--- title: "Taxi trade fears 10% could lose cabs as drivers gear up for ride-hailing" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/288132302.md" description: "Hong Kong's taxi industry warns that 10% of owners may default on mortgages as licence values plummet due to the introduction of a regulated ride-hailing regime with a 10,000 permit cap. Taxi associations cite depreciation in licence prices and competition from platforms like Uber and Didi as key factors driving this financial distress, urging government intervention to sustain the traditional sector." datetime: "2026-05-30T04:05:50.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/288132302.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/288132302.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/288132302.md) generator: "portal-rs" --- # Taxi trade fears 10% could lose cabs as drivers gear up for ride-hailing Hong Kong’s taxi trade has warned that 10 per cent of the cab owners in the city could soon default on vehicle mortgages as licence values plunge, with many drivers switching to the new ride-hailing regime where 10,000 permits will be issued. The market value of a taxi licence has plunged over the past two decades, from a historic high of HK$7.66 million (US$970,163) in 2009 to HK$2.62 million for urban or red cabs and HK$1.45 million for green or New Territories taxis as of May this year, according to the Hong Kong Taxi Exchange. Licence values hit a record low of HK$1.99 million for red cabs and HK$1.25 million for green taxis in July last year, amid the government’s move towards introducing a regulatory regime for ride-hailing services. Chau Kwok-keung, chairman of the Hong Kong Taxi and Public Light Bus Association, estimated about 1,800 out of the city’s 18,163 cabs would soon be repossessed by banks as owners fail to meet mortgage payments. He sounded the warning after authorities decided to set a cap of 10,000 vehicles for ride-hailing permits on Tuesday, marking a major step in their long-running effort to establish a regulatory framework for the service. He said that taxi licence values have depreciated greatly over the years and now that ride-hailing firms can roll out 10,000 service permits, their drivers could work a full 10 hours a day, compared with two hours in the past. “Many cabbies may switch to becoming full-time ride-hailing drivers and taxi owners may stop paying their mortgages,” Chau said. “Many feel hopeless about the industry’s future.” Chau also noted that taxis were losing passengers to public transport due to the “HK$2 flat rate or 80 per cent off” concessionary fares for people aged 60 or above. Ng Kwan-sing, honorary chairman of the Taxi Dealers and Owners Association, echoed his views, saying the government should be fair to the “crippled” taxi trade and offer them a way out to sustain their operations. “Currently, some 400 or 500 taxis remain vacant on the streets and about 10 per cent of cabs cannot sustain their business. The government should roll out ride-hailing permits in batches such as a few thousand at a time, to see how the market absorbs them,” he said. “If taxi drivers cannot do any business due to the issuance of ride-hailing permits, anything can happen, including \[owners\] stopping vehicle mortgage payments. Former lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun estimated that about 11,000 of the 16,000 urban taxis in the city were already on the Uber platform, with some of them earning an extra HK$10,000 (US$1,300) in monthly income. More than 216,000 drivers were registered on Uber and Uber Taxi in Hong Kong by 2021, according to the latest available data from the company. The city currently has 46,000 taxi drivers. Much like the company’s regular service, Uber Taxi allows passengers to book rides directly with an upfront price instead of using a meter. Apart from the US-based Uber, which has operated in a regulatory vacuum in Hong Kong for more than a decade, many cabbies are also moving to other ride-hailing operators that have entered the market, such as Singapore-based Tada and mainland Chinese operators Didi Chuxing and Amap. Amap is operated by Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of the South China Morning Post. Last year industry leaders called on the government to buy back taxi licences for HK$5 million (US$637,100) each, arguing that licence values had consistently depreciated due to the rise of Uber and other ride-hailing platforms, causing significant potential financial losses for owners. But Chief Executive Lee Ka-chiu said the government must be very cautious about using public funds, adding that taxi licences had given the sector exclusive privilege such as access to taxi ranks, allowing operators profit under this model for a long time. Economist Simon Lee Siu-po said the depreciation of taxi licence values stemmed from the increase in ride-hailing options and falling demand for cabs due to low standards of service. “Unless the taxi industry works coherently, becomes customer-oriented and improves service standards, licence values will remain at a low level. This is a collapse of investment value,” he said. Uber had earlier proposed issuing 30,000 permits, the same number of drivers working with the platform, warning that a limit of 10,000 to 15,000 could shoot up booking prices by 70 per cent and the wait time for a vehicle could potentially double. Didi Chuxing said on Saturday that it supported the government’s cautious approach to ride-hailing services, but it called on the authorities to continuously monitor market supply and demand dynamics, passenger waiting times and service coverage, and to review permit allocations over time. Tada earlier described the 10,000 cap on permits as a positive step, but said licence allocation should continue to evolve alongside market demand. The SCMP has reached out to Amap for comment. ### Related Stocks - [UBER.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/UBER.US.md) - [DIDIY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DIDIY.US.md) - [UBEW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/UBEW.US.md) - [UBRL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/UBRL.US.md) - [BABA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BABA.US.md) - [09988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09988.HK.md) - [89988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/89988.HK.md) - [HBBD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HBBD.SG.md) ## Related News & Research - [Uber COO says there's a downside to being at the top](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296159632.md) - [Chinese Ride-Hailer Didi’s International Orders Average 15 Million a Day in Second Quarter](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295904100.md) - [Waymo is eating into the ride-hailing market in some cities. The fallout for human drivers stays fuzzy.](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296015548.md) - [Who Was Right About Tesla Robotaxi Deployment in 2025?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296667986.md) - [Waymo’s New Robotaxi Minivans Are Now Taking Paying Passengers](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296512034.md) --- > **Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.**