Grab Must Stand Down To End Taxi Wars: Military

By Jintamas Saksornchai, Staff Reporter

 

Two motorcycle taxis fight in Pattaya in 2017. Source: My Pattaya / Facebook

 

BANGKOK — The gig economy is boiling over in the streets, where drivers are chasing each other down for a beating and passengers subjected to outrageous harassment.

 

The military said Tuesday it will step in to settle conflicts between taxi drivers and the dominant ride-hailing service after receiving numerous complaints about them fighting – sometimes physically – for customers.

 

Full Story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/transpo/2018/05/08/grab-must-stand-down-to-end-taxi-wars-military/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2018-5-8

 

Typical chicken **** attack from behind.

So the mafia win?  Just asking.

Nice videos with the op article! 

 

And who ever said Thailand isn't an eminently civilized place! 

16 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The gig economy

Perhaps the word is gik, but with all the easy money for the big boys, gigs/giks must be in hot demand?

Grab just paid a lot of money to buy out Uber's operations in Thailand and the rest of SE Asia.

 

Something tells me, they're not just going to go away quietly into the night here in Thailand, especially when faced with such namby pamby enforcement by the toothless DLT and the other authorities.

Yes, the mafia will win as they can't deal with competition and are too lazy to improve their service to win customers and compete...so deal with competition with violence and threats, the usual MO here. Good example of how things work here in this part of the world. Free market my backside...screw the customer, it's all about vested mafia interests and no-one upsetting the apple-cart on almost every level. There is probably a mafia for tooth picks here...haha

This is why I have a motorbike...

Quote

ISOC is a special military unit that answers directly to the prime minister and is responsible for national security issues.

 

Motorcycle taxis are now a national security issue.

1 minute ago, Darcula said:

 

Motorcycle taxis are now a national security issue.

 

Well, it would give the Army something to do with all their tanks.

 

I think it'd be pretty cool, taking a tank ride down my soi from the local BTS station to my home.

 

20 baht ought to just about cover it, I'd say.

 

This is why I steer well clear with anything off the street and pre-book and pay a little more with reputable companies.  Just too much potential aggravation otherwise.  Never had a problem and never expect to.

13 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Well, it would give the Army something to do with all their tanks.

 

I think it'd be pretty cool, taking a tank ride down my soi from the local BTS station to my home.

 

20 baht ought to just about cover it, I'd say.

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, Unsane said:

This is why I steer well clear with anything off the street and pre-book and pay a little more with reputable companies.  Just too much potential aggravation otherwise.  Never had a problem and never expect to.

Easy to hail a car. Never bother with motorbikes.

Almost been killed twice with bikes so I stick to walking, buses and 4 wheel taxis . Buses can be pretty good if learn the route numbers .

Really wish the country could pull itself together and enforce law and logic .

uncle buck prayut proving to be quality class clown and even the might of the legendary thai army can't control taxi operation or even make an old lady sell a lottery ticket at legal pricing lol.

Total joke ...

8 minutes ago, Justfine said:

Easy to hail a car. Never bother with motorbikes.

Cars off the street are just as bad.  Hence why I pre-book.  Life is easy.

When will these 'Outsiders' learn? Again the military is left no choice but to scare them off.

 

Edited May 8, 20188 yr by tukkytuktuk

17 minutes ago, BuckBee said:

Almost been killed twice with bikes so I stick to walking, buses and 4 wheel taxis . Buses can be pretty good if learn the route numbers .

 

 

Did you catch the photo in the news this morning of the No. 40 air con bus on Sukhumvit Road near Gateway Ekamai fully engulfed in flames, like a big bus BBQ?

 

Of course, they prefer consumers chasing over taxis and begging for a ride, not the other way round.

But but... The guys fighting are all regular motorbike taxi with the orange jacket... Just sayin'

 

1 hour ago, newcomer71 said:

But but... The guys fighting are all regular motorbike taxi with the orange jacket... Just sayin'

 

GrabTaxi and GrabBike drivers were originally normal Taxi and Bike service guys that used the app to get extra income. That is why I used the Grab service over Uber because Uber had the outrageous "SuperCharge!" or whatever it was called periods where a 100 Baht "normal" Uber ride suddenly became 300+ during oeak hours whereas Grab jilust charged 5 - 10 Baht extra for peak, but the flag fall and Km rate was still the normal taxi rate.

 

The problem for the MotorBike guys is that they have very small, designated pick-up areas and so GrabBikes would be picking up passengers in forbidden zones (Photo in the OP)

4 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Nice videos with the op article! 

 

And who ever said Thailand isn't an eminently civilized place! 

That's nothing. Try the UK on a Friday night. 

4 hours ago, Darcula said:

 

Motorcycle taxis are now a national security issue.

Yeah, but in terms of threats to the state security apparatus they rank second after twerking while reading Orwell. 

9 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Did you catch the photo in the news this morning of the No. 40 air con bus on Sukhumvit Road near Gateway Ekamai fully engulfed in flames, like a big bus BBQ?

 

but how many died ;-)

I'll take a bus over a motorbike every time in bangkok .

What a broken society


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Article makes little sense.  Grab drivers find passengers via the app, they don't take to the street to fight local mafia run taxi operations for customers.  And in any case it seems the mafia has infiltrated Grab as some of their drivers even try extortion when faced with issues like going through tollways or when you want to change your destination and the app won't let you.  Uber had these issues solved with a superior app now riders must occasionally deal with petty corruption with Grab drivers. 

Used GRAB in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago, the drivers told me there’s no problems with the regular taxi drivers and GRAB drivers; why so different here?

Article makes little sense.  Grab drivers find passengers via the app, they don't take to the street to fight local mafia run taxi operations for customers.  And in any case it seems the mafia has infiltrated Grab as some of their drivers even try extortion when faced with issues like going through tollways or when you want to change your destination and the app won't let you.  Uber had these issues solved with a superior app now riders must occasionally deal with petty corruption with Grab drivers. 

Absolutely ! Grab is used by many of the Motorbike taxi mafia! It’s clear Uber had enough of the s**** going on and left it all to Grab in SE Asia!


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9 hours ago, stephen tracy said:

Yeah, but in terms of threats to the state security apparatus they rank second after twerking while reading Orwell. 

 

Not to mention synergy with their other business.........

 

 

 

The GF and I refuse to use the taxi mafia in Thailand, and while in Pattaya used GRAB for the first time.

The driver asked that we meet on the underground parking side of Central Festival. There was a line of blue and yellow cabs on the other side and he was afraid to pick us up in front of them.

Its going to heat up big time. 

I love to live here but the taxi situation is the worse I have ever witnessed in comparison to wherever I have been so far.

And the guys in green lost the battle before starting it.