Shanghai to rate professional drivers

The municipal transportation authority will institute a rating system for professional drivers next month that can revoke their driver's licenses for poor service, the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority announced Wednesday.

The rating system aims to better regulate the city's professional drivers, which include taxi drivers, truck drivers and driving instructors.

Under the system, every driver starts off a 12-month period with 20 points. Drivers lose points for every infraction they incur, such as violating government regulations, receiving customer complaints, drawing attention from the media or failing regular inspections, said Huang Xiaoyong, a press officer from the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority.

Drivers can lose 1, 3, 4, 10 or 20 points per infraction, depending on its severity. For example, a taxi driver will lose 10 points for overcharging a passenger or refusing to provide a receipt. Refusing to take a passenger to his or her destination will cost 20 points, as long as the request was reasonable. Driving instructors can lose 10 points for taking bribes and 20 for giving lessons after drinking.

The authority will grade drivers based on how many points they have left at the end of each period. Drivers who receive a failing grade for two consecutive periods will be put on a publicly available watch list.

Drivers who fail for three straight periods will lose their professional licenses and will be prohibited from reapplying to their positions for five years.

However, the transportation authority did not disclose how many points a driver has to lose during a period to receive a failing grade.

The authority will consider a driver's past record when determining the grade each year. "Although each rating period only lasts one year, it doesn't mean drivers can shed their poor grades from the past," Huang told the Global Times.

The authority will transfer drivers to other positions if they are found to pose a threat to public safety, the Shanghai Evening Post reported.

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