China's Ministry of Transport (MOT) issued guidelines on regulating the country's fast-growing car-rental sector on Tuesday. This indicates that the government is supporting car-sharing in cities to ease traffic congestion.
The guidelines, which are aimed at improving services and safety in the passenger car-rental industry as well as at ensuring healthy development, will regulate the management of rental cars, implement identification checks on customers and improve relevant infrastructure, according to a statement on the MOT's website.
The guidelines also state that China should fully realize the advantages of car-sharing in order to address city mobility issues.
"Car-sharing offers a new option for city mobility and is conducive to reducing the demands of individual car purchasing," easing pressure on roads and parking spaces, the guidelines note.
To encourage the use of car-sharing, local governments should improve infrastructure to address issues such as parking in certain locations, including business centers, major residential communities and transport hubs, the guidelines state, adding the car-rental industry should also adopt a credit system.
Though the country's car-rental sector has been growing fast in recent years, it is still lagging behind that of in developed countries, especially in areas such as the number of cars and services, the MOT said.
There are currently more than 6,300 car-rental companies registered in China with a total of 200,000 cars, an increase of 20 percent yearly, according to the ministry. However, nearly 93 percent of the companies only have less than 50 cars, while the top 5 car-rental companies like Shenzhou Zuche and eHi account for 20 percent of the market.
In addition, the car-rental sector also faces issues such as insufficient infrastructure, safety and fraud, which all threaten the healthy development of the industry, the MOT said, adding the new guidelines will help address these issues.
