Phuket’s cabbies get too grabby:

PHUKET: -- Authorities have stepped up crackdowns on taxi and tuk-tuk drivers who overcharge their foreign customers and sometimes even beat up foreigners who refuse to pay inflated fares.

Prasit Amrapal, chief public-transport officer for Phuket, said his office had received numerous complaints about corrupt drivers.

He said most of the complaints centred on taxi drivers who did not use their meters.

To remedy the situation, officials from his office have been deployed to check taxi drivers and will fine those who fail to use their meters.

Prasit said there were only 33 registered metered taxis in the island province and their owners had been instructed to use meters and not overcharge customers.

But there have also been complaints against non-registered taxis. He said several drivers used private cars without meters, hunting for passengers, especially foreign tourists, in front of major shopping sites.

Prasit said the drivers of these non-registered taxis were a nuisance and problem for tourists, sometimes forcefully taking tourists to their cars, where they then overcharged them.

Prasit said he would try to have these drivers register their cars and install meters.

Sarayuth Mullam, deputy chairman of the Phuket Tourism Association, said the deregulation of the taxi business was the reason drivers were overcharging foreign tourists.

“Sometimes the drivers force the passengers to leave before reaching their destinations.

“Sometimes passengers are beaten up after refusing to pay inflated fares,” he said.

Phuket Governor Udomsak Assavarangkul said he would instruct all agencies concerned to solve the problem of rogue taxi-drivers.

The governor said he would also make sure no influential people collected protection fees from taxi-drivers which might tempt them to overcharge.

--The Nation 2004-08-01

Yes, and what about the Tuk Tuk mafia, and their high prices, what used to be 20 Bath is now 100 bath, and they try to get that price for each person, so if you want to take a girl home with you it'sdouble price