Tada to end van-hailing service in April

After the National Assembly passed a controversial bill last week that dealt a severe blow to ride-hailing service Tada, service operator VCNC has decided to “indefinitely terminate” the service on April 10, according to the company on Thursday. 

VCNC said that it has requested 30 percent of its 20 employees resign, following the company’s plan to downsize the workforce due to the suspension of the service. 

On Friday last week, Korean lawmakers voted to pass the revision of the transportation law, in an attempt to put an end to the conflict between the service operator and taxi companies prior to the local election in April. 

According to the amendment, ride-hailing companies will only be able to use rental vans with 11-15 seats at limited pickup points at air or sea ports. 

The bill came a month after the Seoul court ruled in favor of the ride-hailing service to operate freely. 

Although the bill will take effect one year after it is proclaimed into law with a six-month grace period, VCNC said CEO Park Jae-wook gave notice to Tada drivers on Wednesday that the company will terminate its main service Tada Basic from April 10. 

According to VCNC, Park told drivers that it is practically “impossible” to operate the service over the next 1 1/2 years, adding that investors in Tada have also stopped investments due to “distrust of South Korean government and parliament.”

Despite some tens of billions of won in losses, VCNC said it vows to “pay the rest of the salary and compensate each driver” over the next month. 

Launched in October 2018, Tada has garnered an accumulated 1.7 million registered users on the app, while outsourced Tada drivers number around 12,000. 

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)