【Parliament】Tax companies can use old cars. Taxes must be disclosed when the usage records of the taxi point-to-point vehicles must be published.

Old cars with a car age of less than five years can be transferred to taxis in the future. Taxis can also sell some fleets that have been used for more than three years to help operators reduce costs and expand scale. This is the second phase of measure announced by the government to ease the yearly decline in taxi numbers and stabilize point-to-point passenger service supply.

Currently, only new cars can be registered as taxis and cannot be resold or converted. Regulatory regulations are stricter than private car hiring, resulting in higher operating costs for taxis and higher drivers' car rentals.

In order to allow taxi operators to control costs more flexibly and facilitate their scale, the Land Transportation Administration will allow operators to sell taxi that are more than three years old, but cannot exceed 5% of the fleet each year, and must maintain the size of at least 800 taxis as required in accordance with existing regulations.

This reduces the risk of trialing new taxis for operators, such as multi-purpose vehicles that are more expensive to purchase but can meet the needs of some passengers.

Operators can also use used cars with less than five years of car age as taxis under the approval of the Land Transportation Bureau. These used cars must pass vehicle inspection and meet the rear compartment space requirements.

The Land Transportation Bureau will continue to suspend the 2% per year growth rate limit set on the Tax fleet, allowing operators to increase fleets by more than 2% each year according to the growth plan and fleet productivity.

A spokesman for the Land Transportation Bureau said that since Tax still needs a quota for car ownership, the authorities currently do not plan to lift the growth restrictions, but will review whether the restrictions are still applicable and make adjustments when needed based on the industry development and the impact of new measures.

The size of local taxis has shrunk by more than half in the past 10 years, from 28,700 taxis in 2014 to 13,100 taxis in 2024. In contrast, private car hikes that provide private car delivery services have surged from 1,609 to nearly 59,400.

However, Dr. Xu Lian-shun, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Environment and Senior Minister of Transportation, said Wednesday (March 5) when debating the Ministry of Transportation expenditure budget in the Congressional Appropriations Committee that taxis still play an important role in meeting point-to-point demand.

As a point-to-point dedicated vehicle, Tax is more stable in supply throughout the day than private car hikes. The median active duration of single-shift taxis serving point-to-point driving journeys is 49 hours per week, which is longer than the 34 hours of private car hikes.

In addition, Tax can provide street passenger service, which is still important for passengers who are less familiar with the application of hiking and airports with high demand.

Xu Lianzhuo said that these new measures will complement the government's actions in the private car-hailing field, giving taxis and private car-hailing a fairer playing field.

In order to ensure the stable supply of private car hikes and prevent the fleet from changing their uses at will, the Land Transportation Bureau recently announced that starting from February 19, new registration or conversion of enterprises to private car hikes that provide delivery services, and from individuals to private car hikes under the enterprise, must follow a three-year lock-in period, and no conversion of uses or sales to individuals are allowed.

From now on, all new cars registered with a car ownership license that is bid for March or later must also disclose whether they have been used as private car catchers and taxis, including self-driving private car catchers such as shared cars. This also applies to private car pickups that change purposes from now on and change hands, as well as resale of taxis.

The Lu Transportation Bureau said that this is to improve transparency in the resale market and further encourage car owners to register for private car catchers or taxis when they are interested in providing relevant services. Records of vehicles used as private car catches or taxis before March 5 do not need to be disclosed to avoid affecting the existing owner of the private car when purchasing a used car.

Since it takes time to make changes to the system, the public can only check relevant records on the OneMotoring website of the Mainland Communications Bureau from June.

Xu Liansheng mentioned that at present, about 60% of drivers use more than one car-hailing platform, and as new operators join, there will be more choices. Large-scale car-hailing platform operators can better match drivers and passengers and should assume more responsibilities to ensure that market regulations continue to protect the interests of passengers and drivers.

In addition to providing more data to the LAND, these additional responsibilities may also include sharing more data with drivers to ensure that drivers and passengers do not implement direct or indirect restrictions on their choice practices, such as requiring drivers to meet minimum travel requirements.

Xu Lianzhuo emphasized that this move is not to limit the growth of the operators in the local or overseas markets, but will also review the requirements as the operators adjust their practices in response to market competition.

In September 2023, the Land Transportation Bureau announced a review of the point-to-point service industry structure and regulatory framework for taxi and private car hikes. The first phase of measures have been implemented one after another, including extending the legal service life of taxi and more frequently inspecting private car hikes for more than 10 years from this year.

As for the effective date of the second phase of the measures, the Land Transportation Bureau will continue to consult with the operators, the National Association of Texas, and the National Association of Private Taxi Drivers, and the details will be announced in the future.