Judging people by their appearances/status/wealth, then treat them accordingly. Everything seems to be based on money. That's what's wrong with most part of the world. Seems like in Thailand it's even more so. I would never dress to impress a person so to receive decent treatment who wouldn't give me otherwise. I would not cave in to the corruption of our society by becoming part of the problem itself.

 

Sorry this is a reply to Thian's post. Somehow the quote thing messed up.

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The Thai adore mixed races, almost ALL their actors are mixed with westerners.

 

Yes the Thai also have loads of bad manners, but again: you ain't seen nothing yet in BKK, go outside of it and watch them there.

They love to hold up qeueu's, are very slow, always react at the very last moment, bring you in danger but also themselves..it's all lack of education since the word NO is very harsh for them.

 

It's not even discrimination, it's just ignorance and the mentality of living upcountry. Also many Thai feel they are much better humans than others because they are or look rich. Give them carkeys or a microphone and you'll see it.

 

But for you it's easy here, they lookup to Japanese and Westerners because we're so educated and rich of course. They think we're all millionaires.

 

The taxi's are only very bad downtown in tourist area's, in the subs they are normal and it also helps if you look rich important strong and well dressed.

Yes they drive crappy cars but you have to pick the new ones only, old ones come out at night so you can't see how poor they are. Just refuse crappy ones, they all do it

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Edited October 23, 20178 yr by Hiro357

I living in Thailand for a long time and sold my car when I quit my Job. I am lucky to say I live near a BTS station so I get around easy.

And Thailand is an online shopper paradise. Here you can get everything delivered for your daily needs. For anything else there is Uber and Grab.

38 minutes ago, Lammbock said:

I living in Thailand for a long time and sold my car when I quit my Job. I am lucky to say I live near a BTS station so I get around easy.

And Thailand is an online shopper paradise. Here you can get everything delivered for your daily needs. For anything else there is Uber and Grab.

Really? Could I have things delivered to my hotel too? Like food for instance. Could you maybe give me links please?

Edited October 23, 20178 yr by Hiro357

I think it is different when you are obviously a tourist. When you speak thai and can direct them in thai, they can't and won't try anything dodgy.

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One of my friends is a single Japanese girl living in BKK. Could you tell me why it's dangerous? We may start using other methods such as uber.

It's not unless your going to the sticks or the darkest deepest depths of huay kwang or klong toi slums. Just take a picture of the ID plaque and send it to a friend if you feel scared. Some drivers won't speak, not because they are dangerous but because they might not know any English at all.

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taxi drivers are a good barometer of the rest of the country.

On 10/22/2017 at 6:23 PM, InMyShadow said:

Nonsense. It may have been written 50 years ago but certainly is no longer valid.

Just ask the respected taxi folks in Pattaya. They will clue you up real quick

Ah, now I understand...you don't know what "mandated" means. 

 

Meters are mandated (required by law)in Bangkok (and also in Pattaya), just because they may not be used by a few in Bangkok (this thread is not about Pattaya taxis) does not mean that they are not mandated or that the law is not "valid".

On 10/22/2017 at 5:09 PM, alien365 said:

I didn't claim 40%, that was somebody else.

You're right, many apologies.

On 10/22/2017 at 7:16 AM, Hiro357 said:

Another thing I have noticed is that they never want to give you change. Sometimes they will give you however much change they feel like. They pretended they didn't understand.

Always have all kind of change for taxis (even coins) if you don't want to lose your change. 

I always give them exact what meter shows and I know that they don't like it, because there is no extra. 

They don't like to lift luggage of passengers unless they know that there is a good tip waiting for them. 

Try to load and unload by yourself if you can. 

 

On 10/21/2017 at 5:39 PM, AliasJohn said:

As you said. I must be just you. I have lived here over ten years and taken countless taxi journeys and may have had one or two that got lost. If you get a taxi from the airport there is a 50 baht surcharge. Try getting a taxi in your country for a 30 km trip for about $12.00. I thing mostly it is a great service.

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In my country it is half that much and they use GPS. It's called Uber Ride Pass.

Cant confirm over all.

On 10/21/2017 at 5:38 PM, brewsterbudgen said:

There is a 50 baht airport fee, so the driver was right. In 13 years of living in Bangkok, the vast majority of taxi drivers I've used have been fine. Maybe I'm just lucky.

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I used to have taxis constantly in Bangkok for my business. Most drivers were fine, but, of course, a few bad apples too. Maybe speaking some Thai helps?

I still can't fathom people defending the indefensible taxi drivers around BKK....
This story that just appeared today here is just another common news story that appears on regular occasion. And if this kind of stuff makes it into the news once, you can almost be guaranteed there are at the least hundreds that never make the news. The guy goes for ramming the other car and then goes for a weapon in his trunk and goes after the driver. All of this while he had a passenger in his taxi! Gets a 400 baht fine.... He should be in jail!

 

24 minutes ago, Sig said:

I still can't fathom people defending the indefensible taxi drivers around BKK....
This story that just appeared today here is just another common news story that appears on regular occasion. And if this kind of stuff makes it into the news once, you can almost be guaranteed there are at the least hundreds that never make the news. The guy goes for ramming the other car and then goes for a weapon in his trunk and goes after the driver. All of this while he had a passenger in his taxi! Gets a 400 baht fine.... He should be in jail!

 

And you pick a story of one taxi driver out of about 150 thousand that are operating in Bangkok.  Yes there are bad apples - but they are not the norm.  And indeed this story was very unusual and no you can not be guaranteed there are hundreds that do not make the news - any such action would indeed be covered by the news.

4 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

And you pick a story of one taxi driver out of about 150 thousand that are operating in Bangkok.  Yes there are bad apples - but they are not the norm.  And indeed this story was very unusual and no you can not be guaranteed there are hundreds that do not make the news - any such action would indeed be covered by the news.

I don't believe you are correct. The story is not so unusual, although the weapon aspect is a bit unusual, although not unheard of at all, since I think it is common knowledge that many (most?) taxi drivers likely carry a weapon of some sort. I've seen them in the door pockets as well as in the trunks. That said, it doesn't mean this stuff is something that happens every hour. But it is not surprising at all as it is commonly reported by the news as well as word of mouth. You can read stories like this a half a dozen times a year from just one news source. And the ones you don't read, because the news doesn't cover every instance, even when cameras just happen to be rolling, I feel quite sure, are easily multiplied by hundreds. But I could perhaps be persuaded that it is merely a bit over one hundred times. But of course, that doesn't make it the norm, I never remotely alluded to that preposterous idea as you insinuated I did. And if you read a bit more carefully, you'll see that I also didn't say that you can "be guaranteed there are hundreds..." as you claim I did. There are good reasons for using qualifiers and it would do you well to pay attention to them when you read. It will help you not assume things about writers and avoid putting words into their mouths.
If you bothered to read any more of the string here, you would know already that I have mentioned some great taxi drivers that I've met over the years (rare exceptions). But I think there are a hell of a lot more bad apples than you seem to think there are. And I don't have any problem at all agreeing to disagree in that. That's based on a wide variety of variable factors and reasonable to have disagreement.
You appear to be incredibly naive (maybe that means you are a super nice guy or girl?) to think that "any such action" like this taxi would be covered by the news. I can't hardly take you seriously if you really believe that. I've witnessed bodies floating in the canals, a crazed bus driver causing multiple collisions, a shooting, a knifing, 2 gang fights take over a street, and even 3 taxi drivers get into physical altercations with people on the roadside... all in BKK and none of which I ever saw on any news anywhere. If you really expect the news to cover "any  such action" you would need to demand them to have a million eyes roving the streets 24/7 and to publish a MUCH thicker newspaper. Are you not aware that the media purposely limits their reporting on various things? This has been well known public knowledge for decades, but seems to have escaped your attention.
One more point, just for the sake of argument... I think that the insanely low fine for this incident shows that it is not a rare happening. I believe it can be shown that things that are rare and outrageous typically demand a higher penalty rather than a lower one. Just as traffic tickets have lower penalties, but rape has a higher penalty.
I should have known I'd get some kind of unreasonable comment in this forum... unfortunately, that is even more expected to happen than crazy taxi drivers doing nutso things.

On a slightly different angle.....does anyone actually know if uber drivers have their criminal records checked here in Thailand? The reason I ask is that on a daily basis there are stories of uber drivers committing some pretty major offences. Just today the New York terror suspect was an uber driver and in Australia an uber driver has been charged for grooming a 14 year old girl on-line.

 

Having criminal record checks for drivers is important because in the long run crimes will be avoided this way. I suspect most uber lovers won't care about these details though.

13 hours ago, strewth mick said:

Having criminal record checks for drivers is important because in the long run crimes will be avoided this way. I suspect most uber lovers won't care about these details though.

Do taxi drivers undergo criminal record checks? Perhaps there is not much difference?