Rating after waiting: Didi provides convenience for foreigners
A woman was standing outside the south gate of China Daily. She was craning her neck looking up the narrow road, like a character in a romance novel awaiting the return of the love of her life.
After a few seconds watching her, I suddenly remembered why the scene was so oddly familiar.
I had been doing the same thing a day earlier, waiting for my own ride via ride-hailing service provider Didi.
I was looking at my cellphone after booking my trip to Beijing’s Sanlitun area, following the small icon of a car about a kilometer in the distance crawling its way to where I was waiting.
The car icon looked a lot like a bug. It is like watching one of those old grainy video games in which you expect the gobbling Pacman character to just swallow the tiny car on your phone.
Didi is a godsend for a foreigner living in Beijing who can only speak, more like mumble, a few words in Mandarin.
You punch in your destination like Data on the sci-fi TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation and wait for the car to magically show up.
Since my destination is already in the mobile system of the driver, I do not wind up in a Lost in Translation scene trying to explain where I am going.
The arrangement is tidy and neat.
I’ve ridden all sorts of Didi cars since getting to Beijing at the start of summer.
When the temperatures top 35 C every day, I really do not fancy a 10to 15-minute walk to Beijing’s subway Line 10.
Most of the time, I take an Express Didi. They come in all shapes and sizes — mostly in black, white or your basic gray.
Not all Didi cars are created equal, though.
I ran into several whose drivers didn’t bother turning on the air conditioner despite the stultifying heat that turned their cars into ovens. A simple polite request would take care of that. Sometimes, the cooling system was good enough. Other times, it barely functioned.
Most of the drivers are meticulously professional. They deliver you right to the doorstep of your destination.
One driver patiently ground through the clogged road to drop me and my wife off at the Anzhenmen mall despite the traffic snarl there, sensing correctly that we were going to Wagas coffee shop.
But there are a few clunkers when riding with Didi.
I punched in the Domino’s Pizza branch at Siyuan Qiaodian on Beisihuandong road near Ikea to go to the Carrefour supermarket in the building with the pizza place.
The driver dropped us off about 500 meters away and told us to start walking. The driver apparently wanted to pick up another ride. Reluctantly, we got out.
That was the good part of the experience. He wanted to unload us even farther away but we complained that is not even close to Domino’s. Thank goodness for driver ratings. In New York City, the Uber drivers can rate a passenger mostly in terms of generosity of tips. A good tipper attracts more drivers. The passengers can also rate the quality of the service provided by those drivers, like taking the long way to get to your destination to jack up the fare through congestion pricing.
Didi also has a two-way rating system. The passengers can give grades for their rides. The ratings range from one to five stars.
The drivers for their part can rate their passengers. If a passenger gets a good rating, other drivers will be more likely to take his or her booking the next time they need a ride.
Some of the drivers are friendly, cheerfully wishing us goodbye as we exited their cars.
Like everything else in life, rush hour is not the best time to book a Didi.
There was that one rainy morning, when we needed to visit a friend in the Shunyi area. When we booked the ride, we were 25th in line. It took us half an hour to get the car while huddling under a small umbrella. We were happy to pile in when the ride finally showed up.
After arriving at Shunyi, I took refuge in a Starbucks outlet for coffee. I cradled my java, munched on a small cake and watched the rain fall intermittently in sheets.
It turned out to be a perfect morning.