The new deal was just one of several new measures announced by Seatran Travel Co Ltd Managing Director Pornrat Tanpaiboon at a meeting at Ratsada Pier.
The new measures come into effect today (Dec 1), Ms Pornrat said.
Present at the meeting were Pracha Asawatheera, Manager of the Upper Southern Region office of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA, along with representatives of the Tourist Police, the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO), Phuket City Police, Phuket Immigration Office, the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (PPAO) and Ratsada Municipality ‒ and the Phuket branch of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), which serves as the political arm of the Thai military, noted an official report of the meeting.
“Those involved join in listening,” said the report.
Of note, despite the PLTO, currently under direction by PLTO Chief Adcha Buachan, being the government agency for regulating all public transport on the island, Ms Pornrat yesterday was left to explain the new deal for using taxis at Ratsada Pier to the public.
The explanation given by the official report was that Seatran has operated the pier under a concession from the PPAO since 2020.
In the hope of disguising the new measures for regulating taxis at the pier, Ms Pornrat was tasked with explaining the the new measures were part of Seatran “using technology in helping to solve problems and organise the entry and exit of the pier to be convenient”.
The rollout of new technology was deemed fit as part of the ‘Smart Pier’ project, Ms Pornrat said.
Ratsada Pier, also known by its signed name ‘Rassada Harbour’, is a very busy port, Ms Pornrat said.
“During the low season there are 2,000 passengers per day, and during the high season there are 3,000-4,000 passengers per day,” she noted.
Among the ‘new technology’ coming into effect today to help streamline operations with passengers at the pier are automated turnstiles, card payment systems and face-detection CCTV to help law enforcement identify suspects, Ms Pornrat explained.
‘Digital technology’ will also now be used to help streamline taxi operations at the pier, Ms Pornrat added.
“It will be used to verify the correctness of registration as a public vehicle for hire, the sequencing for picking up and dropping off passengers by public hire vehicles and ‘setting appropriate fare rates’ [sic],” she said.
“Ratsada Pier understands the local taxi business. Therefore, taxi queue arrangements are being made to allow local taxi operators [‘green plate’ taxi drivers from the local co-operative] to receive queues to serve customers accounting for 70% of the total taxi queue,” Ms Pornrat said.
Of note, as plainly exposed during previous taxi driver incidents at the pier, “local taxi drivers” is the term used to politely refer to the ‘green plate’ taxi drivers working as a co-operative under a concession with Seatran for the drivers to provide taxi services to passengers at Ratsada Pier.
The co-operative has previously been called ‘mafia’ by members of the public, a label that the local taxi drivers deny.
Police tend to view any such problems with local taxi drivers as the result of a ’misunderstanding’.
However, nearly in recognition of that fact, Ms Pornrat yesterday said, “Creating this system will solve various problems, including the huge price differences between taxi app drivers with taxi queue drivers, conflicts caused by taxi app drivers being blocked, and delays and disorderly entry and exit.”
A fee will be levied on all taxis picking up passengers, mainly tourists, from the pier, Ms Pornat added.
Levying a fee on all taxi drivers will force taxi app drivers to charge fares more in line with those charged by the local taxi co-op drivers, she explained.
How that was possible unless local taxi co-op drivers were not charged the fee was not explained.
“A system will be used to manage entry and exit from the pier. This will reduce payment time to make it quicker and more convenient by using a card, and a system for customers to queue up to call a taxi by themselves will also be rolled out,” Ms Pornrat said.
“Initially, there are approximately 200 taxis registered to use the system, which are currently being checked for qualifications to see if they are the correct vehicles as required by law,” she added.
Another measure being introduced, this one related to safety, was that road barriers will be installed to prevent customers from dragging their bags out to the passenger side of the vehicle, Ms Pornrat noted.