Shanghai Daily News

A working card for a local bus company is currently being auctioned online for 430 yuan (US$52) and has attracted much interest yet no buyer.

The seller who called herself "one-way street" said the working card provides free transport when taking buses belonging to Shanghai Bashi Industrial (Group) Co Ltd and Dazhong Transportation (Group) Co Ltd.

Bashi and Dazhong are the two biggest bus groups in the city.

"One-way street" claimed she was a Dazhong Group employee. "I once couldn't find my working card. After the company issued me a new one, I found the lost card," she said.

She then put a selling post up on one of China's biggest e-business Website several days ago.

To date, 420 people had visited the Web page and a lot of people had shown interest.

According to "One-way street," the working card doesn't have a photo. "Anyone can use it immediately after you buy it," she said.

He Fang, Bashi Group spokesman, said yesterday at a news conference that the group will ask every employee to buy the ticket beginning from next year.

Local bus company employees usually don't buy tickets when taking buses by showing their working cards, a routine practice in bus companies. There are some people who have already left the company taking advantage of loopholes. What's more, He pointed out that fake working cards had appeared in the city.

He said measures must be taken to better the company's management and to purify the industrial atmosphere.

Elsewhere, some uniforms of the bus companies were also put up for sale on the Website.

With the uniform, a person usually doesn't need to show his working card and again, travels free of charge.

Bashi Group was the first of the companies to stop this routine. But He said the group will offer employees 120 yuan monthly for transport allowance.

Lawyer Wu Dong said the working card wasn't transferable.

"The card shows your identity," said Wu. "It can't be purchased or sold. Otherwise you violate the law."