News Analysis
PHUKET: The journey on Phuket to find a solution for public transport continues to turn up blind alleys as tuk-tuk and taxi drivers hold out their hands for special treatment and high fares.
Efforts yesterday were made to begin reforms aimed at making Kata-Karon a role-model for the effective transformation of the tuk-tuk and taxi business on Phuket.
We don't like the chances of change. To be frank, the economics still don't stand close scrutiny. In fact, they don't even deserve a second glance.
This exercise in delicate compromise, like a tuk-tuk with a couple of flat tyres, is a hopeless way of travelling towards the future.
Kata-Karon, along with all of Phuket, simply has too many tuk-tuks and taxis, both legal and illegal.
Driver groups all over Phuket form local community monopolies that protect jobs and income. But these local monopolies fail to take account of the broader picture - the need for Phuket to compete with other holiday destinations.
Just as importantly, the present ''jobs for the boys'' system prevents a proper public transport network being introduced.
A network would benefit not just tourists, but all Thai residents as well.
Perhaps the most pertinent figures on the scale of the problem came yesterday from Somchai Sinlapanon, president of the Kata-Karon Hotels Association.
He said that years ago, back when the association was formed, Kata-Karon had 3000 hotel rooms, 36 longtail boats and 56 tuk-tuks.
Today the region has grown to contain 10,000 rooms. It still has 36 longtail boats. But the number of tuk-tuks and taxis has grown to more than 600, and that figure continues to grow.
He could have added that there is no coordination with other tuk-tuk and taxi groups on Phuket, no sensible standard for quality of vehicles, no way of knowing even whether a driver has a licence.
Regulation and enforcement are not passengers here.
Pornthep Chamkhao, leader of the Karon-Kata Tuk-Tuk Association, largest of the area's two groups, admitted yesterday that he and his members did not welcome controls of any kind.
And his group, dedicated to providing local jobs, aims to keep its membership growing, despite the oversupply and the narrow Kata-Karon streets that make maintaining many taxi and tuk-tuk ranks difficult.
Next week, a special Phuket committee will begin talking to Kata-Karon drivers rank by rank in an effort to persuade them that improved standards will provide them with a better long-term future.
The aim is to eventually issue stickers that will ensure that the drivers and their vehicles at least meet improved standards of dress and behavior.
Any plan that helps to improve standards is good. But even if it helps, this proposal will not come within kilometres of getting Phuket to its rightful destination in the 21st century.
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They get one fare a day at an inflated price of 500thb and afterwards they can relax and gamble and drink with their friends.
No wonder there's so many of them and they are so protective of their status.
Posted by Peter Tudders on August 30, 2011 22:59