PHUKET: Representatives of 87 tuk-tuk drivers who want to be given the right to operate legally will meet with the Phuket Governor and the Director of the Land Transport Department on Monday.
The drivers - harassed by their legal competitors and Patong police - want to be made legitimate. They bought the vehicles expecting that becoming legitimate would be a formality.
What's more, because there is no parking space in Patong's overburdened streets, they also want to be given their own queue or even two queues somewhere on the holiday island.
The fuss highlights yet again Phuket's most important infrastructure issue - a lack of proper provision for low-cost public transport.
Taxis and tuk-tuks on Phuket have abused their power in the same way unions in the West once wielded and abused their monopoly power.
The result: a turn-off for tourism and a massive burden for residents. Many locals have to buy motorcycles or cars because local taxis and tuk-tuks are too expensive.
Many tourists go home complaining about tuk-tuk and taxi fares, and sometimes, the manners of the drivers are also extreme.
It really is time for realistic solutions to the excessive number of taxis and tuk-tuks operating on the island, charging fares that are at present about six times more expensive than those in Bangkok.
The Land Transport Department also has to deal with the 306 meter taxi drivers at Phuket International Airport. They say that because the number of meter taxis has grown, the number of trips they get each day has dropped.
They say that tourists who want to use meter taxis from the airport are also lower in number, and that the concept of people hailing taxis around the island just isn't working.
Like the illegal tuk-tuk drivers, they want allocated parking spaces around Phuket to make their jobs easier and their incomes more secure.
And there's the core problem: everyone who drives a taxi or a tuk-tuk on Phuket expects to make a reasonable income, even if they are limited to two or three fares a day.
The jaws of taxi drivers everywhere else in the world would drop at the concept of taxi drivers making a reasonable living from two or three or maybe four fares a day. Yet that's what taxi and tuk-tuk drivers manage on Phuket.
From next week, the Army will begin looking at the taxis and the tuk-tuks on Phuket.
Phuket Land Transport Department chief Teerayuth Prasertpon told Phuketwan yesterday what he has already told the airport meter taxi drivers - you will need to talk to the Army because the directive to encourage more meter taxis at Phuket International Airport came from the military government's National Council for Peace and Order.
The time really has come for the taxi and tuk-tuk drivers of Phuket to join the rest of the world, a world where people are usually paid a reasonable income for a reasonable day's work.
To undo all the damage done to Phuket's public transport system by decades of pandering to a small, powerful minority, the Army needs a game plan that reduces the number of taxis, not increases them every time a young Phuket man has enough money to put a deposit on a car.
Phuketwan suggests that now is the time for the Army to tell the taxi drivers that the number of taxis on Phuket is to be reduced by 15 percent a year for the next three years, and that in three years, all except the limousines and minivans should be meter taxis.
With more Chinese tourists coming on package tours and riding in buses, the future of Phuket and Phuket's taxi drivers depends on them taking a realistic approach for once to the process of adapting to the island's new economics. The days of the gravy train - make than the gravy taxi - are disappearing fast, along with passengers willing to pay rip-off fares.
The needs of the residents shouldn't be overlooked by the Army, either.
On April 9, Chiang Mai Governor Suriya Prasatbuntitya launched a new airport minivan shuttle service for travelers.
Twenty minivans are now offering two routes, transferring people from Chiang Mai airport to hotels. The cost is 40 baht per person and the buses leave from the airport every half hour, 7am to 9pm.
If the Army is serious about solving Phuket's transport problems, cutting the number of taxis and tuk-tuks is a good place to start.
The drivers - harassed by their legal competitors and Patong police - want to be made legitimate. They bought the vehicles expecting that becoming legitimate would be a formality.
What's more, because there is no parking space in Patong's overburdened streets, they also want to be given their own queue or even two queues somewhere on the holiday island.
The fuss highlights yet again Phuket's most important infrastructure issue - a lack of proper provision for low-cost public transport.
Taxis and tuk-tuks on Phuket have abused their power in the same way unions in the West once wielded and abused their monopoly power.
The result: a turn-off for tourism and a massive burden for residents. Many locals have to buy motorcycles or cars because local taxis and tuk-tuks are too expensive.
Many tourists go home complaining about tuk-tuk and taxi fares, and sometimes, the manners of the drivers are also extreme.
It really is time for realistic solutions to the excessive number of taxis and tuk-tuks operating on the island, charging fares that are at present about six times more expensive than those in Bangkok.
The Land Transport Department also has to deal with the 306 meter taxi drivers at Phuket International Airport. They say that because the number of meter taxis has grown, the number of trips they get each day has dropped.
They say that tourists who want to use meter taxis from the airport are also lower in number, and that the concept of people hailing taxis around the island just isn't working.
Like the illegal tuk-tuk drivers, they want allocated parking spaces around Phuket to make their jobs easier and their incomes more secure.
And there's the core problem: everyone who drives a taxi or a tuk-tuk on Phuket expects to make a reasonable income, even if they are limited to two or three fares a day.
The jaws of taxi drivers everywhere else in the world would drop at the concept of taxi drivers making a reasonable living from two or three or maybe four fares a day. Yet that's what taxi and tuk-tuk drivers manage on Phuket.
From next week, the Army will begin looking at the taxis and the tuk-tuks on Phuket.
Phuket Land Transport Department chief Teerayuth Prasertpon told Phuketwan yesterday what he has already told the airport meter taxi drivers - you will need to talk to the Army because the directive to encourage more meter taxis at Phuket International Airport came from the military government's National Council for Peace and Order.
The time really has come for the taxi and tuk-tuk drivers of Phuket to join the rest of the world, a world where people are usually paid a reasonable income for a reasonable day's work.
To undo all the damage done to Phuket's public transport system by decades of pandering to a small, powerful minority, the Army needs a game plan that reduces the number of taxis, not increases them every time a young Phuket man has enough money to put a deposit on a car.
Phuketwan suggests that now is the time for the Army to tell the taxi drivers that the number of taxis on Phuket is to be reduced by 15 percent a year for the next three years, and that in three years, all except the limousines and minivans should be meter taxis.
With more Chinese tourists coming on package tours and riding in buses, the future of Phuket and Phuket's taxi drivers depends on them taking a realistic approach for once to the process of adapting to the island's new economics. The days of the gravy train - make than the gravy taxi - are disappearing fast, along with passengers willing to pay rip-off fares.
The needs of the residents shouldn't be overlooked by the Army, either.
On April 9, Chiang Mai Governor Suriya Prasatbuntitya launched a new airport minivan shuttle service for travelers.
Twenty minivans are now offering two routes, transferring people from Chiang Mai airport to hotels. The cost is 40 baht per person and the buses leave from the airport every half hour, 7am to 9pm.
If the Army is serious about solving Phuket's transport problems, cutting the number of taxis and tuk-tuks is a good place to start.
It would be very difficult to disagree with anything written here.
However since the solution relies on logic and common sense - neither the strength of locals on Phuket, I'd be very (positively) surprised if it was implemented.
Posted by Herbert on May 9, 2015 16:56