Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

SHENZHEN traffic police, in cooperation with online food delivery service platforms, suspended 468 employees from food delivery services for traffic violations, according to a meeting Thursday.

Between Sept. 1-10, police found a total of 1,781 violations by food delivery employees, and 468 of them were working for food delivery platforms such as www.ele.me, waimai.baidu.com and meituan.com.

Most of the violations were for using motorist lanes illegally, 208 were for violating rules on restricted roads or during restricted time periods and 196 were for running red lights, according to police.

Among the 468 violations, 125 were made by www.ele.me delivery workers, and 245 by employees of meituan.com. Police also found that 1,221 of the 1,466 delivery workers using meituan.com boxes to deliver food didn’t work for the platform.

Shenzhen police imposed a three-level punishment system for violations by food delivery employees this month.

Violators will be given a one-week suspension for their first traffic violation, a one-month suspension for the second and a year for the third.

Food delivery companies will be held liable if their employees use unlicensed or illegal e-bikes or vehicles to engage in delivery services and cause an accident. In the 10 days between Sept. 1-10, police also caught 134 violators using e-bikes that failed to meet standards stipulated by the government.

According to the regulations, e-bike riders who violate rules on restricted roads or during restricted time periods will be fined 2,000 yuan (US$300). Riders of e-bikes that fail to meet national standards will be fined 1,000 yuan. E-bike riders will be fined 500 yuan for using motor lanes, 50 yuan for going in the wrong direction and 20 yuan for running a red light.

The city reported 311 accidents involving e-bikes between January and July this year, resulting in 52 deaths and 369 injuries. Among them, four accidents, resulting in two deaths and three injuries, involved food delivery companies, according to the meeting.

By Aug. 23 this year, police had found a total of 33,459 violations made by food delivery employees, accounting for 12.1 percent of all violations made by e-bike riders.