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.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS