Thousands of drivers working for popular car-hailing apps in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen have been found to have criminal records, including drug offences.

On Tuesday, the city’s municipal transport committee summoned executives from five major car-hailing apps in the country. The authorities accused the apps of being lax in crosschecking the backgrounds of drivers.

Locate your position, choose a destination, and within minutes, a car arrives to pick you up. Most consumers must never get tired of the convenience of the many car-hailing and car-sharing apps now available.

However, recently, the top five taxi-hailing app companies in China were called in by authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen over the lax process of screening drivers.

Thousands of drivers working for these apps have been found to have criminal records, and some even had drug offences. An initial inspection by Shenzhen's public security department showed that among the pool of Shenzhen's app drivers, 1,425 had a criminal history of drug use, while 1,661 had significant criminal records.

One driver was mentally ill, and at least one other was a registered psychiatric patient with a history of violent public behavior. China is now drawing up rules to regulate the booming ride-hailing industry, and pledged to prioritize the security of consumers.

"We are now working on drafting the management regulation of the taxis, and we will also take the requirements of the taxi-hailing companies into consideration. As of now, we still in the process of discussion," said Yu Li from Passenger Transport Management Bureau.

The case has sparked hot debate on Chinese social media...with a large number of netizens saying they don't feel uncomfortable being ferried around town by a driver with a criminal record.

However, others think it's fine to give convicts a second opportunity to make a living. One user on Weibo said "I don't think they are wrong to earn money by themselves. as long as they made amends and have turned their lives around, they should be respected"

"I don't think they are wrong to earn money by themselves. as long as they made amends and have turned their lives around, they should be respected"--netizen

Needless to say, online ride-hailing services are surely of immense benefit for consumers. But perhaps there's still some way to go to ensure these apps are both legal and safe.