The meeting, held at the Phuket Provincial Ombudsman’s Office (Damrongdharma Center) and branded as “to solve problems arising from taxi operations in Phuket Province”, was chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Anupap Rodkhwan Yodrambam.
Incredibly, the meeting discussed the issue of complaints about the Ratsada VIP Coral Tour group, which serves Ratsada Pier.
The taxi drivers were told that taxi services would be organised by the Ratsada Pier authority, a point they were told a year ago after an incident when one of the taxi co-op drivers physically stopped a fully legal taxi app driver and forced four tourists to use a co-op taxi to go to Patong.
The incident was later deemed by police to have been a “misunderstanding”, with the co-op driver of the understanding that a concession with Seatran to serve Seatran passengers at the pier empowered the co-op to have exclusive rights to serve all passengers at the pier.
The taxi driver later blasted people who called the taxi co-op “mafia”.
Yesterday, a year later, apparently that issue still remained unresolved. An official report of the meeting did not mention whether the taxi co-op drivers at Ratsada Pier were still operating under the same “misunderstanding”.
The ‘Ratsada VIP’ co-op drivers were told yesterday that Ratsada Pier would regulate parking at the busy terminal, a major jumping off point for tourists heading out to nearby islands.
Signs will be posted to clearly show where general taxis and app taxis will be allowed to serve passengers. Phuket Provincial Police and officials from the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) are to strictly enforce the arrangement, and where taxis may park and serve passengers at the pier.
Enforcement is to include cracking down on all illegal taxis at the pier, and to prevent taxi drivers from parking to block the entrance in front of the pier and nearby areas.
The Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (PPAO) is to prepare and provide the materials and equipment for organising taxis and traffic at the pier. The Phuket Provincial Police will formally request the use of such materials and report the results of their operations to the Phuket Provincial Office to process and present to the Governor of Phuket Province.
METERED TAXIS
The meeting also heard complaints by metered taxi drivers who are unable to compete with the fares charged by taxi app drivers.
The fares metered taxi drivers are allowed to charge are set by law, as are those now charged by taxi app drivers. The metered taxi drivers, if they are to abide by the law, have no choice but to be undercut by taxi app drivers.
Officials finally discussing the plight faced by metered taxi drivers follows the drivers filing a formal complaint about their situation in June.
AIRPORT TAXIS
The official report of meeting noted that also discussed was the plight of green plate taxi drivers working for the Phuket Business Car Service Cooperative Limited, who for decades had a stranglehold on serving passengers at Phuket International Airport until Grab became the first the taxi app whose drivers were allowed to pick up passengers at the airport from Sept 1.
Less than a week later, the drivers filed a formal complaint of losing income to taxi app drivers. The formal complaint was received by PPAO President Rewat Areerob on Sept 6.
At the launch of the Grab Taxi service at the airport, Phuket Airport General Manager Monchai Tanode confirmed that the concessions for co-op ‘green-plate’ taxi drivers to operate at the airport had expired in June. The co-operatives that continue to serve the airport are currently doing so under temporary four-month extensions that expire at the end of October.
The official report of the meeting yesterday gave no details of what transpired or was agreed to regarding the green-plate taxi drivers at the airport.
DATA COLLECTION ON TAXI APP DRIVERS
One development the meeting was clear about was the creation of a database by the PLTO that is to register which taxis are used to provide which taxi app services.
The aim is to collect data that somehow will be used to help develop “public transport routes”, said the official report.
Such information must be requested from the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, the official report noted.
Of note, the database as described by the official report of the meeting said that the taxi app services provided will be associated with the actual taxis used to provide the services, not the driver.