China plans public consultation ‘in days’ on regulation of car-hailing app operators

China may launch a public consultation on regulating the country’s controversial private car hailing services, a mainland newspaper reported on Monday, underscoring the divisions that exist even among government officials.

The Economic Observer newspaper said that the consultation document covering “temporary” regulations could be issued “within the next few days”.

The draft is expected to require private car-hailing app operators and their drivers to apply for licences from local authorities, the report said.

China currently lacks regulations covering the services offered by more than two million private car-hire drivers.

These drivers have often found themselves caught up in crackdowns carried out by local authorities in major cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou because of protests by traditional taxi companies as they see car-hailing app operators continuing to claim a greater market share.

On Saturday, Xu Yahua, a senior transport services official at the transport ministry, said online car-hailing services could help to ease traffic congestion in major cities, China News Service reported.

Xu’s remarks followed criticism of car-hailing app companies by Beijing’s traffic police, who argued that there were now a lot more private car drivers on the road offering the same services as taxis because of the app-service operators, which had added to traffic jam problems.