Hong Kong Transport Department Proposes Stringent Measures Against Illegal Online Car-Hailing

TapTechNews July 11th news, the Transport Department of the Transport and Logistics Bureau of Hong Kong plans to submit a research report on combating illegal taxis and regulating online car-hailing platforms to the Transport Affairs Committee of the Legislative Council this Friday (July 12th).

TapTechNews learned from the report that the Transport Department suggests that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government needs to further improve the existing laws to strengthen the crackdown on the behavior of car owners or drivers using vehicles for illegal operation of online car-hailing.

The Transport Department of the Transport and Logistics Bureau of Hong Kong suggests that if there is evidence to prove that the vehicle involved is indeed related to the crime of illegal taxiing or paid passenger carrying, even if the identity of the illegal driver cannot be determined, the court can also impound the vehicle and temporarily suspend the vehicle license depending on the specific situation.

Once this measure is implemented, it will effectively deter car owners who use their vehicles for illegal online car-hailing operations: for individual car owners, it will make it impossible for them to use the vehicle normally; for corporate car owners, it may even affect the daily operation of the company.

For online car-hailing drivers who have been convicted due to illegal operation of online car-hailing, the Transport Department believes that it is necessary to clearly define the shortest time for revoking their driver's license, and it is recommended to set it as 12 months.

According to the current regulations in Hong Kong, private cars are not allowed to carry passengers for a fee without an operating license, but online car-hailing platforms such as Uber have not been restricted for the time being. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government now hopes to include these platforms in the taxi license management system.

According to the South China Morning Post, the current biggest problem is that the number of operating licenses issued by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government to online car-hailing is far less than the scale of platforms such as Uber:

There are only a little over a thousand online car-hailing licenses issued, while there are as many as 210,000 Hong Kong drivers registered on the Uber platform.