Traffic violations and accidents involving food deliverers increased by more than 3,000 cases over the past four years, a report released by the National Audit Office said.
The agency compiled data on 101,992 food deliverers registered with Uber Eats Taiwan and Foodpanda Taiwan between October last year and February, and traffic accident data on the vehicles registered to food delivery service providers between 2017 and last year.
The number of accidents in which a food deliverer was driving the vehicle at fault and the vehicle was registered by a service provider increased to 4,019 cases, or 61.09 percent of total cases, last year from 888 cases, or 30.95 percent, in 2017, the data showed.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Last year, 30,683 vehicles registered by service providers and driven by 29,378 food deliverers, or about 29 percent of all food deliverers, were involved in 50,224 major traffic cases or 50,841 individual traffic violations, the data showed.
Among the traffic violations, running a red light accounted for 19,868 cases (39 percent), exceeding the speed limit by not more than 20kph accounted for 12,357 cases (24 percent), exceeding the speed limit by 20kph to 40kph accounted for 9,054 cases (18 percent) and turning on a red light accounted for 7,480 cases (15 percent), the report said.
Some registered deliverers conveyed meals on unregistered vehicles, such as rental scooters or other private vehicles, while some unregistered drivers borrowed a deliverer’s Uber Eats or Foodpanda registration to deliver meals, the report said.
When unregistered drivers or vehicles were reported to service providers by the police or other people, the providers did not punish the deliverers, showing that their personnel and vehicles are ineffectively managed, the report said.
The agency said that it has urged the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to amend the Transportation Management Regulations (汽車運輸業管理規則) so that it covers food delivery service providers, which would regulate the businesses and allow motor vehicle offices to supervise them.
The ministry said that food delivery service providers use motor vehicles to transport goods and get paid for it, so they should obtain motor transportation industry licenses or commission a legal motor transportation company to make the deliveries.
The motor vehicle offices can compare traffic violation data with the deliverer names submitted by service providers to confirm cases, while the Directorate-General of Highways would supervise service providers to ensure that there is a decline in major traffic violations, the ministry said.
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