Taxi passenger dragged out of car by driver

By Coconuts Bangkok

BANGKOK: -- At 4AM yesterday, a female tour guide filed a police report against a taxi driver accusing him of refusing to provide her service and physically assaulting her.

The incident began at a pub on Soi Sukhumvit 11 in the early hours of Jan. 6 when Kanyanat Chamwecha, a 33-year-old guide, was trying to take a taxi home. Despite the large number of cabs queuing by the sidewalk, none was willing to drive her to Sukhumvit 39.

“They were waiting only for foreign passengers since they paid more,” a furious Kanyanat told police. “I decided to call on passing taxis instead” [more...]

Full story: http://www.coconutsb...-car-by-driver/

-- COCONUTS Bangkok 2013-01-07

Foreign passengers pay what is written on the meter ..... unless they are stupid enough to pay what the taxi wants but that is another story , more and more it seems taxi in Bangkok have too much money as they refuse to bring you if they are not in the mood. This happen all the time.

1,000 baht fine possible for assaulting a woman. Perhaps if they made it that cheap in my country I would make it a hobby to assault women. Of course I'm not serious, but I do think it's outrageous.

Soi 11 is notorious for this. In the early hours it can easily take 30-45 mins to crawl through the jam of mostly empty taxis to get out of the soi. Not one of them wants to go anywhere by meter.

Even during the day, the taxi thugs have gradually taken over almost all the on-street parking.

Quite amazing that 20 years ago it was difficult to find a taxi from Soi 11 at night because it was dark and deserted. Now you can't get a taxi for the taxis.

I live in sathon and it amazes me the number of taxi's I sometimes have to flag down before one is willing to take me where I want to go. As for the popular tourist areas (I.e sukhumvit, patpong) i have seen them queuing up, yet refusing to take passengers unless they pay up. Unfortunately sooner or later someone will pay over the odds generally out of drunken desperation to get home, which the taxi drivers know only too well. it's not right and rather annoying.

Foreign passengers pay what is written on the meter ..... unless they are stupid enough to pay what the taxi wants but that is another story , more and more it seems taxi in Bangkok have too much money as they refuse to bring you if they are not in the mood. This happen all the time.

They had a purge last year on drivers refusing to take fares. This certainly improved things in my experience. Towards the end of last year things declined again. I started to get the regular excuses - no fuel, starting break, finishing shift, or just a rude "mai chai". Then you see the same driver pick up another passenger just down the road! I went with a UK colleague from the Erawan to the Novotel arround 9.00pm and the driver tried several times to agree a set price and only after a strong conversation reluctantly put the meter on. (Probably because the hotel security keep a note of his numbers). The fare was a third of the 'set price".

1000 THB is the fine for refusing the fare. Assault should be a different charge altogether.

I find occasionally having to wait for the third or fourth taxi if heading out of town.

Soi 4 or 11 are the worst naturally.

1,000 baht fine possible for assaulting a woman. Perhaps if they made it that cheap in my country I would make it a hobby to assault women. Of course I'm not serious, but I do think it's outrageous.

I think the fine they are talking about there is because the driver refused to take her to the destination - yes, in theory, they *must* accept the fare.

The matter of assault I don't think the police were considering until after the hospital examination for evidence of injury.

Well, this will only stop happening when the Thai's themselves get so pissed off about it that a stink is made and things change.

The taxi on soi 11 would have surely also turned down any foreigners want to pay the meter rate as well, so it is not just a racial issue

If ever in that area, don't even bother asking any of the taxi that are parked on the side of the road... No matter where you are, these guys are just looking to rip off tourists. None of them will use their meter no matter what race you are

Thailand's future, becoming reality.

Phuket will not be alone for much longer.... It is the future of most places in Thailand where there are numbers of Westerners.

Thailand's future, becoming reality.

Phuket will not be alone for much longer.... It is the future of most places in Thailand where there are numbers of Westerners.

So... you are saying it is the tourist's fault that the taxi driver(s) concerned had no respect for the laws and regulations? Interesting argument....

I think it's more to do with the fact that they understand they won't be caught as 99.999% of people will not lodge a complaint - so no fine....

Taxis play games with us so I play it with them....

I open the back left door and ask if they are willing to take me, when they refuse I gently shut the door so its not closed all the way and walk on

Its a serious stretch for them to reach the back left door to shut it

I've gotten in the habit of just getting in and sitting down before I state my destination. That works sometimes. Yesterday, for the first time, I found a cab that had the doors locked. The driver simply reached back to roll down the window before waving me off and driving away.

It's criminal.

They benefit from being licensed, but refuse their responsibilities for fair service.

Just another layer of corruption in the system.

Thailand's future, becoming reality.

Phuket will not be alone for much longer.... It is the future of most places in Thailand where there are numbers of Westerners.

So... you are saying it is the tourist's fault that the taxi driver(s) concerned had no respect for the laws and regulations?

No, I'm not.

I'm saying that where tourists and Westerners are, is going to bring out the Worst in Thai society over the next few years. Phuket was first to go. It's not going to be the last. Phuket is the future of Thailand where Westerners are together in large numbers.

What kind of tours are these female guides giving at 4am?

can we drag out also a taxi driver with max 1000 THB fine? I think in case he try make sight seeing instead to bring you from A - Z.

I live opposite Seacon Square ... the shortest and direct way to Udom Suk Skyline is UDOM SUK Rd.about 3 km. 70% of driver take a different way even I tell them where to go. So it make me 6 - 8 km, double fare and loose time this was one of few samples! I have impression more and more taxi driver get aggressiv and rude! For this only tip and good tip to the good one!

Darned arrogant, who does he think he is, a Phuket Tuk-Tuk driver?

This kind of thing happens 2 or 3 times a week with me.

Because its a short distance the driver doesn't want to turn on the meter and charge a flat fee of 100 baht.

Soi 11 to 39 on the meter would be half or less than that.

I just ask now "meter". If they say yes I get in or waive them off. Sometimes it takes 5 cabs before I will get an honest driver and then I am always happy to give him 100 baht but I won't be told I have to by a thieving cab driver.

1,000 baht fine possible for assaulting a woman. Perhaps if they made it that cheap in my country I would make it a hobby to assault women. Of course I'm not serious, but I do think it's outrageous.

I think the fine they are talking about there is because the driver refused to take her to the destination - yes, in theory, they *must* accept the fare.

The matter of assault I don't think the police were considering until after the hospital examination for evidence of injury.

this is all very sad and seems to be getting worse...some taxi drivers are clearly too aggressive and arrogant...almost scary at times... the issue with them refusing to use the meter near tourist spots like Patpong etc is related to them having to pay the police to be allowed to park there. Ask any cabbie and they tell you they ahve to pay the police so need to recover it from the customers. The issue of a lot of them refusing to go where you want sees to be becoming a regular thing...not sure why...they cite the destination being too far, not enough time, or not familiar with the area of the destination, too much traffic that will waste their time etc. And they can get really aggressive. I have seen this first hand outside Siam Paragon a couple weeks ago. It's a nightmare and nobody seems to be able to control this. I had overseas guests at a 5 star hotel in sukhumvit 3 days ago and I got a taxi for them via the hotel concierge just outside the lobby (with the cc tv cameras) and it took 4 attemtps to finally get a driver ready to take the passengers to the Kaset Unoversity area around 7 pm on friday evening. Upon inquirng with the hotel staff as to what phone number to call to complain (there was this police number published recently), I was told it's a fruitless effort, as the police will only 'catch' them when they go to renew their car registrations. By which time it wil betoo late and also the excuse that the said driver who committed the offence is not actually the car owner. Basically, no accountability and no action is taken by the police.

How will this go away ? Unless the police are serious about pulling up rogue taxi drivers, this will never happen... the fact that the police accept bribes to allow taxis to park at certain spots with many passengers does not help.

either way, it can be a frightening experience to deal with an aggressive and bad tempered taxi driver...

As soon as a driver rolls down his window I tell him to piss off because no matter where I want to go, they dont want to, so stop wasting my time. No I'm not a tourist, I have lived in BKK for 4 years. Surprisingly I still see a lot of Thai's opening the back door and asking the driver if he wants to take them, it will take everyone exercising their rights before there is change. The other night upon leaving Hard Rock a driver refused, after much debate my partner finally was convinced to call the complaint line. By this time we were in another taxi, the driver over heard the conversation and praised us for taking action. Not sure if the other driver would ever be fined as actioning laws in Thailand are not as making laws.

Dam_n, so soon after that feel good taxi story too.

As of 1 September 2012 it was illegal for a taxi to refuse a fare, but nothing has changed, the law is not even worth the paper it is written on despite all the propaganda at the time it was announced. My wife works on Sukhumvit way out towards Bang Na and no taxi will pick her up to bring her to our house because they have no clue that if they just get on the expressway at Soi 62 it only takes 15 minutes to get to Sathorn, so she drives and I take taxis. Living on Sathorn Road and having to go to the airport I find no problem to get a cab to take me for the meter fare (but I always pay more because they are going almost 50km with not that much chance of a return fare so 50 baht on top is reasonable - in Singapore you have to pay add-ons to go to/from the airport, add-ons for peak periods and after hours and more in other places, time we all got real and let these guys make a decent living). Conversely when trying to get a taxi to bring me from my office at Ratchaprasong to Sathorn they all refuse, I normally have to walk over to Langsuan and get a taxi there to avoid the greed of the taxis around Erawan area near my office. I took a photo of a taxi with his "fai wang" (little red sign saying he was available) after he refused me and told him I would report him to the police hot line, he got out of the car, berated me in some pretty nasty Thai profanity, threatened me and drove off. The staff of the hotel lobby I was standing at did nothing to assist and were next to useless (a 5 star hotel in the Ratchaprasong area where I have my office and spend oodles on noodles and more). So the consumer continues to have no rights in this lovely country unless you can buy them and even then the thugs control it. Taxis in Bangkok are becoming more and more like mafia thugs similar to their Phuket cousins, it will be a wonder if Thailand can maintain any kind of tourism popularity except for Chinese (who don't know any better). However, in their defence (The Taxis'), when I arrived in Thailand in 1991 the "flag fall" to start the meter was not much less than the current 35 baht, and the price per 200 meters (or whatever) hasn't much changed, yet the price of fuel has gone from 6.8 baht in those days to over 45 baht nowadays (as a comparison, I know they use gas mostly but don't know the price of gas in those days). So... cut them some slack, pay over the meter if you can because frankly if you were in London, Sydney, New York, or pretty much any other city you could never get a taxi from the airport to the city for under $10... Singapore, KL, Jakarta - also cannot - only Manila are the taxi prices about the same but there you end up in a dirty smelly old corolla or similar with bad airconditioning and taxi drivers who do not know the way around, but mostly at least they are polite. I travel frequently, in and out of the country on business at least weekly and sometimes twice in one week I am making my way back and forth from the airport, 90% of the taxis are in reasonable condition, drivers pretty much know where they are going and drive reasonably carefully (for taxi drivers - try Moscow if you want to be scared as hell, ripped off or mugged). Of the other 10% either the driver is new and doesn't know how to get to Sathorn, or the car is smelly without good air con or the driver appears to be over stimulated (if you know what I mean). Any cheap skate that pays only whats on the meter better avoid New York where the drivers expect to get at least 10% above it if not 20% and will give you heaps of crap if no tip offered. But to the point of the article, a taxi driver cursing a passenger and physically assaulting them should be banned from holding a license for life, definitely the crime committed is under penalised in Thailand, which is why in our last election some HiSo types were quite willing to go around slapping the faces of others knowing it would only end in a 500 baht fine... be careful Farangs, if you think getting into a fight and hitting someone will only get a small fine, its still a criminal offence even if the fine is small and that means instant deportation once you serve your sentence (eg pay the fine).

Thailand's future, becoming reality.

Phuket will not be alone for much longer.... It is the future of most places in Thailand where there are numbers of Westerners.

So... you are saying it is the tourist's fault that the taxi driver(s) concerned had no respect for the laws and regulations?

No, I'm not.

I'm saying that where tourists and Westerners are, is going to bring out the Worst in Thai society over the next few years. Phuket was first to go. It's not going to be the last. Phuket is the future of Thailand where Westerners are together in large numbers.

Pattaya has been established longer than Phuket as a 'tourist' destination - while it's certainly not a shining example of ways to do things, if we are talking public transport here, it's much better off than Phuket....

I've gotten in the habit of just getting in and sitting down before I state my destination. That works sometimes. Yesterday, for the first time, I found a cab that had the doors locked. The driver simply reached back to roll down the window before waving me off and driving away.

It's criminal.

They benefit from being licensed, but refuse their responsibilities for fair service.

Just another layer of corruption in the system.

absolutely true...this happened to me outside Siam Paragon couple weeks ago when I took the skytrain there and while returning home, chose to take a taxi because the queues at the train ticket window were too long...

criminal indeed... one taxi driver even screamed at me and gave me the middle finger when I challenged him to explain why he will not take us to Rama 3 area... the fact that I was with my teenage daughter did not deter him from behaving in a rogue fashion....scary thing to happen... some taxi drivers have no concern if the passengers have family with them.... can't imagine what some tourists would be facing while dealing with the wring cabbie...

can we drag out also a taxi driver with max 1000 THB fine? I think in case he try make sight seeing instead to bring you from A - Z.

I live opposite Seacon Square ... the shortest and direct way to Udom Suk Skyline is UDOM SUK Rd.about 3 km. 70% of driver take a different way even I tell them where to go. So it make me 6 - 8 km, double fare and loose time this was one of few samples! I have impression more and more taxi driver get aggressiv and rude! For this only tip and good tip to the good one!

Assault is a criminal offence, you may get only a 1,000 baht fine but then police will send you over to immigration for deportation for having committed a criminal offence.

you should see some of those taxi from kuala lumpur...they are no different...rough

Thailand's future, becoming reality.

Phuket will not be alone for much longer.... It is the future of most places in Thailand where there are numbers of Westerners.

So... you are saying it is the tourist's fault that the taxi driver(s) concerned had no respect for the laws and regulations?

No, I'm not.

I'm saying that where tourists and Westerners are, is going to bring out the Worst in Thai society over the next few years. Phuket was first to go. It's not going to be the last. Phuket is the future of Thailand where Westerners are together in large numbers.

Pattaya has been established longer than Phuket as a 'tourist' destination - while it's certainly not a shining example of ways to do things, if we are talking public transport here, it's much better off than Phuket....

Transport. Scams. Extortion. Bribery. Thefts, both violent and not. This is the Thai society that manifests and grows from Western tourism.

Taxis play games with us so I play it with them....

I open the back left door and ask if they are willing to take me, when they refuse I gently shut the door so its not closed all the way and walk on

Its a serious stretch for them to reach the back left door to shut it

Have you ever thought that the guy you ask may be finishing his shift and honestly can't take you to you requested place?

Not all taxis driver play games, there are many hard-working honest drivers, many from Isarn, who work 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week of a pretty dismal salary.

It's hardly a wonder they think what they do of foreigners with this little trick you play.

The question is why didn't she exit the cab respectfully when he refused to take her. What a dingbat. It's not like he's obligated to take her. He's running a business and needs to earn a proper buck.