Phuket Transport

[khall64au]

Smooth or Bumpy? The road ahead for Phuket...

Transport is the talk of the town this season. With the goverment holding a key seminar discussing and disclosing plans for the transport system in Phuket, a brand new location for the main bus station having been identified, the one-way system for Patong being locked in, limousine and taxi services at the airport under heavy scrutiny, and new laws and rules being introduced, the authorities are keen on making sure they are steering the new face of transport on the island, rather than just climbing aboard for the ride.

On the 24th ofAugust, at a seminar at the Phuket Merlin Hotel, organised by the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning, Trafficand Transport Development and Research centre (TDRC) along with King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, and attended by key authority figures in the transport and government factions discussed results of cases-studies held by both private and government organisations on the transport situation in Phuket. Amidst talks and debates on the various plans and changes being mooted, the organisers released a manual depicting the strategies and maps, along with detailed axplanations.

It's a mammoth volume, covering much of the area on the island, and dealing with issues such as traffic congestion, public transport, one-way systems; in short, everything that does and will, quite literally, move Phuket.

The changes and improvements proposed are many, and the book was circulated amongst present media, representatives and decision-makers of the local authorities. Much deliberation and planning will preceed any decision making, the organisers will meet again, in a few weeks time, to take matters further.

For the public- resident and tourist- issues on ground are many.

As Phuket develops more and more everyday, every year as one of the most popular and sought-after tourist destinations in the world, pressure on infrastructure and resources continues to grow.

Office and school hour traffic jams are getting progressively worse across the island, as more vehicles are added to the count every week.

A lack of reliable public transport system means that people have no choice but to use their own conveyance. You could try hopping aboard a quaint-looking song-taew and no doubt, the views from its wide open windows would be lovely, but there's no hope of getting anywhere on time.

There's a fleet of cheerful looking green buses navigating Phuket city, but if there's a time-table up somewhere, they're not following it.

If you're planning to get to work aboard one of these, you'd better have very flexible timings or a very understanding boss.

Of course, this relates to people who actually have to work on Phuket, Surely everyone would much rather be heading off to the beach with the hordes of holidaying tourists. They don't have to get anywhere on time and consequently spend none of it peering over bends, waiting for the 8 am.

Lucky tourists, you'd think, but not always so.

The huge hue and cry about the airport 'limousine' and taxi services has not been for nothing.

For years now, tourists on Phuket have been complaining about the truly appalling 'service' at the airport, where they were dragged around on the pretext of a reasonably priced ride to their destination, only to be offered up as guinea pigs to a host of touts and agents.

This account from a recent visitor is vivid description of how not to greet visitors to the island:

I got off the plane, walked the tunnel, into some corridor area with people pointing me down the escalator and into the arrivals hall. I arrived in Domestic as I had flown from Bangkok. Waited a while, collected my bags and headed out to be greeted by a hive of activitiy at a desk offering taxis. Well, "limousines" as they called them.

I was headed to Patong and my resort was on the beachfront. As I booked online, I decided I could handle the airport transfer myself.

So, I booked a seat in a minibus (pretty cheap), followed the friendly guy outside and waited. About 10 minutes in all. That would normally be fine, but the heat was unbearable. Sure, it was undercover, so no direct sun, but my, it was still hot.

The van arrived, the driver shoe-horned all the cases in and off 10 of us went on a roller-coaster ride. I'd spent 4 days before in Bangkok so had an idea of Thai driving 'skills'. However, this minibus driver was something special. (In a bad way).

It must have been about 15-20 minutes and then the driver pulled off the main road and stopped outside a shop. This is when it all went wrong for me. Out came a friendly girl who opened the bus door. We then fell out and were almost dragged into their air-con office and basically were being sold anything from accommodation to tours... to airport transfers for our return journey!

Not the best of starts to my vacation in paradise.

Persistance won out and I bought nothing. A few others did though. And after about 15 minutes, we were back on our way to our destination. The rest of the trip was fine, apart from the driving 'skills'. But I have to say, diverting tourists to be sold something they don't want or need, when we'd paid for a direct transfer to our hotels, is not acceptable.

I've never experienced this anywhere else where I have holidayed. The authorities need to do something. This is the first impression of Phuket for many people, and it is a bad one.

Frustrated.

In this case atleast, we have some heartening news for our harassed contributer. The authorities finally responded to hundreds of similar complaints and clamped down tightly on such activities at the airport.

Limousine services have been forbidden from stopping mid-way to expose their passengers to agents, and taxis are under strict orders to carry the visitors straight to their destinations.

K.Chatchawarn Ngarmtup, Director of Provincial Land Transport office of Phuket told the Phuket Post that according to a new agreement with the taxi service providers at the airport, “they have to take customers to the end-point without breaking the journey or taking customers to souvenir shops along the way, abandon them along the way, or taking them to wrong hotels, etc.

“The punishment for first time offenders is a suspension for three continuous working days. The second time the taxis are reported to have bent the rules, the culprits have to stop working for 7 days.

“And the third misdemeanour will result in the offenders being sacked from the the Phuket airport limousine association.”

K.Chatchawarn Ngarmtup added that there is in fact a new agreement being proposed and considered by Phuket Provincial, if this agreement were to be passed, the offending drivers would be sacked the very first time they broke the rules and harassed the passengers.

The Director has a word of advice for the tourists arriving on the island. He says, “I'd like to recommend that when you arrive at Phuket airport, you should only take taxis from the limousine counter at the airport, which is the legal and under the jurisdiction of the Airport Authority of Thailand.

“There is no guarantee at all for the taxi drivers outside who walk around to find tourists, and passengers are bound to be cheated or over-charged and harassed.”

This is indeed good news for the island, and hopefully, the rules will be implemented strictly, so that nightmarish experiences on the very arrival of the tourists will be a thing of the past.

For tourists on holiday, taxis and in the case of some Asian countries, tuk-tuks are the only means of getting around, especially on Phuket, which offers almost no public transport.

Very few tourists would actually like to rent a car and drive around themselves on their holiday.

Visitors are here to relax, and depend on the transport facilties offered by the local community to get around.

So being heavily dependent on taxi and tuk-tuk services, it's sad for them, and harmful for the reputation of the island, when tourists find themselves cheated or harassed by drivers.

Sandy, a tourist from the United States related to the Post her experience with a tuk-tuk driver. She traveled to Phuket alone and met two Irish girls traveling together in the lobby of their hotel in Patong. They struck up a friendship and decided to explore the island together. Their first stop was Phuket city, and the hotel arranged for this passage.

“So obviously, this went fine. We paid the taxi driver the agreed amount, and alighted at the market in town. After a morning exploring the Sino-Portuguese buildings, we sat down to lunch at a restaurant in the area.

“The owner was very helpful, and we chatted a bit. She recommended going to visit the waterfall at Bang Pae and after a hot day trudging the streets, we thought this was just what we'd like to do.”

So the three ladies flagged down a tuk-tuk and agreed on what seemed the right price for the ride.

“We were really looking forward to the waterfall, and sat back comfortably watching the town go by, when suddenly, we pulled into this drive-way.

“It didn't look like a gas-station, and it wasn't. We were ushered out by the driver, and led into what turned out to be a souvenir shop. 'Take a look, ten minute!' he said.

We told him we weren't interested, but in broken English he told us he had something to do and it would only take ten minutes. We walked in. The place was full of souvenir items, pieces of jewelry and paintings.

As we left, to clamber back into the tuk-tuk and were off on our way again, it was with a sense of forebodding. Sure enough, within no time at all, we were pulling into another drive-way. This time we firmly declined to go into the shop. The driver got extremely agitated and began talking animatedly about how he was taking us to the waterfall for a discounted rate.”

“I help you, you help me.” he stated. We explained that we weren't interested, and asked how much it would cost to drive there directly. He quoted an astronomical sum. It was just really all very nasty.

“We paid him what we'd agreed on initially, then and there, and decided to let him go. We left him muttering loudly and unpleasantly. Suddenly, all we wanted to do was get back to our hotel. It was not a nice experience at all.”

The Post to the manager of a very popular restaurant in Patong, who told us they had frequent complaints about taxis from their clientele.

“Our guests come from various parts of the island to dine here; the rates they pay to get here, and the rates to go back to their hotels, at the end of the evening are very different. Basically, the taxi drivers know they have no choice but to agree, how else are they going to get back to their hotels?”

Instances of drivers threatening to boycott the restaurants if the management tries to intervene in favour of the guests are not uncommon.

The owner of a spa on the island informed us, confidentially, that they have to pay a huge cut to the drivers that bring clients to the venues, sometimes as big as 50% of the value of the service enjoyed by the customers.

“We are happy to support the taxi drivers, but this is just extortion,” he says. “Once we had a client who had booked with us telephonically, and took a taxi just to get here. So the taxi hadn't 'brought him in' but charged us 50% anyway. And we had no choice but to pay, as otherwise, he threatened to make sure no other taxi brought any clients in here.”

Not all taxi drivers are cheats. There are examples of good drivers who are genuinely helpful and pleasant, and go out of their way to help the tourists. It's unfortunate though, that the actions of a few individuals mar the reputation of an entire segment.

The problem has been around a while. Various governmental authorities we spoke to accepted that the problems do indeed exist, but that these are difficult to adress as the root of the issue goes back a long way.

They mentioned however, that efforts are underway, and new rules are being proposed to help the situation.

There is great promise in the action taken by the government against the activities formerly taking place at the airport.

It is a step in the right direction, and one that heralds hope for other issues being addressed as well.

We hope for the image and sustained growth of the island, that the authorities will grab the problem by its horns and ensure that rather than the experiences with a few unscrupulous individuals after their own short-term, selfish interests, visitors to Phuket take back only happy memories of relaxed holidays, the great smiling, Thai hospitality, and the generous welcome that the locals extend to them.

http://phuket-post.com/article/phuket-loca...huket/ref1/rss/

[Super Hans]

Wow, what a lot of words to say nothing at all.

The van arrived, the driver shoe-horned all the cases in and off 10 of us went on a roller-coaster ride. I'd spent 4 days before in Bangkok so had an idea of Thai driving 'skills'. However, this minibus driver was something special. (In a bad way).

The hour and a half ride on that minibus was the single scariest time of my life. The driver was simply insane.

[geriatrickid]

Not doubting this happens, but on my regular trips back and forth to the airport, no one tried this. OK, maybe it's because I take the "limo" cars. Even the metered taxis have taken me right to where I'm going, no problem.

The only time I have had a problem is in Patong where the drivers ask the ubiquitious question "You want to meet girl?" When I say no. Long pause, so "You want to meet boy?" argh. I thought I'd be smart when they asked the girl question and replied oh no, the g/f would bite me for that. (Thank heavens for the dog.) That didn't work, the guy was persistent. Next time it happened, I said, oh jeez the b/f will scratch my eyes out ( Mr. Cat, probably would.) and then I smiled at him. That shut the driver up and he got me to where I needed to go fast. Suprisingly, I never have a problem with the motorbike taxis, particularly with the younger drivers. They're rather nice. Completely the opposite of BKK though.

[taxexile]

The owner of a spa on the island informed us, confidentially, that they have to pay a huge cut to the drivers that bring clients to the venues, sometimes as big as 50% of the value of the service enjoyed by the customers.

“We are happy to support the taxi drivers, but this is just extortion,” he says. “Once we had a client who had booked with us telephonically, and took a taxi just to get here. So the taxi hadn't 'brought him in' but charged us 50% anyway. And we had no choice but to pay, as otherwise, he threatened to make sure no other taxi brought any clients in here.”

The problem has been around a while. Various governmental authorities we spoke to accepted that the problems do indeed exist, but that these are difficult to adress as the root of the issue goes back a long way.

these problems are endemic to thailand , and other third world countries , and until a government with enough balls to address these problems by tackling and re structuring the police forces here ( who also have their snouts in the trough) these problems will never ever go away and tourists will always end up paying for the lazy lifestyles of the taxi drivers who seem to be able to sit around and exist on just one or two fares a day.

[smartecosse]

nothing will happen, since when are the elected officials in charge of anything here?

[simon43]

Did you know that the airport taxis company is owned . . by a hotel? That's why these drivers continually take unsuspecting tourists to the hotel owned by the airport taxi company, regardless of what destination the passenger has asked for.

As a hotel owner in Phuket, I know this problem very well and we advise all our guests never to take any taxi or limousine at the airport, because there is a high chance that these guests will never arrive at their intended destination. We provide a free 24/7 transfer service.

We were 'losing' perhaps 15% of our pre-booked guests to this scam. It got so bad that we had to insist that all pre-booked guests pay in advance for 1 night of accomodation at our hotel, just in case they never made it to our hotel!!

Simon

[Macx]

Four days ago, I saw a tuk-tuk with farang passengers go roaring down a small walking soi. The tuk-tuk honked at an elderly farang couple who were walking in the "walking" soi. The couple who must have been in their 70s didn't hear the tuk-tuk barreling down at them. The driver slammed on the break at the very last second, and practically tapped the poor old guy. The guy's wife pulled him out just in time. I could tell it nearly gave the man a heart attack. It was one of the nastiest, mean-spirited thing I had ever seen, and I've seen a lot in Thailand.

I've witnessed arguments between tuk-tuk and tourists. I've seen a tuk-tuk taking a turn too fast, flipping over, and seriously hurting the farang passengers. But, intentionally hurting/terrifying tourists who came to the country for a holiday and spend money is truly ugly.

[LivinLOS]

The Director has a word of advice for the tourists arriving on the island. He says, “I'd like to recommend that when you arrive at Phuket airport, you should only take taxis from the limousine counter at the airport, which is the legal and under the jurisdiction of the Airport Authority of Thailand.

“There is no guarantee at all for the taxi drivers outside who walk around to find tourists, and passengers are bound to be cheated or over-charged and harassed.”

What <deleted>. It was ALWAYS the concession minibus that did this (and some of the limo taxis).. How can a meter taxi not take you were you tell him, hes on the clock.

[DrDave]

... and, if they were to make good on their promise to suspend any driver that makes the stop at the travel agency, there would be nobody left to drive the minibuses! Every one of them does it.

As pointed out by LivingLOS - this IS the concession inside the airport at the "limo counter". Even though they had tons of complaints, they were able to renew their concession last year, and continue to provide the same shameful level of service. Save yourself the aggrevation and use the meter taxis, or find a freelance driver you trust and use him.

[JonnyF]

The metered taxis from/to the airport are fine - I use them at least twice a month and never had a problem...

As for other public transport around Phuket - it is a disgrace and will remain so for the foreseeable future - I boycott it at all costs...