TAIYUAN City, capital of North China’s Shanxi Province, has blacklisted two car-hailing services by Didi Chuxing amid a crackdown on illegal passenger transportation, local news portal tynews.com.cn said.

    The city began a three-month campaign to regulate taxis Sunday to “improve the quality of services and boost the city’s image,” the local government announced.

    The focus of the campaign is on vehicles that have not received approval to engage in the passenger transportation business but are still offering services on borrowed licenses via the Internet and various software.

    Kuaiche and Zhuanche businesses on the Didi Chuxing app are both banned. The homegrown ride-hailing application enables taxis, high-end cars and drivers to be hired via smartphone. Special car services called zhuanche in Chinese are controversial because under law private car owners may not transport passengers for profit.

    Inspections of taxi services were mainly organized near railway stations, airports and long-distance bus terminals in Taiyuan. The city encouraged residents to report illegal vehicles with a promised reward of 100 yuan (US$15).

    It stated that police would provide technical support in the crackdown and drivers found violating the rule will be fined 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.

    (China News Service)