China toughened regulations on its Uber-like apps in October, making it even harder for drivers to get a license in megacities like Beijing and Shanghai, where such apps attract their major clientele – affluent urbanites – and drivers are required to be locals and have local car plates. [Photo/IC]

Coach drivers?picking up passengers at an expressway service station in Zibo, East China's Shandong province, reportedly charged 5 yuan ($0.7) to 20 yuan per passenger. Southern Metropolis Daily commented on Tuesday:

What happened at the Zibo expressway service station casts a shadow over the official efforts to serve citizens in need of long-distance, affordable travel.

Allowing coaches to pick up passengers from service stations is in the interests of both local residents and the transport authorities who had been struggling to rein in illegal pick-ups along the expressways: Some coaches would take unauthorized routes, even detours, just to get more passengers on board.

It is thus a shame that some people in uniform have decided to make money out of it by charging passengers an unauthorized fee.

What is peculiar is that the local authorities did not bother to interfere even though the unauthorized fees have been collected for months and people have filmed drivers collecting the money from passengers.

It should not be difficult to find out who the fee collectors are, under which regulations the so-called administration fees were collected, and whether power-for-money exchanges are involved. That the Zibo supervisors failed to carry out their duties properly has obviously emboldened the drivers.

The end has to be put to such illicit charges with Spring Festival approaching or else people may be compelled to pay even more.