First Detection of Illegal Operation of 'Unlicensed Taxi' Due to Drunk Driving and Accumulated Penalty Points... Sent to Prosecution

Seoul Traffic Investigation Police Unit Analyzes GPS Driving Data, Catches 5 on Site for Illegal Activities
3 Illegally Operating Earned Over 90 Million Won in Unlawful Profits

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Five individual taxi drivers who continued illegal operations despite having their taxi business licenses revoked due to drunk driving and accumulation of penalty points have been caught. According to the Passenger Transport Service Act, they were required to return their vehicle registration certificates and license plates, but they failed to comply and continued illegal operations.

On the 17th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Traffic Investigation Police Unit announced that it had detected five individual taxi drivers who continued operating taxis despite license revocation for the first time, and referred three of them who conducted illegal business to the prosecution with an indictment opinion. Four of them had their licenses revoked due to drunk driving, and one due to penalty point accumulation. The three referred to the prosecution had continued operations, conducting 11,620 cases of unlicensed paid operations and earning approximately 90 million KRW in illegal profits.

The remaining two maintained the taxi exterior but continuously drove the vehicles as private cars. All admitted to unqualified illegal operations, and the Seoul Traffic Investigation Police Unit requested administrative action against the two at the district office. Notably, one individual, whose driver's license was revoked due to drunk driving as well as the taxi license, continued to operate the vehicle, and police plan to file a criminal complaint as well.

Passengers who ride in unlicensed operating vehicles may not receive insurance benefits in case of accidents, leading to physical and material harm to citizens. The Seoul Traffic Investigation Police Unit is actively conducting crackdowns to prevent such situations in advance.

The Seoul Traffic Investigation Police Unit confirmed through the city’s taxi information system that taxis with revoked licenses were operating on the roads and conducted systematic investigations to catch them on site. They analyzed GPS operation data of the vehicles to identify main operating locations and gathered evidence of illegal operation and business activities by boarding the taxis disguised as passengers.

The Seoul Traffic Investigation Police Unit plans to establish a continuous crackdown system targeting unqualified individual taxi operators, those with revoked taxi driver qualifications, and operators under partial business suspension to eradicate illegal activities. They will strengthen monitoring by comprehensively analyzing 120 Dasan Call Center complaint data and taxi operation information, and conduct intensive crackdowns twice a year.

Baek Ho, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Urban Transportation Office, said, “Unqualified taxi operations not only threaten citizens’ safety but also seriously undermine trust in the taxi transportation business. We will do our best to establish passenger transport order through active and strict crackdowns and provide taxi services that anyone can use with confidence.”