Ride-hailing services get tightened oversight

The Chinese government has moved to tighten regulations for ride-hailing drivers and platforms, vowing to crack down on illegal activities and irregularities such as unlicensed services, privacy leaks and unfair competition.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Ministry of Transport and six other ministries said they will jointly supervise the ride-hailing industry, both for in-progress rides and afterjourney services.

The supervisory mechanism involves the ministries of transport, industry and information technology, public security, and taxation, the central bank, and the cyberspace and market regulation administrations.

Ministries are entitled to summon ride-hailing drivers and platforms for investigation and correction if unlicensed services, information leaks, tax evasion, unfair competition, illegal transactions or other irregularities occur.

Those who fail to correct the irregularities will be forced to suspend online services or be removed from app stores.

The tightening of regulations follows the murder of a 21-year-old female flight attendant by a driver when she was using the Didi Chuxing online ride-hailing app last month.

After the murder, Didi came under heavy criticism online due to its loose verification process for drivers and lack of safety measures for passengers. More than 25 million rides are made each day through Didi’s app, with more than 21 million registered drivers and car owners, according to the company.

China unveiled its first nationwide regulations for car-hailing services in July 2016, granting legal status to the industry. Beijing issued a draft local regulation for the service last year, which took effect in December.