The most startling point to emerge from the discussion, at least from my perspective, was the fact that not a single new taxi license is being issued as part of the exercise. The current number of 18,163 taxis will be maintained, according to Yick. All 3,500 vehicles covered by the new fleet licenses come from cannibalizing existing taxi licences.

So this is not provision of additional resources. It is a reshaping of the ones we already have. Given that all five selected fleet operators are players in the existing market, it is clear that despite all the talk of a new era in taxi matters, this is largely a case of old wine in new bottles.

In a press release, the government emphasized the advantages of the new licensing system. First, about 40 percent of the vehicle fleet (1,500 out of 3,500) will be brand new and the rest no more than three years old. There will be a number of wheelchair accessible and premium vehicles and more than a quarter will be electric.

Second, all operators will establish proper training programs for their drivers and many of them will have an employer-employee relationship to hopefully provide job security and better working conditions.

Third, the vehicles will be equipped with modern technologies such as Global Positioning System, dashboard cameras and driver monitoring systems to improve safety.

It all sounds very worthwhile, although it could be argued that much of the improved service is what we should already be getting (and actually are getting from Uber) or could be achieved through routine changes to existing annual license terms rather than creating an entirely new licensing system.

I won’t pretend to be an expert on how the new system will work. I am a potential customer, not an operator. One area the studio discussion did not really get to the bottom of is the possibility of coordination between the various operators. Will the public be required to keep records of all five contact numbers? What if one operator cannot fulfill an order right now at a certain location, but another can? Do we keep dialing the other numbers until someone jumps in with an offer? No doubt all these issues will be resolved in the coming weeks and explained to the community.

So that’s something for the transport planners and I hope they have similar success with the taxi fleet licences. But if this is just a device to extend the privileged position of vested interests and delay the regulation of Uber and similar services, then the public will not easily forgive them.

Mike Rowse is an independent commentator