Hong Kong ‘unlikely to crack down on Uber’ until premium taxi fleets hit streets
- Lawmakers say government will wait for premium taxis before targeting ride-hailing services, even if platforms regulated
Hong Kong authorities are unlikely to crack down on Uber until they gauge the response to the launch of premium taxi fleets, even if they plan to regulate online ride-hailing services, lawmakers have said.
The legislators also called on the government to relax hire-car permit rules and increase the licence quota if proposed regulation enforced a requirement for drivers on ride-hailing platforms to possess such permits.
The government recently briefed lawmakers on its proposal, with sources saying it intended to regulate online ride-hailing platforms such as Uber to ensure their drivers held the permits.
But an insider said authorities were not considered increasing the number of the permits for now.
Lawmaker Ben Chan Han-pan said his understanding was that the government wanted to first focus on improving service in the taxi sector by introducing the premium scheme. The fleets are expected to begin operating by the middle of next year.
“The government prefers to observe the effectiveness of the taxi scheme at the moment and will not make major changes to online ride-hailing services until it evaluates the premium taxi fleets,” Chan said.
