After a female customer was robbed and killed in Shenzhen by a driver affiliated with a Chinese taxi-hailing company early in May, more than 8,000 drivers working for the firm have been suspended.
The victim was a 24-year-old school teacher, who boarded the taxi after taking a picture of its licence plate, allowing police to easily find the suspect. The plate turned out to be false.
A string of controversies have engulfed car-hailing app firms in China, including Didi Chuxing, the company connected to the suspect. Of the drivers it suspended, none have met the firm’s standard of services. They are now subject to further review.
The very first nationwide law regulating China’s growing car-hailing services industry is only about to be rolled out. Investigations prior have uncovered that more than a thousand drivers associated with five major car-hailing app companies in Shenzhen, such as Didi Chuxing and global industry leader Uber, have either histories of drug abuse, or criminal records.
Photo by Feilopeshune (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
