STARTING Sept. 1, key vehicles, including car-hailing vehicles, taxis, school buses and trucks, will be fined 500 yuan (US$75) if found without the electronic registration identification (ERI) of the motor vehicle, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

Under traffic regulations, vehicles registered in Shenzhen and vehicles with Shenzhen vehicle passes should have an ERI conforming to national standards installed. Also, the ERI should not be destroyed or removed from the vehicle.

Shenzhen is one of the pilot cities adopting the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) electronic registration identification program. Since June 2016, the city’s traffic police bureau has been installing ERI in key vehicles for free. Currently, 120,000 vehicles have had ERI installed, accounting for 80 percent of the key vehicles in the city.

“Key vehicles, in which an ERI should be installed, include new-energy logistics cars, car-hailing vehicles, dump trucks, mixer trucks, buses, taxis, hazardous chemical transport vehicles, student-driver vehicles and freight vehicles. But a few vehicles have not had ERI installed regardless of notifications,” a police officer surnamed Zhu said.

ERI, a kind of RFID, is an electronic identity card for vehicles. Its appearance is similar to a parking card without the power supply. It can be identified within about 20 meters with its corollary equipment and cannot be identified beyond that distance. Being unable to send signals automatically, it does not have the technical features for real-time positioning and will not cause the exposure of vehicle location information. Additionally, instead of the car owner’s personal information, only the attributes of the vehicle, such as license plate number and car body color, are stored on the ID card. In other words, the card only contains the legal information of the vehicle. It is simply the digitalization of license plate information, without involving any private information. The input and modification of information will require a strict approval process and a supervision system to ensure privacy.

“The installation of an ERI in key vehicles can regulate license plate management and reduce license-related illegal acts. Meanwhile, it can effectively solve problems of vehicle identification, eliminate vehicles with fake license plates or license plates from an unofficial source and will therefore effectively protect legitimate vehicles,” Zhu said. “It will also offer a variety of intelligent transportation applications and vehicle services through accurate information collection on vehicles, such as buses. When a bus comes to a traffic light, the system will automatically recognize the vehicle, shorten the wait time and give the bus priority. There will be more such applications in the future.”

Starting next month, the traffic police department, by means of electronic police and field enforcement, will fine the operators of vehicles without ERI 500 yuan. (Zhang Yu)