At a packed meeting in the Karon Municipality building, held mainly to allow both sides to air their views on the situation, some speakers urged an immediate return to something like the old system of taxi groups with exclusive territories.
Pol Col Natthapakin Kwanchaiyaphruk of Karon Police Station suggested that, “to keep things in order”, all taxi drivers should be registered as being stationed at a particular point. No more than two taxis should be allowed at any one point, and only they should be allowed to pick up passengers at that point. These points would, he suggested be a few hundred metres apart.
The police and Governor Maitri Inthusut also backed calls for hotels to allow taxi drivers to set up stands on their premises – despite the police and municipal drive to destroy all illegal taxi stands.
The hotels, however, were generally silent. A representative of Club Med complained that in the past the taxi drivers had tried to control things. When the resort allowed them to set up on its land, the leader of the taxi group had understood the agreed conditions, but the others in the group did not follow them.
Teerayut Prasertpol from the Phuket Provincial Transportation Office said that taxis should be able to pick up passengers in other parts of the island.
“For example, a taxi driver coming [to Karon] from the airport should be able to pick up another passenger to take back to the airport, so that he does not waste fuel on a journey with no passenger.”
Gov Maitri offered a number of points for consideration:
-
Make everything systematic, by having detailed rules, decreasing the power of “influential people”, increasing freedom for everyone else.
-
He also suggested conducting a survey of taxi drivers and their families to establish their income levels and whether they need government help to get jobs out of the taxi business.
-
Returning to the public all public land appropriated by taxis. (This has already been achieved in large measure by the wholesale demolition of taxi stands.)
-
Increase the quality of the island’s taxi services to international standards.
-
Constant and strict enforcement of the law.
-
Supporting taxis to convert to other way of doing business, such as becoming meter taxis.
-
Supporting other forms of public transport.
It is expected that more meetings will be held to try to work out compromises and find alternatives to the existing corrupt, inefficient and sometimes violent system.