Didi’s plan to bring more than 3,000 new bikes from its own brand Qingju Bike to its home turf, Beijing, was thwarted by the capital’s transport authority. The Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation (BMCT) gave Didi a one-day ultimatum today to remove all newly added bikes.
The company failed to notify BMCT before putting new bikes on the street, a serious violation of the city’s bike-sharing regulations. Representatives from the company were summoned by BMCT on Thursday morning, according to a statement posted on BMCT’s official Weibo channel.
Didi, the ride-hailing giant, launched its own bike-sharing brand Qingju Bike in January 2018. Qingju Bike had a similar problem in Shenzhen last year. It was asked to remove bikes just one day after offloading them in the city.
In Beijing, BMCT asked Didi to recycle all the new bikes before Friday noon, or else have them confiscated. The capital’s local transport authority just this week launched a one-month campaign vowing to crack down on chaotic shared-bike parking.