"C'est moi! But I'm not a taxi driver" Frenchman tells Samui cops as Thais urged to rat on foreigners

[jgarbo]

11 hours ago, darksidedog said:

And no more than any decent person would do when a friend has helped them out. I have done the same many times when  a friend has taken me to the airport. The locals obviously want every penny in the pot and for friends not to help each other out. A mate doing someone a favour is seen as deliberately taking money out of their pockets, which is a very sad and greedy attitude.

Work: Using your "knowledge" with or without compensation or reward, is illegal without a Work Permit. Usually overlooked by cops, except when it interferes with local business.

Even a free ride is technically illegal - IF the cops want to push it. Giving the time of day is "illegal", wihtout a WP, according to my lawyer.

The farang is either stupid, arrogant/rude or without local friends. 

[4675636b596f75]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

They were discussing the way forward to stop foreigners taking jobs reserved for Thais and causing hardship to Thai people. 

It's true. My own aspirations to tell foreigners I won't take them down the road is only eclipsed by my desire to tell the first foreigner I see, that I'll take him 1 km for the paltry sum of 300b.  

[4675636b596f75]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Thais were urged to report any foreigners taking Thai jobs by calling 191 or 07742 1907.

Mr. Police, please meet me by the big hole in the sidewalk that swallows small children and dogs.  You know the one, it's right beside the live electrical wire.  I want to report a foreigner for taking jobs from the Thai people.  My neighbor Mr. Shyster makes hot dogs American style once a year and he has been handing them to friends and they actually eat them.

 

Surely there is a noodle stand that could feed those hungry people.

[theboogeyman]

200 baht for 6 km is still a maseive scam and rip off. My wife paid only 120 for 20km to get home from work. At 200 baht for 6 km thats 33.33 baht per km. Check the thai legal taxi fare rate. Its drastically lower then that. So you got scammed but not as bad. At most maybe should have paid 70 baht for the trip. 

Although I have noticed that cabs in Korat are a bit cheaper than Bangkok. In Korat I probably would have paid between 80 and 120 baht for that trip. It’s just a few bucks either way but I don’t let anyone take advantage of me as if I’ve only been here a day after all the years.


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[ukrules]

How long until mobs are dragging foreigners from driving their cars and beating them in the streets?

[ravip]

11 hours ago, Olmate said:

Great mate if he lets you pay for the lift!BS excuse.

Very true! A great mate indeed!

[Ctkong]

11 hours ago, kotsak said:

I think it's best never accept payment in public (if you are a foreigner) lest being accussed of being paid for a service. ????

Happens all the time even overseas. What happens is that when you ask the small boutique hotels for a taxi to the airport, they would supply not a legal taxi but a ‘private’ car instead. Explanation is that this is the regular car the hotel use. Safe and comfortable. Indeed it is. Courteous behaviors too. Upon reaching the airport, the driver would ask you to hand over the money before alighting. Reason is to prevent the airport police catching them. Guess the samui ‘taxi’ operators would have to follow the same routine. Low key . Even better if passengers sit in front beside driver instead of behind. 

[NanLaew]

11 hours ago, CanuckThai said:

Is there a difference if I give my Thai brother inlaw or farang neighbor X baht for fuel, for a lift to the airport?  Neither have a taxi licence

None whatsoever.

 

The only common fact is the invalidated insurance coverage due to the "for hire" aspects of all this nonsense.

[MickeyDelux]

A farang taking a job away from a Thai. If he had any self-respect he wouldn't do such a thing. He should be tossed out of the country and blacklisted.

[jing jing]

1 hour ago, theboogeyman said:

 

 

I’ve been living here for 5 years now and the took took and taxi fares are normally about the same and I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing what it’s supposed to cost. I figured it would cost between 100 and 200 baht from Mo Chit bus station to the My Bed Ratchada Hotel which was 6K approximately if I recall right, I remember that’s what my Google maps said but depending on the route he drove it might have been a little further then 6K. That’s an estimate it could have been as far as 10K for all I know depending on the route he drove. But according to Google it was about 6K.

I think your wife was just lucky, although every once in a while I do run into an extra cheap taxi or took took driver that charges me less for more but nothing excessive sometimes it just depends on the driver and I use them all the time for years so I know what I’m doing. It’s quite possible that your wife only got charged 120 baht for 20K if traffic was smooth. I’ve had drivers only charge me about the same before for 10 or 20K like what you said about your wife, but that’s very rare though. Sometimes you do get lucky and get a cheaper driver but normally what he changed me is about right. In Korat I normally pay a took took driver about 100 or 120 baht for 2 to 10K depending on the driver. If it’s only less than 800 meters and I don’t want to walk because I’m buying a lot of groceries or something that usually costs about 40 baht. It depends on the driver, traffic, distance, and if I ask him to make multiple stops along the way and wait for me. All that effects the cost as well.

I actually did have a took took driver in Korat try to over charge me once, just last week in fact, but he was one of the few drivers who haven’t seen me around Korat before. Korat isn’t a big city and most of the drivers around Korat know me because I’ve been around here for almost 5 years now. And the taxi fares in Bangkok weren’t much different than Korat although we took the MRT and Sky Train mostly only a few cabs. In Bangkok I actually got out of one cab and went to the Sky Train because the traffic was just so damn slow it was going to take an hour just to drive 10K lol, so we took the train instead. LOL, when I was still in shape I used to be able to run 10K in almost half that time in 36 minutes.

Anyway last week in Korat I had a took took driver take us only about 4K I think it is from nearby our house to Terminal 21 and when I got out and asked how much he said 400 baht, and I replied “excuse me, HOW MUCH DID YOU JUST SAY???” Then he immediately replied “100 baht” really fast lol. That’s the only time I’ve ever had a took took or cab driver in Korat ever even try to scam me. I still look pretty young and he probably thought it was my first day here or something because I had never seen or remembered that driver before. Just a coincidence that happened last week.

You also have to take into account that Bangkok is more expensive than the smaller cities like where I live, but I thought 200 baht was about right and fair. And I was expecting it to be between 100 and 200 baht that’s actually what I thought it would be. Like I said I’ve gotten used to knowing what taxi and took took fare is going to be for where I’m going after 5 years and it’s almost always about the same depending on where I’m going.

I don’t know how long you’ve been in Thailand or where you live in Thailand. But no actually I did not get scammed I avoided a scam that night.


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OMG I pity your wife

[4675636b596f75]

1 hour ago, jgarbo said:

Giving the time of day is "illegal", wihtout a WP, according to my lawyer.

Giving crappy legal advice ought to be illegal.

[Ctkong]

2 hours ago, manarak said:

this bit is actually quite insulting.

 

if just 200 baht for gas were given, an APOLOGY would have been in order.

The officers are actually giving him a free pass as his story of his friends giving him the money for fuel is questionable. Who ever gives change like the guy in the picture. The body language said it all. 

[4675636b596f75]

One has to wonder why he went to the cop shop to have a chat with the boys.  What did that gain him?

[Pique Dard]

tell your friend "sign me a cheque instead, cash would put me in trouble with the local police!"

[theboogeyman]

200 baht for 6 km is still a maseive scam and rip off. My wife paid only 120 for 20km to get home from work. At 200 baht for 6 km thats 33.33 baht per km. Check the thai legal taxi fare rate. Its drastically lower then that. So you got scammed but not as bad. At most maybe should have paid 70 baht for the trip. 

Oh and in Korat if we’re going on a trip to the mall which is 3K from home it’s always either 80 or 100 baht took took ride. Has been for the past 5 years. I always have a good idea what it’s gonna cost in cab fare depending on where we’re going and how many stops we’re making along the way. I’ve noticed that in Korat taxi cab fare is usually cheaper than took tooks even if I ask the cab driver to wait for us for a few minutes at a stop along the way. I once had a taxi driver waiting for me at immigration once for 30 minutes 19K from home each way when I was getting my one year stamp last time, and he only charged me 300 baht for the whole thing even for the wait. So it really does depend on the driver sometimes. Quite often in Korat the taxi drivers will charge less than what the took took drivers will charge you to go to the same place or will charge less to drive you further distances. We don’t go to Bangkok very often so I don’t know how much difference there is between taxis and took tooks between where we live in Korat and Bangkok. I do know that Bangkok is more expensive than Korat where we live. We have everything pretty well set up here we really like up here. And again no I really didn’t get scammed I avoided a scam that night in Bangkok at Mo Chit bus station.


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[mok199]

.

Edited May 10, 2019 by mok199

[fuzzie]

Bloody blimey it seems you can't even do someone else a favour.  PATHETIC. 

[DaRoadrunner]

Pathetic…. Can’t wait for the next installment when the BIB make him re-enact the crime.

Me thinks it long overdue we Farang gave the Thais a taste of their own medicine.

Lets have pix of honest Farang cabbies and maybe even a Farang driver returning a Thai’s wallet.

[gk10002000]

Do you have a license??  One of the best movies ever, Pink Panther

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnlIWpZSPXU

 

[fuzzie]

Do you have a license??  One of the best movies ever, Pink Panther
 

 

Ha ha ha ha ,or 5555 not educational.

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[shy coconut]

12 hours ago, Gecko123 said:

LOL.

 

Tell that to these guys: http://www.buriramtimes.com/bad-guys-out-nearly-500-foreigners-arrested-in-north-east-thailand-immigration-crime-sweep/

 

Used to feel the same way as you, Soalbundy, but haven't for years. Get on someone's bad side for any reason, people will report you without blinking an eye. All the brainwashing immigration has done about foreigners being a criminal element, people look at foreigners much more suspiciously than in the past. Almost makes me miss some of the dirty looks I used to get from little old ladies in supermarket aisles and parking lots back home.

No one in the post you linked were arrested for helping out family and friends.

Most, it seems were done for overstay and false stamps in their passports.

 

It would be great if you could provide a link where a foreigner was arrested for 

helping out with the rice harvest or village tidy ups.

 

 

[TDCNINJA]

No good deed goes unpunished...

[bristolgeoff]

taxi or songtou is a mafia  everywhere. in Thailand.they charge the earth and no wonder tourist don,t like the rip off.

[Damrongsak]

7 hours ago, jgarbo said:

... Giving the time of day is "illegal", wihtout a WP, according to my lawyer....

I would never deprive a Thai of work.  When someone asks me the time, I just dial my buddy Prawit on my iPhone, put it on speaker phone and ask him the time. If it's nap time, I call back later.

Edited May 10, 2019 by Damrongsak

[prouzak]

They are not the best in priorities.

 

[Snowyrivers]

How many Thais pool a lift to Bangkok or back home for a special event and all contribute to the cost of fuel?

This is normal decency!

[redwhiteandblue]

13 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

Drivers who prefer to sleep all day in the hope of ripping off a few tourists instead of being honest and proactive in chasing business and working and acting ethically.

Great post Scouse123

 

Btw, This is the 'Thai way' of working.

[balo]

Just a friendly warning to others, any money should be exchanged inside the car, so the locals do not get silly ideas and think we try to steal their business over 200 baht. 

[Gecko123]

 

7 hours ago, shy coconut said:

No one in the post you linked were arrested for helping out family and friends.

Most, it seems were done for overstay and false stamps in their passports.

 

It would be great if you could provide a link where a foreigner was arrested for 

helping out with the rice harvest or village tidy ups.

 

 

The poster to whom I was replying to also talked about teaching at his local school and how labor laws out in the countryside were ignored. The link I provided was about a foreign teacher who was arrested in Buriram, yes for overstay, but there have been widespread reports of teachers being arrested for working without a permit, even if they had an otherwise valid visa. I doubt very many foreigners would be arrested for helping out with the rice harvest or village clean up activities. I might add that I also doubt very many foreigners regularly participate in these activities.

 

Casually working for remuneration (vending, tutoring, farming, service work) I would still argue has become increasingly risky. No one says anything until you step on someone's toes or take money out of someone else's pocket, as the complaints from the Koh Samui taxi drivers aptly demonstrate.

 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Gecko123

[Olmate]

10 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

 

 

Casually working for remuneration (vending, tutoring, farming, service work) I would still argue has become increasingly risky. No one says anything until you step on someone's toes or take money out of someone else's pocket, as the complaints from the Koh Samui taxi drivers aptly demonstrate.

 

Correct and fair game they are too! Why so many try to defend this guy on Samui is amazing to me.