要一些安全保障。官方許可的出租車必須按乘客要求前往任何地點，收費結構清清楚楚，乘客從中受益。

It makes sense to give taxis privileges, such as the right to be hailed in the street, to compensate for being tightly regulated (and not, for example, applying “surge pricing” at times of scarcity, as Uber does). It would be short-sighted to permit a free-for-all private hire, or unfettered amateur ride-sharing, and put taxis out of business.

對出租車給予特權是合情合理的（比如有權在街頭接納招手打車的乘客），這些特權是對受到嚴密監管的補償（比如說，他們不能像Uber那樣，在供應緊缺時段實行“峯時價格”）。放行所有私車出租，或任由業餘司機提供拼車服務，從而把出租車趕出市場，將是短視做法。

The problem, however, is not that taxis are endangered, but the opposite – they are overly protected. “The private for-hire market is very extremely locked down in many cities,” says Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, the head of Uber in western Europe. Two legislative efforts to liberalise private hire in Germany have failed amid taxi opposition.

但問題不是出租車被置於危險之中，而是相反，它們受到了過度保護。Uber西歐業務主管皮埃爾-迪米特里•戈爾-柯提(Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty)表示，“在很多城市，私車出租市場非常受限。”在德國，由於出租車行業的反對，兩次放開私車出租市場的立法努力以失敗告終。

As a result, the bulk of the market in many cities is taken by taxis, with a slice of private hire operators at the top and bottom. These provide executive limousines for companies and radio cabs for people who do not want to pay the taxi fare. Taxis face very weak competition in the middle – well-trained and courteous drivers in smart, clean cars.

其結果是，許多城市的大部分市場份額由出租車佔據，私車出租運營商僅在頂層和底層市場佔據很小份額。後者向企業提供高管豪車，向不想付打車費的人提供電話預約的出租車。在中層市場，受過良好培訓、彬彬有禮的司機開着整潔的出租車，他們面臨的競爭非常弱。

Where Uber and others have been allowed to enter in a regulated way – Uber drivers in London must hold a commercial licence and insurance – they have helped to expand it. There are more cars for hire in London and the quality has risen. Minicabs used to be battered and smelly bangers; many are now BMWs.

在Uber等公司獲准以受監管方式進入的地方——Uber司機在倫敦必須持有商業牌照和保險——這些公司幫助擴大了市場。倫敦有了更多轎車可供出租，服務質量也得到了提升。過去的電話預約出租車是破舊不堪、味道難聞的老爺車；如今許多都換成了寶馬(BMW)。

There is starting to be a similar effect in France, where the number of limousine companies has grown rapidly as a result of new entrants being allowed. It is better for cities to reap the advantages of new technology than try to ignore it, and provoke an outbreak of illegal ride-sharing by outsiders.

法國也開始出現類似效果，由於新公司獲准進入，豪車出租公司的數量大幅增加。城市最好利用新科技的優勢，而不是努力忽視它，導致不受監管的非法拼車現象大量涌現。

As Germany has found, Uber is not only willing to become a ride-sharing outlaw, but the resulting publicity serves it well. Infuriating, aggressive and American it may be; it is still worth learning from.

正如德國所發現的，Uber不但願意在拼車領域打法律的擦邊球，而且隨之而來的宣傳效果對它很有利。儘管Uber可能令人抓狂、咄咄逼人且具有美國人的做派，但它仍有值得借鑑的地方。