Time's up for delivery companies

Traffic police are to urge food delivery businesses to cancel promised delivery times. Currently, deliverymen face a deduction in pay if they are late.

“This rule is the fundamental reason why there are so many traffic offenses involving deliverymen,” said Chen Zhen, vice director of Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

Police said the introduction of a points system similar to that for motorists and a numbering system which enables them to quickly access employment information will gradually cover all delivery businesses. Currently they encompass only a few leading companies.

Xing Peiyi, head of Shanghai traffic police, said one problem in catching offenders was that many worked part-time and were not under contract. 

“We will ask the companies to establish certain rules when they hire part-time deliverymen and block frequent traffic offenders,” he said.

There will also be a blacklist of people who will not be able to work in the delivery business.

Xing said “digital plates” being trialed in Xuhui and Putuo districts will be introduced to other districts in future. The plates have chips that can be detected by police radar. He said the trials so far had been successful.

“We will use the technology to mainly crack down on the offenses of running red lights and using a wrong lane,” Xing said.

It’s estimated that Shanghai has around 19 million e-bikes.

Earlier this year, the police launched a campaign targeting pedestrians and users of non-motor vehicles, mainly e-bikes.

Together with their colleagues from other departments, traffic police have been carrying out weekend crackdowns at about 2,500 intersections around the city.