Beijing urges taxi passengers to use digital payment

Taxi drivers in Beijing have been asked by the transport authority to register passengers' information into a specific mobile platform for epidemic control and prevention purpose if the customer pays for the trip by cash, said the Beijing's transport commission recently.

In order to reduce the infection risks, passengers are encouraged to pay the fare by digital payment methods, according to a report by Beijing Daily on Monday.

According to the recently published regulations on the taxi industry for COVID-19 control and prevention, online car-hailing vehicles and taxies should not enter into the medium or high risk areas outside of Beijing.

Customers should sit on the passenger seat. Both the drivers and passengers should wear masks during the whole trip, added the regulation.

New drivers should show effective negative nucleic acid testing results within seven days.

Previously, three confirmed cases reported in Beijing were drivers for car-hailing apps.

The online car-hailing app Huaxiaozhu whose drivers were confirmed of COVID-19 last week announced on Wednesday that it has suspended the service for one week in the city of Beijing to organize its drivers to get nucleic acid tests.

By 11pm Sunday, 27,788 drivers working with Huaxiaozhu had received the tests and 17,066 of them got the results with no positive cases reported, according to the company.

The company said it will complete the tests for all its drivers by Tuesday and drivers who fail to take the tests will not be able to get trip orders via the app.