5 Ways to Stay Safe and Avoid Ghosts on Uber and Didi in Beijing

While whizzing around in Uber and Didi Dache cars may be extremely convenient and cheap, and it's easy to assume that Beijing is safe, it's important to never sacrifice your safety for convenience. 

Without being too pessimistic, you just never know who your driver is. In Shenzhen, for example, 2,231 drivers in the city's online cab hailing service were demonstrated to have criminal records. Amongst these, 40 are national outlaws, 758 are former drug users, and 1,400 have a criminal history.

Aside from the issue of "is my driver actually a murderer," or "how high is my driver right now," other problems involve the increasing problem of phantom drivers.

CRIenglish recently reported on a woman, surnamed Zhang, who booked an Uber that never showed up. RMB 10 was still taken off her account. "The driver received the assignment as soon as I booked it. I thought he/she would have been coming round to pick me up while the journey status on my app showed 'already in car,'" Zhang told CRI.

Allegedly, using dozens of different cell phone numbers allows drivers to accept such phantom bookings, pretend to have driven the passenger for a few minutes, and then collect on the money without fulfilling any of the journey. Thankfully Uber, in this case, stepped in and promised to refund Zhang.

In other cases, Sixth Tone reports on literal ghost drivers, with profile pictures that will scare you into cancelling your trip, after which you'll owe the driver a few rambos. 

Phantom drivers also face serious punishments in China: those arrested in Beijing and Shanghai can face a penalty of up to one year in prison.

RELATED: Towards a Rational Uber Driver Star Rating System in Beijing

So, the real question is, how can you protect yourself from these creeps, and safely get from A to B on car-hailing apps? 

1. Never get in the car if the license plate doesn't match up with the one shown on your booking, or if the driver doesn't match. Verify this before you get in.
2. Wait in a safe place while you're waiting for your Uber to arrive.
3. Stay in touch with a friend or someone you trust while you're in your car. A quick WeChat message to a friend doesn't take long.
4. Contact the Uber app if you've got concerns about money that has been taken out of your account wrongly, or if you're concerned about your driver. From personal experience, Uber's customer service is pretty good and they will generally send the money back within 1-2 working days.
5. Keep an eye on the driver's rating. While a low rating doesn't necessarily mean that your driver is a delinquent, the system is put in place to discourage problematic behavior.

More stories by this author here.

Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
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Photo: thenextweb.com, sixthtone.com