專車新規 (zhuanche xingui): New regulations for car-hailing services

The Ministry of Transport issued new draft regulations on car-hailing services on Saturday. The regulations intend to integrate the online car-hailing services into the taxi management system and raise the access threshold for drivers.

According to the draft, the drivers of private cars that fail to obtain a required license are banned from offering rides for payment through car-hailing platforms. Drivers are also prohibited from using more than one car-hailing platform.

As the online car-hailing services become increasingly popular in many cities, it is necessary and reasonable to make up rules to manage the industry, because it is closely related to the interests and safety of users. Meanwhile, as car-hailing services have conflicts of interests with the taxi industry, it is the administrator's responsibility to mitigate contradictions among different stakeholders for the sake of social stability.

However, there have also been criticisms of the draft rules because they may have a negative impact on not only current online car-hailing services, but also the sharing economy based on the Internet. The new rule goes against the sharing economy and is not environmentally friendly. Some people have even commented that the regulations turn "Internet Plus" into "Internet Minus".