An Empirical Study On Influencing Factors Of Ride-Hailing Passengers' Perception Of Safety Risk

It has been seven years since the birth of ride-hailing in 2012.As its popularity grows,not only has the people's demand for traveling conveniently and quickly been met,but also lots of employment opportunities for drivers have been made,let alone the improvement of the efficient using of urban vehicles.However,because of the platforms,lack of audit and the government's insufficient regulation,there have been frequent accidents,especially on the most representative ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing,by using which two malignant incidents occurred during just four months in 2018,which drew wide attention of the public.As a result,the public's perception of safety risk of riding-hailing has been enhanced,and the whole market of ride-hailing is facing a crisis of trust.From the perspective of passengers' perception of safety risk,this study researches the factors that influence the ride-hailing passengers' perception of safety risk by empirical research,and puts forward reasonable suggestions to help ride-hailing enterprises to weaken passengers' perception of safety risk and strengthen theirintention of usage.The main conclusions of this paper are as follow:(1)The average value of overall perception of safety risk is relatively high,and the perception of information security risk is the strongest.(2)Through factor analysis of the scale,seven influencing factors were identified.They are respectively administrative regulation,audit of the platforms' drivers,platforms' service system,perception of drivers' quality,the extent of information involvement,the tendency of taking risks when taking a ride and the tendency of taking risks.(3)The tendency of taking risks when taking a ride and perception of drivers' quality have significant negative influence on perceived safety risk.On the contrary,the extent of information involvement has a significant positive effect on perceived safety risk.In addition,experience in accidents,gender and monthly disposable income are the influencing factors of risk perception,among which gender not only directly affects the perception of safety risk,also has an indirect effect on perception of safety risk by influencing the tendency of taking risks when taking a ride.(4)Perception of safety risk of ride-hailing has a significant negative impact on passengers' intention of usage.According to the research results above,I put forward some suggestions from three aspects:passenger operation,driver management and crisis communication,such as paying attention to the security of users' information,improving the user complaint mechanism and the driver management system,improving the platforms' ability to public relation.This study makes up the research gap of influencing factors of ride-hailing passengers' perception of safety risk and enriches the achievements of risk perception theory.Meanwhile it provides valuable operation and communication suggestions for ride-hailing companies on reducing users' perception of safety risk,which could help the enterprises eliminate crisis and rebrand themselves.So this study has certain theoretical and practical significance.