The order came in response to complaints by a leader of the registered tuk-tuk drivers in Patong, Sakol Srisompoch, who visited Provincial Hall for talks to push once again for official action against the growing number of black tuk-tuks.
Mr Sakol complained, “There are many illegal tuk-tuks at both ends of Bangla Rd. How come officials cannot see them, even though there are police boxes at both ends? Sometimes the illegal tuk-tuk drivers drop passengers off right in front of the police, but the police do nothing.”
Registered tuk-tuks have yellow license plates while illegal ones have white plates.
“When I first complained here [at Provincial Hall on June 26] there were 60 to 70 illegal tuk-tuks. Now there are 100 to 200 of them.
“I would like to ask the police, ‘Are the CCTV cameras still working on Bangla Rd?’ Because sometimes tourists and tuk-tuk drivers fight with each other. I agree with your safety zone project 100 per cent, but we have illegal vehicles all around.”
V/Gov Jamroen said, “Everyone who has the power, if you see illegal tuk-tuks or taxis, please use your authority to carry out your duty. You don’t have to wait.”
The legitimate tuk-tuk drivers did not come out of the meeting unscathed, however.
Phuket Land Transport officer Jaturong Kaewkasi remarked, “In early July the Governor invited both sides, illegal and legal tuk-tuk drivers, to take part in a survey so that we could know how many tuk-tuks there are in Patong – we admit we really don’t know how many there are.
“We need to know the numbers. We want to survey opinions on both sides to see if you can stay together or not, and also to try to find room for you all to fit in.
“But we discovered that the legal tuk-tuk drivers would not cooperate with the Patong Municipality on the survey. That fact is noted in our report on the tuk-tuk survey, as presented to Gov Maitri [Intusut].”
V/Gov Jamroen said he would convene another meeting at which all data about tuk-tuks would be recorded.
He then remarked, “If people are talking about Phuket, and the conversation keeps revolving around bad taxi drivers and mafia, who is going to want to travel to Phuket? We need to get rid of all these problems.”
He added pointedly, “I tell people not to go to Patong because there is no space to park.” Patong is notorious for all public parking space being occupied by tuk-tuks and car rental businesses who aggressively defend them against any member of the public rash enough to try to use the spaces.
He also told Mr Sakol, “Fixing the tuk-tuk problem is not my only responsibility. I hope you understand.”
Mr Sakol replied, “I have one responsibility: to call for things to be set right.”
V/Gov Jamroen proposed a simple solution for Phuket’s scofflaw attitude to rules and regulations: really hefty fines for infringing rules and regulations.
“If everyone abides by the rules, everything will be alright. If someone [such as the illegal tuk-tuk drivers] does not qualify to meet the regulations, then they should do something else.
“If you want to pilot the aircraft, but you don’t have a license, how can you do it?
“I would like to see big fines used, big enough to resolve the problems by making people follow the law. You can’t enforce the motorbike helmet laws if you fine people B10. You have to get serious about fixing [the problem],” he said.