UPDATE
Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha today ordered Thalang district officials and Thalang police to investigate claims that local taxi drivers had set up a beach road checkpoint.
Original Report
PHUKET: Local taxi drivers at a Phuket beach resort township have set up a checkpoint on a road and will only allow vehicles with vouchers or local taxis to carry tourists in and out, Phuketwan has learned.
The latest monopoly move by Phuket's taxi and tuk-tuk drivers occurs at Nai Thon, a less well known beach not far from Phuket International Airport.
A man who went to a resort in Nai Thon and picked up a Russian friend was stopped at the checkpoint and told that he could not carry his friend any further, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Phuketwan.
He later learned that all vehicles that enter resorts along Nai Thon's beach road were stopped and checked, except for local taxis.
''It doesn't matter if the man is your friend,'' the man was told by a local taxi driver at the checkpoint. ''If you do not have a voucher or you are not a local taxi, we will not let you pick up a tourist.''
Phuket's Transport Director, Terayout Prasertpholl, said today that he would investigate the man's allegations immediately.
Local Phuket taxis - often no more than personal cars driven by people who want to make easy money - hold an iron grip on transport to and from most resorts on Phuket, blockading those resorts where managements do not go along with their wishes.
Fares charged by taxis and tuk-tuks on Phuket are generally at least six times those charged in Bangkok.
In one recent incident, a tour vehicle driver was attacked and beaten by local drivers outside a resort in Kamala, south of Nai Thon, when he failed to produce a voucher.
The two Australian tourists in the vehicle at the time became shocked onlookers as the driver was punched and the windscreen of his car broken with an iron bar.
UPDATE A man has told of picking up a friend from a Phuket resort then being stopped at a checkpoint by local taxi drivers who demanded that the tourist leave the vehicle.
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This is an illegal activity. Why are the police not arresting/fining those breaking the law? Why are automobiles without commercial license plates and registered as public transport allowed to provide taxi services?
Posted by Paoa on November 1, 2011 12:34