Hsinchu County police were yesterday investigating a brawl in Jhubei City (竹北市), involving two food delivery drivers over a dispute with a security guard.
The incident allegedly started on Wednesday afternoon, when an Uber Eats driver, surnamed Hsu (徐), got into an argument with a security guard, surnamed Liu (劉), while delivering to a residential building, a police official said.
“Initial information indicated that the Uber Eats driver did not have detailed address information for a customer in the building who ordered the meal, so the security guard could not pass on the order. The Uber Eats driver then became angry and threatened to throw the meal at the building’s entrance, and they started to argue, leading to an altercation,” said Hu Tsung-wei (胡淙惟), head of Jhubei’s Lioujia District (六家) police station.
Photo: Tsai Ya-hsuan, Taipei Times
“Hsu then used a messaging app to contact two friends, one of whom is a delivery driver for Foodpanda. When they arrived to help their friend, it further escalated into a brawl,” Hu said.
The three men face assault charges, Hu added.
Video from surveillance cameras showed the two drivers, wearing jackets with the logos of Uber Eats and Foodpanda, grabbing and punching Liu, who fell to the ground.
Liu reportedly was knocked unconscious and suffered head injuries and was treated at a hospital, police said.
Police said that a woman told them that she had ordered the meal, but was not at the building at the time of the incident.
She provided police with a record of her order, which she said included clear information on her address and instructions to leave it at the door, police said.
She said that they had written down the address incorrectly, police said.
“But this is no reason to beat someone up and send them to the hospital with serious injuries. It was bad behavior and the delivery driver needs better training,” the police quoted her as saying.
Jhubei City Councilor Tsai Ya-hsuan (蔡蕥鍹) said she visited Liu in the hospital after learning about the incident.
“There are many people who have recently moved to Jhubei, and food delivery companies are enjoying good business, but we see their delivery drivers making dangerous runs, weaving through traffic, leading to some serious accidents,” Tsai said.
“The police worked swiftly to take the three offenders in for questioning. We hope the food delivery companies can better manage and restrain their workers, so violent incidents, which have scared residents, will not happen again,” she added.
Uber Eats said in a statement that it regretted the incident.
“Violence in any form will result in people losing their right to work with our platform. We are trying to find out details of what happened, and will fully cooperate with the police,” it said. “During this time, we have suspended the driver’s right to work on our platform, along with the business with which he had signed up to work with us.”
Foodpanda also issued a statement.
“Regarding the fighting incident in Hsinchu, if this contractor is determined to have been an offender, we will terminate our agreement with him. We urge all delivery personnel to exercise self-restraint and not engage in violent behavior,” it said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS