Transportation officials are preparing to work with police in the six special municipalities next month to step up their crackdown on Uber, a ride-sharing service provider that has become popular in Taiwan despite its illegality.
Police are next month to begin issuing tickets directly to Uber drivers. In the past the tickets were issued after transport authorities, disguised as passengers, obtained the license plate numbers and drivers’ information and passed the information to police, the Directorate-General of Highways said yesterday.
The announcement came after the Ministry of Transportations and Communications introduced heavier fines in March targeting private drivers working with ride-hailing services.
The fine for a first-time offender driving a private car seating less than nine passengers, or a truck weighing less than 3.5 tonnes is NT$50,000 with the vehicle’s license plate to be suspended for two months.
Fines for second to fourth offenses have increased to between NT$60,000 and NT$80,000, while license plate suspensions remain at between three and six months.
Offenders are to be fined NT$100,000 for the fifth and all subsequent breaches and license plates are to be revoked.
The directorate said Uber has registered in Taiwan as an information services business while in reality it is operating a taxi service.
Uber spokesman Harold Li (李文駿) said the company will give its full support to affected drivers.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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