(Source: "Rule of Law Daily" 2025-12-26)

Recently, the Chengdu Municipal Transportation Bureau of Sichuan Province issued an announcement to solicit opinions and suggestions from the public on the "Implementation Rules for the Management of Online Reservation Taxi Operations in Chengdu (Draft for Comments)". Among them, drivers engaged in online taxi services are no longer required to "have a Chengdu household registration or a Chengdu residence permit."

The reporter of "Rule of Law Daily" discovered through combing and interviews that in recent years, many places have canceled or are exploring the lifting of household registration restrictions for drivers engaged in online car-hailing services. However, some cities still require drivers who engage in online ride-hailing services to need proof of household registration or residence in the city.

Experts interviewed by reporters from the "Rule of Law Daily" believe that behind this is the conflict between the "convenient and flexible new employment forms" promoted by the state and the "strict population and traffic control policies" of some cities, which has led to a certain number of non-local registered drivers choosing to "operate without a license", making market supervision more difficult and not conducive to protecting the rights and interests of online ride-hailing drivers and passengers.

Some drivers are not compliant

Mr. Chen, who is in his 50s and is from Hebei, leases a new energy vehicle with a Beijing license plate at a monthly price of 5,000 yuan and has been engaged in online car-hailing services in Beijing for more than a year.

In order to accompany and support his son who works in Beijing, Mr. Chen came to live in Beijing from his hometown more than a year ago. Considering that he has good driving skills, he chose to rent a car and engage in online car-hailing services.

According to the "Beijing Online Reservation Taxi Operation Service Management Implementation Rules", one of the conditions for drivers applying for the "Online Reservation Taxi Driver's License" in Beijing is that they should have a household registration in this city. At the same time, vehicles applying for the "Online Reservation Taxi Transport Certificate" in Beijing must be vehicles with local license plates and owned by taxi operators or individuals.

Mr. Chen does not have a Beijing household registration and cannot apply for an "Online Reservation Taxi Driver's License", so he cannot engage in compliant online taxi services. He told reporters: “Many of the online ride-hailing drivers I interact with are out-of-towners who rent cars and drive online ride-hailing services. ”

In addition, relevant policies in Beijing require that online hailing vehicles operated by the platform must be insured with compulsory traffic insurance, third-party liability insurance and passenger accident insurance with a compensation amount of not less than 1 million yuan according to the operating passenger car insurance rate.

An online ride-hailing driver who lives in Shunyi District, Beijing, told reporters that in accordance with compliance operation requirements, the insurance cost is about 10,000 yuan.

The vehicle Mr. Chen drove was not insured according to the operating passenger vehicle insurance rate. Instead, he purchased full private car insurance, which cost five to six thousand yuan. "If there is a traffic accident, you can go through the insurance process, and you will pay for the excess out of your own pocket."

This is not an isolated phenomenon. The reporter recently randomly experienced 10 online ride-hailing trips in Beijing, and most of the drivers were registered abroad.

Beijing is not the only city that has household registration requirements for drivers engaged in online ride-hailing services. For example, according to the "Jinan City Online Reservation Taxi Operation Service Management Implementation Rules", drivers who apply to engage in online taxi services must "have a household registration in this city, a valid residence permit in this city, and handle residence registration or identity information registration in this city."

Zheng Xiang, a professor at the Beijing Comprehensive Transportation Development Institute of Beijing Jiaotong University, believes that some cities restrict the household registration of online ride-hailing drivers, which reflects the idea of placing online ride-hailing management in the city's comprehensive governance system, including emphasizing the protection of the local labor market. However, this kind of management has objectively caused some negative impacts. For example, once a traffic accident occurs in a non-compliant online ride-hailing service, it will be difficult to protect the rights and interests of passengers; non-compliant operating vehicles will form unfair competition with compliant vehicles, which may disrupt market order.

Household registration restriction is “unnecessary”

In recent years, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, Suzhou and Wuxi in Jiangsu Province, and Kunming in Yunnan Province have canceled the household registration requirements for drivers engaged in online ride-hailing services.

There are also cities that are revising local regulations on the management of local online taxi booking services, and plan to loosen the household registration requirements for drivers engaged in online taxi services.

From September 23 to October 23, 2025, the Nanjing Municipal Transportation Bureau of Jiangsu Province publicized the "Nanjing Online Taxi Reservation Management Measures (Revised Draft for Comments)" through the portal website and widely solicited public opinions.

The reporter saw that according to the "Nanjing Online Taxi Reservation Management Measures", drivers engaged in online taxi services in this city must "have a household registration in this city or obtain a residence permit in this city." In the "Nanjing Online Taxi Reservation Management Measures (Revised Draft for Comments)", this provision is no longer retained.

Tao Yang, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University w88 casino of Law, believes that many cities' loosening of household registration restrictions for online ride-hailing drivers reflects a signal of social inclusion and responds to the requirements of building a unified national market. It aims to break down local employment barriers, promote the reasonable and orderly flow of labor factors, and optimize urban public transportation order.

Kong Xiangwen, associate professor at the w88 casino of Law at the w88 casino, believes that household registration restrictions for online ride-hailing drivers may lead to labor and employment discrimination. Many cities have loosened household registration restrictions for online ride-hailing drivers, reflecting the protection of citizens' labor rights and equality rights.

"In fact, no matter from the perspective of safety or service quality, restrictions based on household registration are unnecessary. Competent authorities and platform parties can work together to effectively manage online ride-hailing drivers. Online taxi drivers with non-local household registration can complete passenger transportation work with the assistance of map software, navigation and other technologies." Kong Xiangwen said.

Should focus on service quality

According to the "Interim Measures for the Management of Online Taxi Reservation Operations and Services" jointly issued by the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments, drivers engaged in online taxi services must meet the following conditions: obtain a driving license for the corresponding permitted type of motor vehicle and have more than 3 years of driving experience; no record of traffic accident crimes, dangerous driving crimes, no drug abuse records, no records of driving after drinking, no record of 12 points in the last 3 consecutive scoring periods; no record of violent crimes.

In addition to the above conditions, according to the "Interim Measures for the Management of Online Reservation Taxi Operations and Services", drivers engaged in online taxi services must also meet "other conditions specified by the urban people's government".

Local household registration is one of the "other conditions specified by the urban people's government".

In Zheng Xiang’s view, the “Interim Measures for the Management of Online Reservation Taxi Operations and Services” mainly considers the standardized development of online car-hailing services, while emphasizing the protection of safety and rights. It sets the basic access threshold for online car-hailing services (qualifications for cars, people, and platforms), and focuses more on unified industry standards and passenger safety.

She believes that the problem of online ride-hailing drivers in some cities having difficulty complying with regulations due to household registration restrictions needs to be solved urgently. While respecting the governance goals of local governments (such as population control, traffic management, and safety and security), it is necessary to promote the transformation of management logic from emphasizing the control of household registration status of online ride-hailing services to the management of driver behavior and credit, focusing on service quality and safety results rather than household registration status.

Zheng Xiang suggested that the reform of the market access mechanism could be considered, such as adopting the "residence permit + social security payment period" method, which requires applicants to hold a local residence permit and pay social security for a certain number of consecutive years (such as 3 consecutive years) to prove their stable residence, and then grant them market access qualifications.

"Technical means can be applied to fill in the gaps that may arise in supervision. For example, full-process digital supervision can be used to monitor operating status in real time through vehicle-mounted intelligent terminals to eliminate the phenomenon of 'inconsistency between people and vehicles'. The platform is required to be forced to connect to the operating vehicle insurance system, and orders cannot be accepted without purchasing compliance insurance. Establish a driver safety scoring system (accident rate, complaint rate, fatigue driving monitoring, etc.), and compulsory training or withdrawal for those with low scores," Zheng Xiang said.

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