The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said this week that mobile-app-based ridesharing service Uber should stop its “outrageous behavior challenging the government’s authority” in Taiwan, adding that it would continue cracking down on Uber drivers if the firm continues to operate illegally.
The ministry said that earlier this week it received more than 600 e-mails from individuals alleging to be supporters of the Uber service.
The subject lines of the e-mails varied slightly, but the content of each was exactly the same, it added.
The ministry said it was told by sources that Uber sent the e-mails using the addresses of its registered users, adding that these fake e-mails were meant to paralyze the government’s e-mail accounts.
The ministry also said that the action was an act of public defiance of governmental authority and could constitute a crime, adding that it is considering taking legal action against the company.
“We ask Uber to cooperate with the Taiwanese government in the investigation. The company should also inform its management in Taiwan to terminate actions that challenge the authority of the government,” the ministry said.
The ministry reiterated that it has never opposed how Uber has applied technology to the transportation industry or any of the benefits the firm said might emerge from such an application.
However, Uber still has no intention of applying to become a legal transport business operator, the ministry said.
While Uber has claimed that it has a stricter screening process to select drivers qualified to offer transportation services, the ministry said that was not case.
“The Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act ( 道路交通管理處罰條例) says that any person convicted of criminal acts stated in Article 37 of the act, such as homicide, robbery or pillaging, will be prohibited from applying for a taxi driver business registration. Even though Uber said that the drivers it hires all have proof that they have no criminal record, those records would not show convicted criminals who are on reprieve or paying fines instead of spending time in jail. The company’s screening process is not superior to the nation’s standards for qualified taxi drivers,” the ministry said.
In response, Uber denied that it launched the e-mail onslaught, adding that the e-mails were all sent voluntarily by Uber users and drivers getting assignments from it.
It further asked the ministry to listen to the public.
The company has so far racked up NT$8.25 million (US$260,600) in general fines and NT$3.75 million for allowing drivers without a commercial driver’s license to operate in the transportation industry.
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