Official standards for food delivery fees are to be set by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, with implementation expected as early as next month.
The Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee in its last session amended the Transportation Management Regulations (汽車運輸業管理規則), requiring the ministry to set official standards for food delivery rates.
Food delivery companies currently set their own prices.
Photo: CNA
The new pricing scheme would reference rates used by the three transportation industries — automobile transportation, limited-route automobile transportation and container transportation — and take into account that scooters are the primary food delivery vehicle, the amendments say.
Companies could cite fuel, tires, vehicle depreciation, repairs, delivery personnel salaries, incurred costs of operation, maintenance crew salaries, maintenance costs, administrative fees, administrative personnel salaries, depreciation of equipment, management fees, salaries for managers and taxes as overhead costs, the amendments say.
The ministry would only be responsible for setting the standard equation and basic rates, while companies and unions should discuss and finalize the actual fares, they say.
Delivery fees should be calculated as an aggregate of multiple fees, including the base fare, a predefined distance and the lowest amount a consumer should pay after purchasing products and having them delivered, they say.
Base fares should be calculated in kilometers, they say.
Additional fees should be included for deliveries outside the defined distance of the base fare, the amendments say.
The changes would allow delivery workers to charge for wait times, regardless of whether they are waiting for a restaurant to pack a delivery or for the buyer to collect, they say.
Buyers would have to pay an additional set fee for each floor the deliverer has to go up to provide doorstep delivery, they say.
The driver would also be entitled to nighttime and Lunar New Year delivery surcharges, they say.
The National Delivery Industrial Union yesterday said that the amendments provide a legislative basis for food delivery rates and guarantee drivers’ rights.
The ministry demonstrated sincerity with the amendments, which resulted from repeated negotiations between the ministry, the union and business representatives, it said.
It would guarantee delivery workers’ incomes, and allow healthy and sustainable development of the delivery industry, it added.
Uber Eats said it would need to go over the amendments before it could comment.
Foodpanda had not responded to a request for comment as of press time last night.
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.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
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
RSS