Carpool Service

[Anchor Lead]

Korea's largest mobile communication service provider Kakao has decided to postpone the official launching of its carpool service initially slated for the 17th. The government is trying to work out a deal between Kakao and taxi companies by providing various taxi promotion plans and restricting the carpool service hours.

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Kakao has postponed the official launching of its carpool service initially scheduled for the 17th. It's regarded as an indefinite postponement as Kakao Mobility, the transportation business unit of Kakao, did not announce another launching date. Meanwhile, the taxi unions have given notice of a planned large-scale protest on the 20th in which 100,000 people are expected to take part. The government and the ruling party that have been trying to mediate the conflict between the carpool service and the taxi industry have welcomed Kakao Mobility's decision. The government and the ruling party plan to reach a compromise before the taxi industry's huge demonstration on the 20th.

[Soundbite] Rep. Jeon Hyun-hee(Head, Democratic Party's Taxi-carpool TF) : "We will try to reach an agreement by doing our best to prevent any more tragedy."

The government has already proposed several industry promotion plans, such as abolishing the system in which drivers pay set amounts of money to their taxi companies and increasing the compensation for relinquishing individual taxi driver licenses. An additional plan on the table is restricting the carpool service hours. The original plan was to limit the carpool service to two times a day without time restriction, but the latest proposal has the carpool service hours capped at six hours a day. The taxi industry is apparently willing to come to the negotiation table if the service hours are limited. The government and the ruling party held a meeting at the National Assembly this morning to reach a consensus on this proposal and plan to officially announce a carpool-taxi mediation plan.