Transportation officials are preparing to work with police in the six special municipalities next month to step up their crackdown on Uber, a ride-sharing service provider that has become popular in Taiwan despite its illegality.
Police are next month to begin issuing tickets directly to Uber drivers. In the past the tickets were issued after transport authorities, disguised as passengers, obtained the license plate numbers and drivers’ information and passed the information to police, the Directorate-General of Highways said yesterday.
The announcement came after the Ministry of Transportations and Communications introduced heavier fines in March targeting private drivers working with ride-hailing services.
The fine for a first-time offender driving a private car seating less than nine passengers, or a truck weighing less than 3.5 tonnes is NT$50,000 with the vehicle’s license plate to be suspended for two months.
Fines for second to fourth offenses have increased to between NT$60,000 and NT$80,000, while license plate suspensions remain at between three and six months.
Offenders are to be fined NT$100,000 for the fifth and all subsequent breaches and license plates are to be revoked.
The directorate said Uber has registered in Taiwan as an information services business while in reality it is operating a taxi service.
Uber spokesman Harold Li (李文駿) said the company will give its full support to affected drivers.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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