Phuket Officials Tackle Taxi, Tuk-Tuk Blockades

[Hecate]

I have just come to Phuket for the first time and the ridiculous price of transport will cause me to leave earlier than planned. I feel sorry for the honest people trying to make a decent living here, and there are lots of them. The greedy taxi drivers will chase away all of their business. Taxis should be metered like everwhere else. Is there a government here, or what?

[LivinginKata]

This topic relates to "Tuk-Tuk Blockades". Off topic posts removed.

[Arkady]

“At the beginning of March, 120 people from tour agencies held a meeting at the Grand Centara [hotel] in Karon. A representative from Travel Spirit, one of five biggest Australian tour companies, was hit in the head by a taxi driver at the hotel entrance. He [the driver] did not know the man’s company brings about 450,000 tourists to Phuket each year.”

Of course, it would have considered perfectly OK to bash him over the head or even kill him, if he were bringing only a trivial number of tourists to Phuket.

[Arkady]

"Black plate" Taxis? That means a private car carrying paying passengers illegally. It just goes to show that the authorities have little control over anything in Phuket.

Wrong. The authorities have complete control over everything in Phuket. They run the mafia and pay big bucks to obtain the local government jobs they need to ensure the smooth operation of their illegal businesses. Foreign tourists are just meat to them.

If this were not the case, it would be very easy to solve. For a start Patong needs a system of public transport to get rid of the obnoxious tuk tuks. A circular songtheaw system like Pattaya would be a start and would also provide locals with cheap transportation (currently they have no choice but to purchase their own motor bikes). Guess who in Patong would not permit that.

Edited April 21, 2011 by Arkady

[sylver]

As another poster says, car rental is ABSOLUTELY the way to go in Phuket. It's a bit expensive if your idea of holidays is to stay at the same beach everyday, but if you like to move around and go to the less touristy places, it's cheaper than taxi, it's available when you need it, it gives you a place to store your valuables (theft is not very common in Thailand. For some reason, Thais prefer to extort money by force or threaten, theft is surprisingly rare) and it saves you from ever having to talk with the criminals who prass off as taxi drivers.

That last bit alone is worth the daily rental rates Being able to tell taxi touts to f... off and not depend on them for anything. If money is an issue, get a motorcycle.

[Soupdragon]

If corruption and greed had mass, would Phuket sink ???

[chivo]

This bit intrigues me, "In the short term, local taxis will be given access to 50% of tourists "

So it this going to be a lottery for the tourists. 50% are allowed to be ripped off?

How does a tourist ensure he is in the taxi free category. Will immigration hand out numbered tickets, evens your ok, odds you have to use a mafia taxi?

well said!

[notbritish]

These guys are a law unto them selves - no one with a uniform or a Govt position in Phuket will be able to (or want to) do anything as they are all on the take. Phuket justly deserves its reputation and the sooner it all folds the better. Anyone stupid enough to invest in Phuket has no chance As was told to me when I came here - only invest in Thailand what you are prepared to lose and walk away from. Never was there a truer statement. Be it real estate, or a bar girl! LOL.

Waw... that's a hit on the nailhead at 100%. Very correct statement!

Best thing about phuket's tourism eventual crumbling is that we will have the same price as everywhere else in thailand, as many people as they were on the east coast during sonkgran(AWESOME times, no traffic, no excessive amount of people in any store, less crazy people sitting in the middle of the road, etc) and lower housing price while living close to the beach and losing a ton of evil tuktuk drivers and all their evil cousin who came here from the infamous violent province that is nakhon sri tammarat(if you read any newspaper you'll see most murders come from them)

[lounger]

was hit in the head by a taxi driver at the hotel entrance. He [the driver] did not know the man’s company brings about 450,000 tourists to Phuket each year.

A motor cycle taxi removed his safety helmet and hit me over the head with it. But that's fair game as I dont bring 450,000 tourists to phuket each year ................

So is this a story about

1) double standards

2) a Tour operator being clobbered

3) tourists being diverted to other destinations

4) What it takes to get officialdom moving..

any answer which includes the words 'mafia losing out' wins an overcharged tuk tuk ride

[barney42bb]

What does he mean,,,Ruining the Islands reputation,??

It's been trashed for some years now...Overpriced Scams Jet-ski and Tut Tuk Mafias mugging off tourists...Is it no wonder many leave vowing never to return...and frequent holidaymakers are no longer coming back.

The Taxi and Tuk Tuk system has been a shambles for years...Patong's Road layout is ideal for a 10 baht Song-tail(Baht Bus ) system ...That has operated in Pattaya for many years,with Taxi Meter Cabs coming and going without fear of reprisal.

It's time Phuket and many parts of Thailand understand their is a recession on....and they have to try harder to entice customers...rather than raise prices scam cheat their way to make a living.

[patsouth]

I don't go to Phuket any longer due to transportation issues there.

[herb59]

next will be samui.....

[Fookhaht]

I don't go to Phuket any longer due to transportation issues there.

I've been to Phuket twice (2006 and this month), and both trips had problems with the Tuk-Tuk Mafia. (Nearly assaulted for parking my motorbike near a tuk-tuk in 2006, and recently, the difficulty of getting from Kammala Beach to Patong for anything less than 300 baht--about 6 km?). Ridiculous.

Likewise, due to transportation issues, Phuket is off my list for any future travel.

[Wallaby]

I have been to Phuke twice in the last year. Every year we get an overseas trip for our work xmas party. This year the boss asked me to price/organise 20 of us to go to Phuket.

We're going to Fiji.

[theanimaster]

Fine investigative work by the governor, looking up what all the websites say and then basing his assumptions straight away on that, rather than looking into it himself.

He must be a regular ThaiVisa follower.

Phuket deserves it's "reputation". It's the shithole of Thailand, and I hope Mr. ShitholeofThailand Governor is reading this, coz it's pretty obvious that by his statements they don't care about tourists at all, instead favouring the scum of the earth.

I wonder why though?

Anyways.

[Honolulu]

I know one thing that would help.

Instead of the tuk-tuks having all of the stupid restaurant advertising on the side, they should all have the name of the owner/operator clearly visable. That way people can begin to boycott the offending taxi companies.

Start with Ao Makham! I will no longer use their service.

[kathukid]

I know one thing that would help.

Instead of the tuk-tuks having all of the stupid restaurant advertising on the side, they should all have the name of the owner/operator clearly visable. That way people can begin to boycott the offending taxi companies.

Start with Ao Makham! I will no longer use their service.

Hello Jimmy! Nice to see you back

[Honolulu]

This is actually an easy problem to solve.

All it takes is one GOOD, tourist friendly, taxi company, a little help from the authorities, some good advertising, and soon the whole lot of bad operators will be out of business, back to picking rice or cleaning fish. Capitalism 101.

[Chupup]

I remember when Puket was a really nice island and i loved to go there, oh how things change, my last visit was three years ago on a family holiday and i have vowed never to return, friends ask me why and i give them the full S P which inclueds all the usual suspects :- Tuk tuk, jetski ect, needless to say most do not bother with Puket or Thailand when its time for a holiday !!! and to be honest WHO can blame them ??

[Soupdragon]

This is actually an easy problem to solve.

All it takes is one GOOD, tourist friendly, taxi company, a little help from the authorities, some good advertising, and soon the whole lot of bad operators will be out of business, back to picking rice or cleaning fish. Capitalism 101.

Your simple solution to a very complex problem is unworkable simply because the present cartel is run by the "authorities" who would never allow this to happen.This is not a free market we are discussing but some powerful peoples fiefdom. It will take someone with considerable influence to break this but sadly that someone is not looking this way.

[KarenBravo]

Fifteen to twenty years ago, Phuket relied on repeat visitors. No more. First time visitors are in the majority by far. There are plenty of first time visitors to replace those that vow never to come again.

As for all the obvious, simplistic solutions, it just shows that these posters have absolutely no idea how things work in Thailand.