Thailand taxi clampdown

Bangkok’s taxis were rated the world’s best value in a magazine survey in 2013, but they’re also top of the list of complaints from Bangkokians to a transport hotline that was introduced last year. The military government is now cracking down on their unscrupulous actions.

Metered taxis are only found in major centres, and outside of Bangkok are mostly used by foreigners. The metered rates are cheap, they’re air-conditioned and plentiful. In Bangkok they are noted for usually being fair, but increasingly that has changed. More and more passengers find them to be unco-operative, demanding unreasonable unmetered fairs much like those commonly experienced on Phuket and Samui.

Recently the deputy Commander of the 11th Army Circle announced they police and authorities will get tough on taxis not following the rules. There are more than 150,000 of them in Bangkok. For years there’s been a racket in Phuket, where an airport trip to Patong – some 45 minutes travel time is a fixed rate of 800 baht, three times the equivalent of a metered taxi in Bangkok. Numerous complaints over the years have yield no results in breaking what is believed to be a carefully guarded mafia circle, until the junta seized control of the country.

In Chiang Mai, all taxis operating out of the airport are organised under AoT supervision on a fixed fee that is considerably more than the metered rate to the nearby city. At Bangkok airport there is a properly monitored queuing system and although tourists and travellers have to pay a 50 baht processing fee, they can rely on disciplined metered services.

But increasingly, locals and expats in Bangkok find that taxis caught from the street will refuse to carry a passenger if the destination is disliked by them, usually due to traffic pressures, or else demand an higher off-meter fee. This is illegal and the clampdown will now result in 1,000 baht fines.

Notorious spots where taxis are in demand, such as Future Park Rangsit, Yaowaraj road, Mor Chit bus terminal, Central World shopping mall, Mahboonkrong shopping mall, Platinum mall, Nana, or the Grand Palace, will come under particular vigilance from law enforcement.

The hotline for reporting an errant taxi is 1584.

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