Picture: Thai Rath

 

Thai Rath reported an announcement about restraining passengers in the Government Gazette that referred to song thaews - the ubiquitous form of passenger transport in Thailand that has two rows of seats in the back of a converted pick-up.

 

A new law announced 17th February will make it mandatory that passengers sit down.

 

For decades and more passengers - especially in the rush hours - have stood up and even hung precariously off the back of such vehicles.

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

But now Thailand is becoming more safety conscious.But that is not pleasing the drivers.

 

They say they are having to pay between 800-1000 baht a day for fuel and need as many passengers as they can get.

 

They also believe that trying to stop passengers standing will be impossible.

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

And that could lead to another inevitability in Thailand - involvement of the police in roadside "fund extraction".

 

Thai Rath online went to Thonburi where one driver wanted the transport authorities to intervene and protect their businesses from officialdom.

 

And allow people to stand and hold on tight instead.

 

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A rule like this really needs to go hand-in-hand with a price increase to compensate the drivers for lost trade.

9 minutes ago, webfact said:

They also believe that trying to stop passengers standing will be impossible.

It will be if they don't try, once it becomes the norm & people realise it is for their own safety maybe some will understand .........LOL

Generally, when implementing a new law like this, to "improve safety", they give statistics of how many deaths / injuries in the previous years.

 

I'd like to know how many.

Yet another law that is impossible to follow. Akin to the tinted window law.

How on earth is a driver supposed to stop passengers from standing up?

Unenforceable!

41 minutes ago, webfact said:

And allow people to stand and hold on tight instead.

Just waiting for some pickup driver behind to be looking at his phone,

and go into the people standing on the back ,with all the accidents

here ,it must have happened already,

 

regards worgeordie

35 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Yet another law that is impossible to follow. Akin to the tinted window law.

How on earth is a driver supposed to stop passengers from standing up?

Unenforceable!

You can only standup outside the vehicle, the part where you enter. Very easy to follow unless you have a greedy driver who wants to transport more people than the vehicle should.

But in January in the village some children had to stand on the crowded truck with a bed just like this.  200 baht/ mo.  Looked like 30 children so the guy will make  28x200 5600  or 400 baht less for 2 hours work for school days. 

 

But they will need a new additional driver for 2 kids more..

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

You can only standup outside the vehicle, the part where you enter. 

Have you ever travelled in a sawngthew before?

I'm not a song thaew kinda guy, but thee few times I have I'd rather stand up than sit next to smelly, fat foreigners.

A law is almost meaningless without consistent enforcement. Enforce the existing multitude of traffic laws and safety here will improve dramatically.

 

Little point in adding new laws unless the only intention is to keep law makers employed.

as all songthaews are on gas, which cost 1-3b per km, it's not possible that they spend 800-1000b daily.

They operate on short routes and in congested areas of cities, stop frequently every few hundred metres. Some operate only during pick hours, taking school kids and workers to and from. 

 

Cities will have to upgrade their services to minibuses, buses and the other means, including boats. Fund them, maitain and properly control it's use.

 

 

51 minutes ago, JayClay said:

Have you ever travelled in a sawngthew before?

Yes, in Phuket and Chiang Mai loads of times, in Surat Thani a couple of times.

54 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Yes, in Phuket and Chiang Mai loads of times, in Surat Thani a couple of times.

You should be well aware, then, that they frequently have people standing inside them. In fact one of the pictures in the OP has people standing inside.

1 hour ago, internationalism said:

as all songthaews are on gas, which cost 1-3b per km, it's not possible that they spend 800-1000b daily.

Many rent their vehicles, adding to the daily cost.

4 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Just waiting for some pickup driver behind to be looking at his phone,

and go into the people standing on the back ,with all the accidents

here ,it must have happened already,

 

regards worgeordie

Happened already.

 

Just over 9 years ago I was travelling on the green song thaew from Khao Ta Kiab towards the city.  About 100-150 metres before Bangkok Hospital Hua Hin some idiot crashed into the back of the song thaew, injuring an elderly couple standing on the back platform close to where I was standing (the elderly man was bleeding from a cut to his mouth) (no major damage to the song thaew).  Pressed the "stop" button, the useless driver just kept on driving and stopped at Maraket Village, where the angry driver exited the cabin, to be confronted with some upset passangers and now two elderly bleeding people.

 

I do not drive so I have used the baht buses counless times over many years...

 

I have never seen a single misfortune befall anyone standing-up and riding....

Nor do I recall reading about anyone in the news who was sanding and and fell off because they were stand-up......Nope.....Not a single news story....

 

Please take notice they give no numbers or incidents to back-up the so called danger of riding standing.............Why not?........Most likely because they dont have any.....No doubt someone somewhere has fallen off sometime.....But I bet 1000s of more people have been hit crossing the road than ever fell off a baht bus......

 

So in this case I would say its high time to ban people from ever crossing a road....

 

 

The only way to stop people from standing up is to remove the whole platform people use to step-up into the baht bus......And if this is removed then a baht bus would be useless....

Where I live at least 80% of people on motorbikes don't wear helmets.  They should pass a new law requiring them to do so. 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

They say they are having to pay between 800-1000 baht a day for fuel and need as many passengers as they can get.

Profit over safety again.

The reason you have seats are for people to sit down and restrict the weight of your vehicle to which it was designed to carry.

But I understand that concept goes above most Thais heads.

5 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

It will be if they don't try, once it becomes the norm & people realise it is for their own safety maybe some will understand .........LOL

What Thais think is safe and what actually is safe is about as wide as the wealth gap.

Of course it's potentiallly dangerous. But is it any more dangerous than 10 people or more in the back of a pick-up, or 3 or 4 people on a motorcycle ?  It looks a bit like a "tourist tax", as I doubt if many, or any, locals will be fined for doing it. But easy money when it's busy time on the roads. 

I love riding standing on the platform on the back!

1 minute ago, timendres said:

I love riding standing on the platform on the back!

I agree......I always stand-up, even if there is no one else on the baht bus .....Unless I have groceries, then I sit....

In 2017 passengers will no longer be allowed to ride in the back of pickup trucks. Did that work? Was it enforced?

But it seems as soon as it was announced, it was amended to allow up to six people to sit in the pickup bed.

Then five years later Thai Police considered a "sub-law" for limiting number of passengers to three to be sitting IN THE BACKSEATS of a pickup. Again no mention of statistical support. Just officials seemingly trying to gain attention with "ideas."

I think this is a sensible new regulation. Songtaews stopping and beckoning you to get on board though there are no seats left are a nuisance. 

They would like nothing more than to get rid of all baht buses.....And they have made a number of attemps here and there to replace them with mini-vans but it has always ended in failure.......But I bet they will keep trying....

How about switching to busses? Probably too advanced for this corrupted third world country....

RTP Extortion Authority is recommending song thaews be required to install seat belts and shoulder harnesses.

 Drivers who fail to enforce their use subject to 5 years in prison or a 500 bhat fine.

34 minutes ago, rwill said:

Where I live at least 80% of people on motorbikes don't wear helmets.  They should pass a new law requiring them to do so. 

Standing up on a motorcycle is a traffic violation.....????