The taxi trade said it would engage in more talks with the government to discuss details of a new legislation to regulate ride-hailing services.

The bill was passed in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, with transport secretary Mable Chan saying the government would use subsidiary legislation to address issues like the number of licences to be given out.

Under the primary legislation, ride-hailing vehicles must be less than 12 years old to obtain or renew a license.

But the trade said that is unreasonable, and called for ride-hailing vehicles to be subject to the same three-year requirement for new cabs joining premium taxi fleets.

Peter Yung, spokesman for the Hong Kong Taxi and Public Light Bus Association, said the government should consult the trade on the matter.

"[As a key stakeholder], the government should really seek advice from us," he said.

"We were actually quite surprised because we're not against it, but we want the legislation to move forward as a whole for the point-to-point service industry and to provide a better service to our customers... the service standard might actually be lower [with the 12-year limit], which I don't think our customers would want."

Yung said also said he's not concerned that some taxi drivers might switch to e-hailing.

"We believe that there will be movement between us and there'll be competition between us, but it's going to be healthy, I'm sure," he said.

Yung’s comment was echoed by the chairman of Legco’s transport panel, Chan Siu-hung.

Chan said the new law would resolve the long-standing dispute between the taxi trade and e-hailing service providers.

He added that they can co-exist and complement each other by providing services to passengers with different needs.

"For example, taxis can provide relatively stable 24-hour services through their unique operational advantages, which include being able to accept street hailing as well as taking bookings through online channels," the Election Committee lawmaker said.

"Meanwhile, the ride-hailing vehicles can leverage their sharing economy model to unlock the idle capacity of private cars and meet the public's travel needs through online booking."

He called on the government to carefully assess how many ride-hailing vehicle permits to issue to avoid clogging up the roads.