Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

A TOTAL of 738 app-based cab drivers for Didi Chuxing, the largest app-based cab operator in China, have been caught driving under the influence of alcohol, with two being caught twice, so far this year.

Among them, 431 were caught drinking and driving and 307 were caught drunk driving, according to a report released by police Thursday.

Shenzhen traffic police, in partnership with Didi Chuxing, disqualified 1,017 registered drivers who were involved in hit-and-run accidents, had multiple unhandled violations or had the full 12 penalty points added to their licenses since the two sides signed a data-sharing agreement this January.

The number of vehicles that violated traffic rules so far this year accounted for 16.8 percent of the registered vehicles on the service platform. This percentage was much lower than the 49 percent at the beginning of 2016, equivalent to 15.4 percent of the violation rate of private cars in the city, which is lower than the rate of 25.68 percent of traditional cabs, statistics provided by police showed.

So far this year, 15 vehicles were recorded having more than 20 violations, a drop by 96 percent from the number in 2016.

Among the 176,948 violations that police have checked this year, 42 percent were for illegal parking, 9.68 were for illegally changing lanes and 6.26 percent were failing to fasten safety belts.

The data showed that one-third of the app-based cars registered on the Didi service platform were being used as private cars and were not actively engaged in passenger service.