"Operation of Tada Franchise Taxi Before Obtaining Driver Qualification" Approved by ICT Regulatory Sandbox

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] In the future, drivers who have not yet obtained taxi driver qualifications will be able to operate ‘Tada Light’ franchise taxis. The non-face-to-face mobile subscription service of SK Telecom, the No. 1 mobile carrier, will also become available.

On the 18th, the Ministry of Science and ICT held the ‘13th New Technology and Service Deliberation Committee’ in writing and reviewed a total of five regulatory sandbox projects, approving three demonstration exceptions, two temporary permits, and one change in designation conditions for a demonstration exception project. This agenda was swiftly approved as it was the same or similar to the projects processed in September.

First, the committee granted a temporary permit for the GPS-based app meter service applied for by VCNC. This service calculates and charges driving fees based on GPS information such as time and distance, similar to the previously designated cases of Kakao Mobility and KST Mobility. Under the current Automobile Management Act, taxi meters are only regulated as electric (mechanical) devices, and there were no standards for GPS-based app meters, making their use and release impossible.

Accordingly, VCNC plans to first apply this service to 1,000 Tada Light franchise taxis in Seoul and 500 in Busan. When expanding the business to other regions, it will proceed after consultation with relevant ministries and local governments. The committee expects that this will lead to accurate fare calculation and clear interfaces to enhance driver and passenger satisfaction, reduce meter inspection costs for management agencies, and provide various mobility services combined with app meters.

The committee also granted demonstration exceptions for VCNC’s application for a franchise taxi dynamic fare system and platform-based temporary taxi driver qualification operation. These are also similar to previous designated cases.

Going forward, VCNC will be able to provide franchise taxi services that apply dynamic fares based on real-time taxi demand and supply according to time, destination, and driving distance, and recommend taxi waiting areas. Additionally, those who wish to engage in taxi driving work can temporarily operate franchise taxis before obtaining taxi driver qualifications.

However, the committee limited this to 1,000 taxis in the Seoul area, conditional on prior consultation with local governments and compliance with additional conditions such as advance notice of the dynamic fare system. Temporary taxi driver qualifications are also limited to 1,000 people in Seoul, with prerequisites including ▲ registration of the worker in the Korea Transportation Safety Authority’s transport worker management system and prior criminal background checks, ▲ completion of brand taxi education and posting of the transport worker certificate within the brand taxi, ▲ issuance limited to once per person, and acquisition of formal taxi driver qualifications within the restriction period.

SK Telecom’s application for a non-face-to-face mobile subscription service also received a temporary permit. Under the current Telecommunications Business Act, only certified electronic signatures, credit cards, and mobile phone text authentication were allowed as identity verification methods for non-face-to-face subscriptions. With this temporary permit, until the revision of the enforcement decree, convenient non-face-to-face activation will be possible using multi-factor authentication technologies based on apps like PASS.

It is expected that this will improve subscription convenience through simple identity verification and prevent illegal customer information leakage and user damage during offline activation.

The shared kitchen service applied for by Widaehan Sangsa also received a demonstration exception. This allows multiple restaurant entrepreneurs to rent and share kitchens and related facilities (Nanuda Kitchen). The demonstration scope is limited to ‘Nanuda Kitchen Dadong and Seongsu branches,’ but if additional branches are established, the same exception will be applied under consultation with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, limited to 100 branches. Additionally, to ensure safe food hygiene management, conditions include appointing and operating a separate hygiene management officer and complying with the ‘Shared Kitchen Operation Guidelines’ provided by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Furthermore, the committee handled a change request for the temporary permit conditions of the remote power management system for unmanned base stations applied for by T-P Factory. The main point is to expand the application scope of the remote power management system from telecom unmanned base stations to places where public access is prohibited or restricted by relevant laws. This service was approved by temporary permit at the 5th Deliberation Committee held in August last year and started in November of the same year.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that since the ICT regulatory sandbox system was implemented in January last year, a total of 233 projects have been received, with 181 processed so far. These include 102 rapid processing cases, 32 temporary permits (4 proactive administration cases), and 47 demonstration exceptions (5 proactive administration cases).

Among the total 79 designated projects for temporary permits (32) and demonstration exceptions (47), 39 new technologies and services have been launched so far. The remaining 40 projects are also preparing for launch.

The five projects processed on this day are the same or similar to those approved in previous deliberation committees, and are expected to enable rapid demonstration and launch in the market.

Kim Jung-won, Director of the Information and Communication Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “For identical or similar application projects, we will support swift deliberation,” and added, “We will work harder in cooperation with related ministries to ensure that designated projects are quickly launched in the market and lead to final regulatory improvements.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.