Several Regions Relax Age and Household Registration Requirements for Ride-Hailing Drivers
The ride-hailing industry is easing entry barriers. Since the beginning of this year, cities such as Jingmen, Nanjing, and Nanchang have successively implemented new regulations for the operation and service management of online ride-hailing taxis, making adjustments to market access, the age limit for drivers, and in some cases, pricing mechanisms, further opening up the industry.
Relaxing Driver Entry Thresholds
First Finance has found that the entry thresholds for ride-hailing drivers have mainly changed in terms of age and household registration. For example, the "Implementation Rules for the Operation and Service Management of Online Ride-Hailing Taxis in Huangshan City," which will be officially implemented on May 1st, adjusts the age limit for drivers from 60 to 63 years old, aligning with the policy of gradually delaying the statutory retirement age. In addition, the rules have removed the requirement for vehicles to be "registered in this city."
Besides Huangshan City, the "Management Measures for Online Ride-Hailing Taxi Operation Services in Jingmen City," officially implemented on March 27th, also adjusted the age requirements for drivers, changing the requirement of "under 60 years old for males and under 55 years old for females" to "not having reached the statutory retirement age and in good health." Regarding vehicles with out-of-town license plates, the management measures in Jingmen City removed the regional restriction of "vehicles must be registered in this city," breaking down barriers to entry for out-of-town vehicles.
The "Management Measures for Online Ride-Hailing Taxi Services in Nanjing City," which came into effect on February 14th, removed the condition of "having household registration or residence permit in this city" from the previous version. In the future, any driver who has not reached the statutory retirement age, meets health requirements, has at least 3 years of driving experience, and has no relevant criminal or serious legal records can apply to provide ride-hailing services in Nanjing.
The "Revised Implementation Rules for the Operation and Service Management of Online Ride-Hailing Taxis in Nanchang City," officially implemented on January 20th, canceled the restriction of "household registration or residence permit in this city" for ride-hailing drivers.
Regarding the changes in driver entry thresholds, an industry insider told First Finance that the relaxation of driver employment restrictions is, in terms of capacity, due to the fact that many cities have gradually standardized industry development and connected platform operation data after issuing ride-hailing management measures. This allows them to understand the overall order situation, driver income, and whether capacity is saturated in the city. Based on this understanding, the competent authorities can exercise a certain degree of overall control over the scale of ride-hailing drivers in the city. Relaxing age and household registration restrictions can attract more experienced drivers to fill capacity gaps during those times and in those areas.
Chen Liteng, a senior analyst at the NetEconomy Society E-Commerce Research Center, told First Finance that the recent relaxation of various entry restrictions in the ride-hailing industry by various regions is an important adjustment in the industry's governance philosophy. Loosening driver household registration and age thresholds not only resolves the contradiction of uneven regional capacity distribution but also provides flexible employment opportunities for those awaiting employment or transitioning careers, serving a dual purpose of safeguarding people's livelihoods.
Multiple Requirements Being Improved
In addition to driver entry standards, some cities have also relaxed platform operation standards.
Regarding out-of-town platform enterprises, the "Management Measures for Online Ride-Hailing Taxi Operation Services in Jingmen City" removed the restrictive requirement of establishing a local branch, retaining only the core entry condition of "having corporate legal person qualification," ensuring fair competition among all entities. The "Revised Implementation Rules for the Operation and Service Management of Online Ride-Hailing Taxis in Nanchang City" removed restrictive clauses such as "branch office business license" in enterprise entry. Regarding this adjustment, the Jiangxi Provincial Comprehensive Transportation Development Center stated that it is to break down market barriers, promote fair employment, and contribute to the construction of a unified national market.
The aforementioned industry insider said that the adjustment may be based on improving tourism services, citizen convenience, or attracting employment. Revising the policies lowers the threshold for out-of-town enterprises to enter the local market, attracting more high-quality platform enterprises to participate in the local ride-hailing market, which is beneficial to the healthy development of the local ride-hailing market.
The changes go beyond this. In addition to relaxing entry thresholds, the newly implemented management measures in various regions have also made requirements regarding market price regulation and ride-hailing compliance.
Regarding price adjustments, the latest management measures in Jingmen City removed the statement of "government-guided prices may be implemented when necessary," requiring platform companies to reasonably price based on operating costs, market supply and demand, and strictly implement the requirement of clearly marked prices to protect passengers' right to know.
Chen Liteng said that implementing market-regulated prices and deleting related control reservation clauses can reduce administrative intervention and allow travel fares to adjust autonomously with market supply and demand. Various platforms can flexibly formulate pricing strategies based on operating costs and service levels, and engage in healthy competition under unified and fair rules. At the same time, eliminating differences in price controls across regions will help platforms to layout across regions in a balanced manner and optimize the market competition ecosystem of the travel industry.
In addition, various regions are refining the improvement of driver compliance and service management. For example, Nanjing City officially launched the application of ride-hailing "compliance codes" on January 9th, realizing "one vehicle, one code" for compliant vehicles. Each compliant ride-hailing vehicle must post a dedicated compliance code in a designated location inside the vehicle for passenger supervision and inspection.
The aforementioned industry insider said that the ride-hailing industry has been developing for nearly 10 years since the legislation of the Ministry of Transport, and the industry has entered a mature stage. Although there are still some problems, for the competent authorities, there is a lot of mature experience in how to manage it specifically. It is expected that more cities will, based on changes in the current economic environment and changes in user habits, more actively embrace the market-oriented development of the ride-hailing industry.
Chen Liteng believes that the overall trend of the ride-hailing industry is towards a stage of wide access and strict regulation, while opening up industry access and activating market vitality, it still adheres to the bottom line of vehicle compliance and safety review.