APP-BASED cabbies in Shenzhen will have to attend two qualification exams before they can be eligible to drive for car-hailing apps, according to the city’s transport commission.

    The examinations consist of a national unified exam and a local exam, and examinees will have to pass both exams before they are qualified, according to an outline on the exams released by the commission Wednesday. But no dates were given.

    The national unified exam will be organized in accordance with requirements issued by the national and provincial transport authorities, the commission said without giving more details.

    The local exam is designed to

    test the examinees’ driving technique, basic knowledge about Shenzhen and language ability.

    The outline specifies that examinees have to score 80 out of 100 to pass the local exam, which will take 60 minutes in total.

    The exam consists of basic knowledge and application ability tests. The first part, accounting for 40 percent of the full score, is about local taxi policies, laws and regulations, cultural and geographical knowledge, and knowledge about popular places and roads in the city.

    The second part, making up 60 percent of the full score, includes a safety check of vehicles, proper use of software, tests of driving ability and communication skills. Examinees are required to understand and speak Mandarin, simple Cantonese and simple English.

    The exam will have 80 questions in total, including true or false questions, one-choice questions, and multiple-choice questions. The exam results will be made public within 10 days after the exam is hosted, and examinees’ scores will be valid for three years in Shenzhen.

    The move followed an announcement made by the commission on new rules regulating private cars used in app-based cab services last month, which demanded that app-based taxi drivers possess Shenzhen hukou or residency cards, have three years of driving experience, and pass qualification tests before they are allowed to provide service.

    Last May, the city started to strengthen regulation of the booming ride-hailing industry after a female customer was robbed and killed in Shenzhen by a driver affiliated with a taxi-hailing company, which raised concerns that the apps were lax in crosschecking the backgrounds of drivers.

    In a following inspection by Shenzhen’s public security department, thousands of drivers working for five major car-hailing app companies in Shenzhen were found to have criminal records, including drug offenses. Among the pool of Shenzhen’s app drivers, 1,425 had a criminal history of drug use, while 1,661 had significant criminal records.

    In July the country’s first regulation on car-hailing service was released, offering legitimacy to the industry.

    (Zhang Yang)