Uber Taiwan yesterday published an advertisement in two Chinese-language newspapers to protest against proposed amendments to the Highway Act (公路法) that would increase the penalty for illegal transport service operators from NT$150,000 to NT$25 million (US$4,717 to US$786,114).
The ride-sharing application developer paid for a half-page advertisement on the front page of the Apple Daily and the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
The advertisement used photographs of people Uber said are its drivers, including parents, pensioners and those who have other regular jobs.
“We embrace the power of moving the nation forward, but the government is imposing a NT$25 million penalty as a barrier,” the company said in the advertisement, adding that Taiwan cannot afford to have a backward-moving policy.
The advertisement urged people to sign a petition asking the government to amend the Highway Act by listing Uber, LetsRide, Lalamove and other ride-sharing applications as “Internet transport service providers,” which have yet to exist in the current legal framework.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said in the legislature’s Transportation Committee meeting that what Uber did would only cause public authority to collapse.
DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said that Uber did not buy the advertisements to promote its business, but to stop the Legislative Yuan from increasing fines.
“It appears that the company is finally showing some signs of concern over the increase in fines against it. However, the advertisement also shows that it is reluctant to join the diversified taxi service proposed by the government,” he said.
Cheng said that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ diversified taxi service plan would regulate Uber based on the current laws, ensuring that both passengers and drivers are insured and compensated, and that Uber pays taxes in Taiwan.
For the government’s plan to work the ride-sharing application must match service requests with taxi drivers from different taxi service providers and allow drivers to make a reasonable profit, Cheng said.
“The key is that both the ministry and I believe that Uber can continue to operate as long as it follows the rules. All the rulings handed down to the company only ask that it operate legally. This is how the government handles all illegal operations in all sectors,” he said.
“I hope that Taiwanese service operators can compete against multinational companies like Uber, so long as it is done legally,” he said.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS