<article>Chinese ride-hailing giant <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Didi Chuxing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Didi Chuxing</a> has incurred losses of up to RMB 10.9 billion ($1.61 billion) in the fiscal year 2018 owing to heavy spend on training and recruitment of skilled drivers, 36kr <a href="https://www.36kr.com/newsflashes/155909">reported.</a></article>

Chinese ride-hailing giant <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Didi Chuxing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Didi Chuxing</a> has incurred losses of up to RMB 10.9 billion ($1.61 billion) in the fiscal year 2018 owing to heavy spend on training and recruitment of skilled drivers, 36kr <a href="https://www.36kr.com/newsflashes/155909">reported.</a>
The SoftBank-backed transportation giant spent a total of RMB 11.3 billion ($1.67 billion) on incentives to attract qualified drivers with at least three years’ of driving experience and no criminal record, the report said quoting company’s internal data.
The company faced a major operational setback following the murder of two passengers by its drivers last year. The incident resulted in shortage of rides for the company as regulators questioned its safety record and called for stricter licensing requirements on drivers.
Post increased scrutiny, Didi said, it would offer training sessions to drivers and help them legalise. In a statement in November, the company said it is looking forward to helping tens of millions of drivers to reach compliance goals, and to meet the mobility demands of users.
According to a September Reuters report, the company said it would spend 140 million yuan ($20.5 million) to improve its customer service. It also announced the setting up an 8,000-strong professional customer service team by the end of last year.
Didi, which has not turned profitable since inception, recorded a net loss of 4 billion yuan ($585 million) in the first half of last year.
&#8220;As a platform that handles hundreds of millions of rides we will continue to operate on a low margin and spend more in improving safety and service experience,&#8221; said its founder and chief executive Cheng Wei while disclosing the financials in September last year.
In his letter, Wei had said, the company processes about 2.1 million calls on an average day, including 10,000 emergency calls for help, and screens out more than 40,000 drivers a day that fail to pass its qualification test.
Also Read:
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/didi-responsible-passenger-death-105497/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Didi bears ‘unshirkable responsibility’ for carpool passenger’s death, say Chinese authorities</a>
<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/transport-ministry-didi-executives-112008/">Chinese transport ministry fines Didi executives in crackdown on illegal practices</a>

Didi spent a total of RMB 11.3 billion ($1.67 billion) on incentives to attract qualified drivers with ateast three years’ of driving experience and no criminal record.

Spend on driver training pushes China's Didi losses up to $1.61b in FY18: Report

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Spend on driver training pushes China's Didi losses up to $1.61b in FY18: Report

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