Govt to boost oversight over taxi apps

Transportation authorities plan to enlist the city's taxi dispatch centers to supervise cab drivers who use taxi-hailing apps, local media reported Thursday.

The dispatch centers, which are run by the four major taxi companies in the city, will create a record of each reservation after a taxi driver takes an order using the popular Didi and Kuaidi taxi-hailing apps, according to a report in the Oriental Morning Post. The centers will then turn on the yellow light on top of the taxi to show it has been booked.

As it becomes more convenient to reserve a taxi with a smartphone app, passengers who hail taxis on the roadside have begun to complain that they are often ignored because drivers are hurrying to pick up passengers who have summoned them through an app, the report said. Some drivers simply stop their cars on the side of the road and wait for lucrative fares to come over the apps.

This action will reduce passengers' complaints by indicating which taxis are available. It will also help to address the problem that some drivers cancel reservations without passengers' consent if they find more profitable fares in the meantime, said Huang Xiaoyong, a press officer from the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority.

The app developers and taxi companies are currently working on the technical issues, but no specific timetable has been established, Huang told the Global Times.

"This will help to regulate taxi apps and protect passengers' interests," said a taxi driver surnamed Lu, who works for Dazhong Taxi Co.

Lu uses the Didi and Kuaidi taxi apps, which he said earn him 600 yuan ($164) a month in additional income.

He said he does not wait for good deals and only chooses nearby passengers when he uses the apps.

The app developers have included ways of supervising drivers within their apps.

The developer will ban drivers from the app for three days if they cancel a reservation twice, said an employee who asked not to be named from the Beijing-based Xiaoju Technology Co, the developer of Didi. The driver will be banned permanently if he or she cancels four reservations.

Taxi apps are not fair to passengers because in most cases they cannot hail a taxi unless they offer the driver a tip, said a passenger surnamed Tang.