THE executives of an app-based car hailing company will be held accountable and fixed with criminal responsibility if incidents, like the rape and murder of a customer, happen in Shenzhen.

The remarks were made by representatives from Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau at a face-to-face meeting with the executives of the Shenzhen company of Didi Chuxing, the largest app-based car hailing company in China, after a 20-year-old woman in Zhejiang was raped and killed by a Didi driver.

The authorities, including the public security bureau and transport commission, convened the meeting to order Didi to rectify the irregularities of its business operations, such as dispatching vehicles without business permits issued by transport commission for taxi-hailing orders.

Data released by the Shenzhen traffic police bureau showed that the number of app-based cabs registered with police was 34,064. The vehicles were involved in 598 traffic accidents and 104,585 traffic violations. The number of violations is twice that made by traditional cabs and the number of traffic accidents is 1.23 times more than traditional cabs.

The data released by the police criminal investigation department showed Didi drivers had been involved in 33 criminal cases so far this year. The cases include two robberies and one molestation by Didi drivers.

Li Huiming, from the intelligence department of the Shenzhen traffic police suggested including Didi and other app-based service platforms in Shenzhen in the data system for monitoring. Didi should cooperate with police on background checks to disqualify those with a criminal history, such as drunk and drugged driving. Xie Weiqun, with the criminal investigation department, required that Didi review its existing management mode, tighten monitoring during operation, especially on those vehicles showing abnormal routes, and improve information sharing with police departments and the connection with the police’s 110 platform.

Weng Xinggen, director of the transport section of the Guangdong Provincial Transport Department, said yesterday on a phone-in program that Didi has rejected to share operation data with authorities, which hampers law enforcement. Didi has operation licenses in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou and Zhongshan, and any operation in other parts of Guangdong is illegal, Weng said.  (Han Ximin)