Car hailing rules go too far

The governments in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen released draft rules on car-hailing services on Saturday. The rules require drivers to have a local household registration, or hukou, and vehicles with local car plates, if they want to stay in the car-hailing business.

According to the draft rules on ride-sharing services in the four metropolises, most vehicles endorsed by the ride-sharing platforms such as the Didi-Uber conglomerate and Yidao Yongche, would no longer be qualified to serve passengers. The bar for them to stay in the business would be almost as high as that for traditional taxis, should the rules come into effect.

Local governments, as the newly introduced national regulations stipulate, are responsible for issuing licenses for car-hailing taxis and drivers after evaluating them. But requiring drivers to possess a local hukou is probably going too far. Whether or not a Didi driver has a local hukou has nothing to do with the service he or she provides.