In central China’s Wuhan city, taxi driver Xiao Weiguo starts his workday at 5 a.m. After 9.5 hours on the road on a Friday afternoon, he had a grand total of just eight customers.

“Business is not good,” he said, adding that taxis cannot compete with rideshare drivers.

“Rideshare apps charge too little. For taxis, our prices are set by the government. Meantime, online booking apps keep rolling out promotions and offering cheaper prices. There is very little space for taxis to survive,” he said.

Since October 2020, when national statistics were released for the first time, to October 2023, the number of ride-hailing drivers in the country more than doubled to 6.3 million ride-hail drivers. Meanwhile, the number of rides has gone up by only 34%. There are no national figures on how many taxi drivers there are in China, but many rely on ride-booking apps to get customers. The ride-hailing sector is so saturated that multiple Chinese cities have warned job seekers against it.

However, the business remains appealing when China’s job market is weak and all that is needed is a driver’s license, a cellphone to download the app and money to rent a car.

Ling Zhijun started working as a ride-hailing driver in Beijing only after he lost his job in his hometown in northern China. Once the steel mills closed two years ago, he said the coking plants where he worked also went out of business.

At first, Ling said he earned a decent living as a ride-hailing driver. “Now, there are too many ride-sharing platforms. They take high commissions but charge customers low prices,” he said.

That leaves drivers earning less per ride.

There may be too many newly out-of-work people turning to driving, according to another ride-hailing driver, Zhang Fenglian, in southwestern China’s Chongqing city.

“The biggest problem is that China’s economy is in recession,” Zhang said.

That may be how he feels, but China’s economy is officially growing, albeit at a slower pace than before the COVID-19 pandemic. President Xi Jinping has said China’s 2024 gross domestic product is expected to meet the government target of 5%. 

U.S.-China trade tensions, Russia’s war in Ukraine, low wage increases and falling property values have not helped business and consumer confidence.

There is another threat looming: Wuhan is testing more robot taxis on public roads. It is a reminder for human drivers, like Xiao, that their days could be numbered. He is trying to keep going, though.

“In the past, I could earn 600 yuan to 700 yuan ($82 to $96) a day. Now, I’m lucky if I can make half that,” Xiao said.

And that’s after a 15-hour shift.

Additional research by Charles Zhang.