Pt Taxi Issue

[texanaust]

Hi,

I've used PT Taxi a few times on the recommendation of others from this forum. Today I had them take us from Pattaya to south of Rayong. We were stopped by Police about halfway down and these guys were no nonsense. The driver told us to lie that we were not paying him for the ride. Unsure of what to do and with only seconds to decide, we lied. Apparently our driver is not licensed for hire and would have been fined 1000bht had we said yes. Normally I would not have done this, but I had a feeling that my family would have ended up on the side of the road with our suitcases in hand had we admitted the truth. We also had our passports thoroughly checked including the officer asking each one of us our names.

In the end it was all smiles and off we went. My question is twofold. Are any of their drivers licensed and is this a normal occurrence? Should we be using someone else or are all of these services unlicensed?

Thanks

[cnx355]

This happened to two friends of mine last month going from Pattaya to Ban Phe with PT Taxi. It seem the police are checking on private

taxi service at the moment.

If you want pay a lot more use the official taxi; All public transport vehicles that charge money need to have a yellow plate with black numbers ( taxi-tuk-tuk- bus- minivan etc.....) A private minivan that belong to factory or a tour compagny to carry employee or customers have white plate and blue numbers. They are not public transport.

"Official limousine plate" at major airport have a special green plate with white number . Limo price .... expensive ....

I also use PT Taxi and other local private taxi in Pattaya and I happy with that. They have a regular private car plate.

[jmac]

In these invalid taxis, is their insurance valid if there was an accident?

[RabC]

I would hazard a guess that with other countries, if you are using your vehicle for an illegal purpose then your insurance will be invalid, The only reason my company shells out for (AOT) Airport Limos is that they are about the only private hire to/from the Airport that are legal and fully insured. The BKK Taxi meters travelling from Pattaya to Swampy are doing so illegally so again invalid insurance, also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

In these invalid taxis, is their insurance valid if there was an accident?

Insurance? What insurance?

You need to have your own insurance. What a dude with a car does is his business but I'm not relying on him having triple A 5 star insurance for anything that might happen to his passengers.

This is Thailand, and you're on your own.

(EDIT: While that sounds a tad negative and may not be strictly true, it won't hurt to make that your base assumption with anything you do.)

Edited March 8, 2013 by WinnieTheKhwai

[RabC]

In these invalid taxis, is their insurance valid if there was an accident?

Insurance? What insurance?

You need to have your own insurance. What a dude with a car does is his business but I'm not relying on him having triple A 5 star insurance for anything that might happen to his passengers.

This is Thailand, and you're on your own.

(EDIT: While that sounds a tad negative and may not be strictly true, it won't hurt to make that your base assumption with anything you do.)

My employers policy forces them to use fully insured taxis/transport in all countries. Can work out quite expensive in some places.

[rgs2001uk]

I would hazard a guess that with other countries, if you are using your vehicle for an illegal purpose then your insurance will be invalid, The only reason my company shells out for (AOT) Airport Limos is that they are about the only private hire to/from the Airport that are legal and fully insured. The BKK Taxi meters travelling from Pattaya to Swampy are doing so illegally so again invalid insurance, also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are.

also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are

Why would the meter need to be running, in theory the only time the meter should be running is inside Bkk, for destinations outside Bkk these taxis should have in the cab a price list that list many destinations all over Thailand.

For the legality of it, they are not doing anything illegal by not running the meter, you can bet your bottom dollar if not running the meter was illegal these taxis would be being stopped by the police, for insurance I cant comment.

Is it a driver owned taxi, with his own insurance, or is it a rented taxi that the driver rents by the day?

Sorry cant answer the question about insurance.

[RabC]

I would hazard a guess that with other countries, if you are using your vehicle for an illegal purpose then your insurance will be invalid, The only reason my company shells out for (AOT) Airport Limos is that they are about the only private hire to/from the Airport that are legal and fully insured. The BKK Taxi meters travelling from Pattaya to Swampy are doing so illegally so again invalid insurance, also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are.

also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are

Why would the meter need to be running, in theory the only time the meter should be running is inside Bkk, for destinations outside Bkk these taxis should have in the cab a price list that list many destinations all over Thailand.

For the legality of it, they are not doing anything illegal by not running the meter, you can bet your bottom dollar if not running the meter was illegal these taxis would be being stopped by the police, for insurance I cant comment.

Is it a driver owned taxi, with his own insurance, or is it a rented taxi that the driver rents by the day?

Sorry cant answer the question about insurance.

The Taxis licences is to operate in or from BKK with the fitted meter running. To take passengers from Pattaya to BKK is certainly illegal which is why you never speak to the driver and use some roadside booth who will then find the driver. Same as trying to use a London Hackney Carriage in say Southampton. I for one wish to know that I am fully insured when travelling the roads of Thailand especially on business.

[wpcoe]

There was discussion of this in one of the threads in the Suvarnabhumi Airport section. Apparently all the recommended Pattaya rides, like Mr.T, PT, etc are not legal as paid transport. One passenger to Pattaya was even told to lie down on the back seat of the car for the first km or so, so that the police wouldn't see him.

[rgs2001uk]

I would hazard a guess that with other countries, if you are using your vehicle for an illegal purpose then your insurance will be invalid, The only reason my company shells out for (AOT) Airport Limos is that they are about the only private hire to/from the Airport that are legal and fully insured. The BKK Taxi meters travelling from Pattaya to Swampy are doing so illegally so again invalid insurance, also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are.

also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are

Why would the meter need to be running, in theory the only time the meter should be running is inside Bkk, for destinations outside Bkk these taxis should have in the cab a price list that list many destinations all over Thailand.

For the legality of it, they are not doing anything illegal by not running the meter, you can bet your bottom dollar if not running the meter was illegal these taxis would be being stopped by the police, for insurance I cant comment.

Is it a driver owned taxi, with his own insurance, or is it a rented taxi that the driver rents by the day?

Sorry cant answer the question about insurance.

The Taxis licences is to operate in or from BKK with the fitted meter running. To take passengers from Pattaya to BKK is certainly illegal which is why you never speak to the driver and use some roadside booth who will then find the driver. Same as trying to use a London Hackney Carriage in say Southampton. I for one wish to know that I am fully insured when travelling the roads of Thailand especially on business.

The Taxis licences is to operate in or from BKK with the fitted meter running.

Why does the meter need to be running?

Every Bkk taxi should have the following price list in the cab, so a destination outside of Bkk doesnt need the meter to be running, eg Pattaya, if I get a cab in the street in Bkk and say Pattaya the driver just hands a price list, not always adhered to.

As for insurance, I doubt we will ever know the legallity, has Somchai the driver actually got a taxi license, is he driving another holders cab, many times in taxis I have looked at the details and then looked at the driver, they bear no resemblance.

Has the owner subcontracted his cab?

Dont even get started on the legallity of the car.

[RabC]

I would hazard a guess that with other countries, if you are using your vehicle for an illegal purpose then your insurance will be invalid, The only reason my company shells out for (AOT) Airport Limos is that they are about the only private hire to/from the Airport that are legal and fully insured. The BKK Taxi meters travelling from Pattaya to Swampy are doing so illegally so again invalid insurance, also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are.

also when travelling BKK to Pattaya, if the meter isnt running I am not sure how legal/insured they are

Why would the meter need to be running, in theory the only time the meter should be running is inside Bkk, for destinations outside Bkk these taxis should have in the cab a price list that list many destinations all over Thailand.

For the legality of it, they are not doing anything illegal by not running the meter, you can bet your bottom dollar if not running the meter was illegal these taxis would be being stopped by the police, for insurance I cant comment.

Is it a driver owned taxi, with his own insurance, or is it a rented taxi that the driver rents by the day?

Sorry cant answer the question about insurance.

The Taxis licences is to operate in or from BKK with the fitted meter running. To take passengers from Pattaya to BKK is certainly illegal which is why you never speak to the driver and use some roadside booth who will then find the driver. Same as trying to use a London Hackney Carriage in say Southampton. I for one wish to know that I am fully insured when travelling the roads of Thailand especially on business.

The Taxis licences is to operate in or from BKK with the fitted meter running.

Why does the meter need to be running?

Every Bkk taxi should have the following price list in the cab, so a destination outside of Bkk doesnt need the meter to be running, eg Pattaya, if I get a cab in the street in Bkk and say Pattaya the driver just hands a price list, not always adhered to.

taxi-rates-from-bangkok_1.jpg

As for insurance, I doubt we will ever know the legallity, has Somchai the driver actually got a taxi license, is he driving another holders cab, many times in taxis I have looked at the details and then looked at the driver, they bear no resemblance.

Has the owner subcontracted his cab?

Dont even get started on the legallity of the car.

The reason why when on Business I always use private limos that can produce the required documentation. Just because a BKK taxi driver shows me a copied price list doesn't mean I believe it is legal and above board.

[texanaust]

PT is charging me and extra 200bht on the way back because we have too much luggage and that is why we were stopped by the police! Oh well, perhaps I should have told the truth and then they would be out 1000bht...I think I'll be trying someone else after this ride. They have not been very professional despite the recommendations. 150km/h back from the airport at 1:30am with the driver falling asleep should have been my tipoff.