Leading the protest was Tinnakorn Chommuang, President of the Phuket Provincial Taxi Operators Association., joined by Sulaimarn Kaewngamdee.
The men claimed to have brought more than 3,500 taxi vehicles to Provincial Hall to highlight their solidarity ‒ despite Phuket officials only last Thursday (Dec 14) reporting 2,429 hire vehicles legally registered in the province.
According to the the taxi drivers, they came to Provincial Hall to “demand fairness in the profession from the Department of Land Transport office in Phuket Province [Phuket Land Transport Office, or ‘PLTO’] and related agencies after encountering problems with illegal vehicles being used to transport passengers, such as RY18 vehicles [app taxis]”.
The drivers also highlighted the problem of foreigners transporting tourists by claiming to be friends or family.
The drivers today said their complaints to the Governor’s office, Phuket officials and police have been ignored, despite repeated reports of their grievances being heard time and again. (See ‘Taxi drivers asked to ’control their emotions’ regarding app taxis’)
The drivers now want PLTO Chief Adcha Buachan, who has consistently supported Phuket’s taxi cartels through crackdowns on any taxi drivers except those who work for ‘co-operatives’ on the island ‒ to make a direct request to the Director-General of the Department of Land Transport to ask for help in solving “this problem”.
The group said they want Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat to order an immediate “sweep and suppression” of illegal taxis.
The drivers also called for officials to enforce taxi app cars to clearly feature the government-issued stickers identifying the vehicle as an app taxi ‒ a requirement already endorsed and enforced by law.
The drivers were told that Governor Sophon had already ordered the crackdown on illegal taxis.
By amazing coincidence, just before 8:30pm last night, the PLTO reported they were already cracking down on illegal taxis by targeting taxi app drivers.
Mr Sulaimarn said that he is not opposed to app taxis, of which he said there were already more than 2,000 on the island, “but what is unacceptable is RY18 [app taxis] from other provinces or the use of pickup trucks registered as RY18 taxis coming to pick up passengers.
“This includes ‘black plate cars’ [private vehicles used as taxis] as well as drivers given permission to work as taxi app driversIs being not properly dressed.
“While the cars are legal, they are subject to intense scrutiny. Therefore, I would like to ask for justice for the operators of yellow licence plates, green licence plates and tuk-tuks for orderliness to reduce conflict as well as reducing traffic jams,” Mr Sulaimarn said.
The protest and demands today come less than two days after a green plate taxi sped through a red light and struck a motorbike rider, leaving the rider, 28-year-old Ukrainian Artur Kostenko, seriously injured.
An appeal has been set up on the Telegram platform to receive donations to help pay for his medical bills. (See report by The Phuket News’ Russian-language sister newspaper Novosti Phuketa here.)
The PLTO under Adcha Buachan has yet to explain what action is to be taken against the green plate driver for speeding through the red light to cause the accident.
The PLTO under Adcha Buachan also has yet to make any public comment or explain what punishment, if any, will be meted out to the two green plate taxi drivers who violently assaulted a Grab taxi driver at Bang Tao by beating him with a piece of wood and leaving the 25-year-old Grab driver in hospital with a punctured lung.
The protest by Phuket’s taxi cartel drivers, and the inaction by officials, including the PLTO and Adcha Buachan, to prevent violent attacks by Phuket’s taxi thugs, comes while Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is on Phuket for a three-day holiday with family.