Control on taxi firms should be eased: Media

Taxis take passengers at Beijing Railway Station on January 9, 2015. (Photo: CHINA DAILY/Wang Zhuangfei)

While safety concerns need to be addressed, the first task should be to increase the number of taxis by letting go some of the controls. [Special coverage]

Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang said Thursday during the two sessions that private vehicles are forbidden to be used as rental cars. He said any reform shall take into consideration the interests of both the consumers and the enterprises, but with the consumers coming first.

His comments again launched a hot debate on the reform of taxi and auto rental cars' control.

It goes without saying that people's interests should come first in any reform of taxi and auto rental cars. But the key is what the biggest interests of the public are? At the moment, it is to have safe taxi ride.

But the fact is that the long-standing control of taxi licenses has led to serious shortage of taxis.

In Beijing, for example, there are about 1.5 million customers who need to take taxi every day and only about 60 percent of them, or 900,000, manage to get a cab in the end.

Among those forced to wait are probably women about to go into labor or a girl eager to get home late at night. Even the public's basic need for a taxi is not met, not to speak of their safety concerns.

There are only 67,000 taxis in Beijing (a number that has basically remained the same over the past decade) while the city's population has increased to over 21 million. The number of illegal unlicensed taxis actually far exceeds legal ones.

The best way to meet the demand is to let go control on licenses of taxi and auto rental cars in the first place before discussing the issue of safety guarantee.

For taxi companies, the issue whether their system can be changed and license increased can be discussed. Taxi is no longer a means of transportation enjoyed by only a small group of people, but an integral part of the public transportation system. So any harsh control is obviously unpractical.

Auto rental cars would do little to help meet the demand if they are required rental licenses. Only 35 car companies have rental licenses all over the country. And they far from meeting the public's demand if they are all used as auto rental cars.

Maybe we can learn a lesson from the U.S. where the government uses a "self-discipline" way to supervise the market of auto rental cars. All auto rental cars only need to meet the demands of having business driver license, vehicle condition report and relevant law insurance.