Phuket: Covid-19 crisis hits boatmen hard - even the tsunami was not as bad as this

 

 

MCOT reporters went to Phuket where they found desperation amongst people working in the pleasure boat industry. 

 

They said they found Somchai Lawang staring vacantly out to sea as he spoke with a faltering voice trying to hold back his tears. 

 

There are five members of his family who rely on him.

 

He said normally he works as a helper for the captain of a speedboat at Railay Beach but he was now entering his third month of unemployment. 

 

He would normally earn 10,000 baht a month taking tourists on dive trips. The money was only ever enough to live hand to mouth - he couldn't put anything aside to save. 

 

Now he still has to find rent money and funds to look after a handicapped son and another son who has lost his job. 

 

Things were terrible even though his employer had continued to pay him half his wages. 

 

Yot Samla said he had been a captain of boats for 20 years. He had worked on everything from smaller vessels to three engine speedboats. 

 

Recently he was employed to take tourists to two nearby islands - all that has ended meaning hard times for the four members of his family who he needs to look after. 

 

He said that this was far worse than the 2004 Asian tsunami that devastated Phuket and surrounding areas. 

 

Other boatmen - part of a group of 100 who have lost their employment - said they hoped that insurance handouts from a boat operators' insurance scheme would allow them to get by and survive the coronavirus pandemic crisis. 

 

Source: MCOT

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-05-04

 

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maybe, just maybe they will learn a lesson and will stop the scams....  wishful thinking though

3 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

maybe, just maybe they will learn a lesson and will stop the scams....  wishful thinking though

 

10,000 baht a month. You think he is scamming ???  All the working Thais are really hurting.

3 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

maybe, just maybe they will learn a lesson and will stop the scams....  wishful thinking though

Harsh and uncalled for. The man named in the article has a disabled kid.

He sounds like a hard working guy who has fallen on severely hard times.

If he was a tuk tuk driver i'd then have a LOT less sympathy

5 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

 

10,000 baht a month. You think he is scamming ???  All the working Thais are really hurting.

that doesn't mean he was not involved with the scams does it.... wouldn't bet one ???? on it

7 minutes ago, z42 said:

Harsh and uncalled for. The man named in the article has a disabled kid.

He sounds like a hard working guy who has fallen on severely hard times.

If he was a tuk tuk driver i'd then have a LOT less sympathy

why is that uncalled for, oh because he claimed to have a disable kid thus not involved with the speed boat scams ...to understand you correctly, if the Tuk Tuk driver had a disable kid you would have less sympathy, what's the difference, tuk tuk driver not hard as working as a speed boat driver
 

Obviously there is sympathy for the little man who does the grunt work for little pay, but it's hard to feel sorry for the boating industry on this Island.

Perhaps it they didn't take over popular beaches for their activities, drive fast through swimmers  occasionally chopping off limbs or even killing people, crashing into each other at speed, crashing into rocks and islands, sinking or setting fire to their craft, stealing from tourists for imagined damage, etc. I might feel sorry for them.

This guy could have taken up a more honest past time than working for psychopaths.

Bosses running thousands of tourist to Phuket’s beautiful islands make billions every year and pay their workers a pittance.

 

Sadly these guys should realise the ‘power’ they had and refuse to work for below minimum wage.
 

Only themselves to blame unfortunately and hopefully will come out of this     more aware.

I agree with the above two posters.  These boating companies were making a killing and they should be taking care of their employees who did the hard work and made them these large amounts of cash.

1 hour ago, Mavideol said:

why is that uncalled for, oh because he claimed to have a disable kid thus not involved with the speed boat scams ...to understand you correctly, if the Tuk Tuk driver had a disable kid you would have less sympathy, what's the difference, tuk tuk driver not hard as working as a speed boat driver
 

So what is the scam he is involved in?

10 minutes ago, steelepulse said:

I agree with the above two posters.  These boating companies were making a killing and they should be taking care of their employees who did the hard work and made them these large amounts of cash.

Only some boating companies were making a killing, many had been forced to scale down. The main exception would be nonthasak, but in their market segment price negotiations are tough, so I guess even for them it was not as good as it looked.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Things were terrible even though his employer had continued to pay him half his wages. 

At least he is getting half of his pay - so that means he has to survive for 5.000 thb. It's not much, but it should be doable.

44 minutes ago, Snackbar said:

Bosses running thousands of tourist to Phuket’s beautiful islands make billions every year and pay their workers a pittance.

 

Sadly these guys should realise the ‘power’ they had and refuse to work for below minimum wage.
 

Only themselves to blame unfortunately and hopefully will come out of this     more aware.

Yeah, that'd work out really well for them and their families....

More aware...how ironic that comment is.

3 hours ago, Mavideol said:

maybe, just maybe they will learn a lesson and will stop the scams....  wishful thinking though

Have you ever, and I'm speaking personally here, been scammed? I’ve probably been on at least 10 speed boat tours/trips in the past as well as several snorkeling and scuba trips and I’ve never been scammed, never even an attempted scam. I’d have to say that all of the trips I’ve been on we’re enjoyable, the people that work on the boats do great job of looking out for their passengers, they’re always friendly and very helpful.

4 hours ago, Mavideol said:

maybe, just maybe they will learn a lesson and will stop the scams....  wishful thinking though

the topic is about taxi boats, not taxi cars.

Poor bu.g.r????
the rich won’t make as much or maybe even stop making money for a while but they won’t starve, maybe starve like this fella.

The 1% of Thais who hold all the countries wealth will sit in their mansion compounds and swill whatever they chose.

I saw yesterday that in the US they pay out 18 billion a year for full time worker wages, and stock market bonuses (or whatever they call it) to traders was 28 billion!!!!

Have any TV members seen with their own eyes the amount of homeless vagrant people there are on the streets of the US? The bulging at the seams social service shelters n refuges across the western world?

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Aland said:

Have you ever, and I'm speaking personally here, been scammed? I’ve probably been on at least 10 speed boat tours/trips in the past as well as several snorkeling and scuba trips and I’ve never been scammed, never even an attempted scam. I’d have to say that all of the trips I’ve been on we’re enjoyable, the people that work on the boats do great job of looking out for their passengers, they’re always friendly and very helpful.

Not Phuket, but they tried for a scam on a boat trip to Koh Samat, they wanted 400bht for the park entrance fee upfront, I paid the park ranger 50bht when I got off the boat.

And they tried for a scam on a boat trip to Koh Libong, foreigner charge x10, I shouted until they charged me the same as everyone else. Thai price was on a notice board in Thai script, Foreigner price in Western numerals.

I don't think I've been on a Thai boat without an attempted 'foreigner scam'.

As tourists slowly return, will the Speedboats and jet-ski operators improve safety and stop the scams as they finally realise who their money comes from?

Or, will they ramp up scams to make up for lost revenue?

 

I know what I would bet money on.......

11 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

 

10,000 baht a month. You think he is scamming ???  All the working Thais are really hurting.

711 seems to be doing okay. No shortage of manpower there.

12 hours ago, webfact said:

He said....

Were his lips moving? 

5 hours ago, Venom said:

711 seems to be doing okay. No shortage of manpower there.

Some 7/11's are closed.

10 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

As tourists slowly return, will the Speedboats and jet-ski operators improve safety and stop the scams as they finally realise who their money comes from?

Or, will they ramp up scams to make up for lost revenue?

 

I know what I would bet money on.......

What speedboat scams are going on? How is a guy like this scamming people?

8 minutes ago, Snackbar said:

Every ticket for a tour or attraction’ in Phuket is a scam, 50% of the price  is commission.

<Snip>

Which is not related to how he is scamming. 

 

Looks like he is not.

I was amazed at the amount of commission these boat companies pay out 

We were told how much Tsunami cash was donated to Thailand, but never shown to this day where it all went. There should be a lot left looking at the Few places built with it for poor Covits hurt Thais. I do hope im totaly wrong.

Some odd logic here.

 

Lots of Thais in Phuket are queuing for food, yet the tourism business is worth B250,000,000,000 every year.

 

This unfortunate and thousands of others should be asking ‘Where’s all the money?’

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

Which is not related to how he is scamming. 

 

Looks like he is not.

The workers definitely are not scamming for the most part.  However their bosses are and it would be nice if the bosses that raked in a good amount of cash since the tsunami days would now want to help out those that they employed.  It appears they do not want to help out their former employees.

3 minutes ago, steelepulse said:

The workers definitely are not scamming for the most part.  However their bosses are and it would be nice if the bosses that raked in a good amount of cash since the tsunami days would now want to help out those that they employed.  It appears they do not want to help out their former employees.

Agree, boat crew are not scamming. That reliefs us of a lot of posts in this thread.

2 hours ago, ChipButty said:

I was amazed at the amount of commission these boat companies pay out 

Bu that's not scamming by the boat operators. They work for a net amount paid to them by the agents. The rest is kept by the agents as commission. You book a trip at the Hilton, for example, and the client will pay the amount on the brochure. Book with an agent on the street and you'll get a 50% discount. Its the agents that decide how much commission they take.

Reported flame/bickering posts removed.