On September 13th, at the recent DiDi Open Day - the third session of the "Driver Experience Supervisor Review Meeting," representatives from various sectors including drivers, media, and experts gathered to discuss "Driver Feedback Issue Improvement Report" and "Commission Issue Opinion Collection."
In the first and second review meetings this year, representatives from all sectors focused on discussions and suggestions regarding "venue fraud prevention" and "cross-city order return fees." At this review meeting, DiDi reported on the improvements made to these two issues and solicited opinions. Regarding venue fraud prevention, DiDi internally coordinated multiple departments to establish a special venue fraud prevention task force, quickly strengthening and fixing discovered system rule vulnerabilities. DiDi established a dedicated anti-fraud team in 2015, and in 2016 collaborated with Beijing police to crack the nation's first case of illegally profiting from manufacturing and selling ride-hailing order-grabbing cheating devices. Since then, DiDi has continuously cooperated with police to combat fraud. In 2025 alone, DiDi assisted local police in filing 10 criminal cases, eliminating 14 criminal gangs, involving dozens of cheating software installation packages and external devices targeting DiDi Global Inc. and other ride-hailing platforms, including ride-hailing order-grabbing cheating device developers, sales agents, and 43 criminal suspects involved in cheating behaviors who were arrested. Currently, DiDi Global Inc. has piloted upgraded venue order-receiving rules in some cities, such as requiring drivers to remain on the order-listening page when listening for orders at venues and strengthening facial verification to maintain fair order-receiving for every driver.
Regarding cross-city order return fees, the platform currently has two approaches: one is the return fee for cross-city orders from Shenzhen to Zhongshan, and the other allows drivers to negotiate amounts with passengers before the trip begins, but not exceeding the highway fees for the outbound journey. However, offline negotiations between drivers and passengers can lead to irregular communication or unclear pricing. To better match demand and resolve pain points for both drivers and passengers, the platform has launched pilot improvements based on feedback from drivers and passengers, introducing an in-app negotiation method for return fees, optimizing pricing mechanisms and negotiation models, giving choice to passengers and drivers, making the return fee negotiation process clear and transparent. The platform displays route highway fees to passengers as a reference for return fees and shows three pricing tiers for passengers to choose from. These fees go entirely to drivers to compensate for return costs, and drivers can choose whether to accept orders. This pilot program will soon launch in Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, Kaifeng, Quanzhou, and Jinan, and will be further improved based on trial results before gradually expanding nationwide.
Regarding the commission topic that society and drivers are generally concerned about, participating guests also shared their actual experiences and test results. DiDi Global Inc. driver Master Sun from Xi'an and driver Master Zhang from Shenzhen displayed their August bills, showing commission rates of 6.9% and 18% respectively.
DiDi Global Inc. staff also openly responded to drivers' questions, sharing topics including commission calculations, the supply-demand logic behind varying commission rates, and commission usage. As a two-sided transaction platform, the platform calculates fees independently for drivers and passengers, issuing driver rewards and passenger discounts beyond basic pricing to better adapt to supply-demand changes, satisfy user value for both passengers and drivers, and facilitate more orders. In high-demand areas, the platform offers more driver rewards to encourage order acceptance, while in low-demand areas, it provides more passenger discounts to generate more orders. Subsidies affect final passenger payment amounts and driver take-home income, thus influencing calculated commission levels.
In 2024, DiDi Global Inc.'s average commission rate for all orders was 14%. DiDi Global Inc. officials stated that commission does not equal profit, as most platform commission funds are returned to drivers and passengers through subsidies, and are also used for platform system maintenance, payment and settlement security, customer service, insurance and claims, compliance and taxes, and other expenses. Therefore, commissions do not simply become platform profits but are used to maintain the entire service ecosystem.
Drivers, media, and expert representatives also proposed many constructive suggestions, such as enhancing bill visualization to make bills more concise and clear; having the platform provide voice announcements when encountering negative or zero-commission orders to deepen driver awareness; automatically helping drivers calculate and display total driver income and corresponding total passenger payments in bills; and hoping the platform can implement commission reductions so drivers can genuinely feel increased benefits.
DiDi Global Inc. ride-hailing CTO Cao Le stated, "We hope to continue holding DiDi Open Day review meetings to constantly help drivers solve problems. Openness, listening, and progress are our original intentions, and we sincerely ask everyone to continue supervising, criticizing, and helping us improve."