392 vehicles confiscated in campaign

Authorities seized 392 unlicensed passenger vehicles in March, the first month of the three-month crackdown on the illicit passenger transportation business, local media reported Thursday.

The crackdown has been a joint effort by the city's traffic police, public security bureaus and the Law Enforcement Department of the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority, according to a report in the Xinmin Evening News.

The authorities focused their efforts on 114 locations, including metro stations such as Lujiazui and People's Square stations, and hospitals such as Changhai and Xinhua hospitals, said Chen Zhaohui, a press officer with the Law Enforcement Department of the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority. The seized vehicles included 59 clone taxis. Police slapped drivers with fines ranging from 10,000 yuan ($1,611) to 50,000 yuan.

The authorities detained 109 drivers in the crackdown. Jing'an police held one driver in criminal detention for 30 days for running a clone taxi, according to a press release from the Law Enforcement Department.

The driver, surnamed Huang, was caught on March 26 driving a taxi set up to look like a licensed cab from Dazhong Taxi Co. Huang had bought the vehicle for 18,000 yuan. The seller sold him everything he needed to operate a clone taxi, including a fare meter and a Dazhong Taxi driver uniform.