The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and ride-hailing company Uber have failed to resolve their differences over a proposed amendment that would prohibit Uber from using its current operating model in Taiwan.
With the 60-day consultation period for the proposal having concluded on Friday last week, the ministry said that it would review public comments received, conduct a final review and draft measures to cover Uber drivers who might want to become taxi drivers before the rules take effect.
“Our directive remains unchanged. Under the amendment, Uber must choose between operating as a rental car company or becoming a taxi company to continue its service model,” Department of Railways and Highways specialist Hu Ti-chi (胡迪琦) said.
Photo: AFP
The proposed changes announced in February would prohibit drivers who partner with rental car companies — who Uber has been working with over the past two years — from driving around looking for passengers, or waiting for fares at taxi stands or in other areas.
Fares would have to be charged by the hour or the day, according to the proposed amendment to Article 103-1 of Transportation Management Regulations (汽車運輸業管理條例), dubbed the “Uber clause.”
Under Uber’s current model — a compromise reached with the government to allow it to continue to operate in Taiwan — it is supposed to use drivers who get cars from rental companies or who register their own vehicles with the companies.
However, the government decided to go after Uber when taxi drivers complained that the Uber model was simply a taxi service under another name and was hurting their business.
The amendment would likely remove Uber’s main advantages in Taiwan.
While it is uncertain when the amendment would be enacted, Hu said that the ministry has no plans to hold further talks with Uber, although the US-based company has asked.
The ministry later said in a statement that it talked with all stakeholders — Uber, rental car companies and taxi companies — during the consultation period.
If Uber wants to operate as it does now, it should be covered by the ministry’s “multi-purpose taxi program,” Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said on Tuesday last week.
The program would permit flexible rates with a minimum fare base, without making Uber alter its general service model, including the appearance of its vehicles, Wang said.
Uber would only need to invest NT$5 million (US$161,776) to set up a taxi company, while the company’s 10,000 drivers would need to take a test to obtain a taxi service operating permit to go with the taxi driver’s license that they already hold, Wang said.
However, Uber has always insisted that it is a technology company, not a transportation firm, and that it should not be subject to transportation laws.
Uber Asia-Pacific public policy director Emilie Potvin criticized the ministry, saying that it was “shoveling clouds” — meaning that the ministry’s statements lacked details, timetables or technical solutions.
“What a responsible government should do right now is to appoint someone who can lead a consultation process, get everybody at the table,” she said on Wednesday last week, adding that Uber has never been invited to participate in talks.
In a statement, Uber said that “despite our efforts to communicate a win-win solution, we feel that a fair resolution is still some way off,” referring to the consultation period closing on Friday.
The ministry should include it in future discussions, the company said, adding that the government should listen to the 10,000 Uber drivers, more than 200 rental car companies and 3 million people across Taiwan who have been supportive of Uber.
Taxi drivers on Friday urged the ministry to present the amendment to the Legislative Yuan as soon as possible, saying that the company operates illegally because it operates as a de facto taxi dispatcher, but does not follow taxi regulations.
Proposed legislation in the US outlines three conditions in which Washington would be authorized to protect Taiwan were China to invade, a report said yesterday. US Representative Ted Yoho this month said he would introduce a Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act, which would authorize US military force if China were to invade Taiwan-controlled areas, including its outlying islands. According to a version of the bill obtained by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times), the bill lists three conditions in which a US president would be authorized to use military force to protect Taiwan: If China uses military force
The Supreme Court on Tuesday found four men guilty of attempted murder in the 2017 stabbing of Spanish surfer Ignacio Prio on a Pingtung County beach in the final ruling in the case, sentencing them to three-and-a-half to six years in prison. The defendants had appealed their convictions for attempted murder in the first and second rulings, which had also led to prison sentences ranging from three-and-a-half years to six years. The then-42-year-old Prio went to Jialeshui Beach (佳樂水) near Kenting (墾丁) on March 31, 2017, was attacked after he asked four men to remove their fishing lines from an area
Two new commuter trains are scheduled to be launched in January next year, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said yesterday. The acquisition of EMU-900 commuter train cars is part of the railway operator’s plan to replace 589 train cars that have been in operation for more than three decades. The agency has also placed orders to buy 600 intercity train cars. The first batch of 20 EMU-900 cars is to be delivered to the nation in September, although delivery might be delayed until October due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said. The batch would be formed into two trains of 10
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
RSS