Transport Ministry evaluating proposed rise in taxi surcharge at Suvarnabhumi

[webfact]

Transport Ministry evaluating proposed rise in taxi surcharge at Suvarnabhumi

BANGKOK, 24 Jan 2015, (NNT) - The Department of Land Transport has been tasked with studying the feasibility of raising the surcharge for the taxi service at Suvarnabhumi Airport to 100 baht, from 50 baht at present.

Taxi drivers at Suvarnabhumi International Airport have complained to authorities they are not making adequate income, and have requested that the 50 baht surcharge be raised to 100 baht.

Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong, the Minister of Transport, said evaluation of the proposal from the taxi drivers will be completed by January 29. If the feasibility study result is in favor of the proposal, a surcharge increase may be allowed. The required regulation amendment for such a rise would take about two weeks to complete, according to the minister.

ACM Prajin acknowledged that larger, 5-door taxis had higher costs of operation than the usual 4-door taxis. He also noted that the taxi surcharge at Don Mueang Airport would also be raised if an increase in the surcharge at Suvarnabhumi went ahead.


-- NNT 2015-01-24

[Mango Bob]

I through the surcharge was for the airport to provide the service. That the taxi paid the airport taxi desk and the passenger pays the driver. If you don't have to pay the fee to be picked up in town to go to the airport why should they get extra to pick you up at the airport. If they take someone to the airport they are assured of getting a trip back to town. If they want to see the taxi drivers make more money raise the meter rate and stop playing these games with these surcharges and baggage fees.

[Gunna]

As passengers are much heavier than luggage why not have an airport fee of 50bt per person, the first 50bt is kept by the airport for parking and any extra is for the taxi driver. Also when the 5 door larger taxis take more people and therefore use more fuel, they will get compensation

[NoBrainer]

The problem is that there are far too many taxis, that they will line up at the airport for an hour or two, in anticipation of getting a dumb farang that will pay them double or triple the metered rate, because they do not know any better.

In that case they get the money they would have made driving 6 or 8 short trips, without having to use any fuel. This makes it look like waiting at the airport for a few hours is better than driving around like normal taxis. It is the same case where you see many taxis waiting in front of popular hotel. They are just plain lazy, and would rather lay around sleeping, hoping to get that 1000 Baht for a short ride from some unsuspecting tourist, instead of just doing a days work.

In the odd case that I must use a taxi, i will just stand next to the parked ones and wait for one to drive by, as I think it is much better to leave the lazy drivers to lay around doing nothing, rather than encouraging them that this is a good business practise.

I sometimes will have to wait an extra few minutes, because some taxis are scared to stop, when these other rouge operators are standing by.

I suppose until people just stop using them, they will continue to do this.

Ever tried to get a taxi on Sukhumvit Soi 11? Forget about it. You just have to walk out of the Soi to Sukhumvit or Soi 3 where you can find a normal taxi.

What they should do at the airports, is limit the number of taxis waiting in the que for a passenger, to make it so the maximum time they will wait is about 10 minutes. Then there is no need for a surcharge at all.

As it is, this proposed surcharge is just saying that tourists should pay taxi drivers to sleep and not drive their taxis. If they want to sleep instead of working, why should we pay them?

[o2eZy]

I think the shuttle busses should be operating at the airports like in Australia where you get door to door service ...this would shut up the ripoff taxi drivers

every time I have caught a taxi from the airport I have tipped the driver

well that has changed now with all the bullshi......t they have been going on with...they want this whey want that ...the law says they have to use meters but they have their own law and using the meters is not one of theirs

shuttle busses could take upto 20 passengers and would be cheaper than taxi's....drop off points in the BKK CBD and other places on the way would be better than Taxi...shuttle bus service like the BKK van service ...maybe would take a month to work out the routes but would be a better service

[Loles]

I have never understood this 50 THB surcharge system at Suv. Airport.

You have to wait a queue with your bagd (sometimes long) than you have to tell to an operator woman, where do you want to go.

She waves to a cab and you can go with the driver to the cab.

The operator reminds you, you will pay 50 THB surcharge for the driver above the taxi-meter fare.

Why need this ???

Many tourists think it's a scam.

And this is the second "nice" experience at start within 30 minutes, the first was the Thai immigration ...

[Cuchulainn]

That's gonna push more people up to Floor 4 Departures looking for a taxi, or to the Airport Link.

[jwongbkk]

<deleted>?! instead of finding a solution to the problem of cheating, crooked taxi drivers, the minister actually is directly telling customers to SUCK IT UP and <deleted>.

well done, thainess at its very best as usual

creating problems to solve problems.

[JAG]

I have never understood this 50 THB surcharge system at Suv. Airport.

You have to wait a queue with your bagd (sometimes long) than you have to tell to an operator woman, where do you want to go.

She waves to a cab and you can go with the driver to the cab.

The operator reminds you, you will pay 50 THB surcharge for the driver above the taxi-meter fare.

Why need this ???

Many tourists think it's a scam.

And this is the second "nice" experience at start within 30 minutes, the first was the Thai immigration ...

The girls at the desk have been replaced by a bank of self service machines.

Mind you the other week 4 out of 5 were broken and the one that was working was being operated by a lass who took out the slip, handed ir to me and pointed me at a waiting taxi. (Who was quite happy to use the meter).

[naboo]

At BKK I use the Airport Link skytrain. At DMK I use the shuttle bus to Mo Chit BTS.

Problem solved.

[HerbalEd]

Overall Taxi fares in BKK are some of the cheapest in the world. So, I wouldn't have a problem with increasing the airport surcharge to 100 baht .... BUT only if the drivers would then stop whimpering about the fares AND play by the rules and stop their cheating ways. In other words: "Here's your increased price, not shut the f... up!"

[bubblegum]

Silly me thinking only Phuket was ruled by the taxi mob/mafia.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

No mention in the OP article of the recent proposal by airport taxi drivers to also start charging what, an 80 baht or so fee per suitcase, if I remember right.

And then, of course, in the past week, we had the big outburst about the airport taxi driver trying to rip off the Japanese tourist guy and him posting about it, and then the response by another airport taxi driver to put a sign in his taxi saying "No Japanese Customers."

I don't know if the airport taxi drivers deserve to get higher revenues for trips from the airport. But I do know this, they shouldn't be rewarded for their continuing illegal behavior like refusing to take meter trips, rejecting customers, and various other kinds of misdeeds, including meter tampering.

[midas]

I think the shuttle busses should be operating at the airports like in Australia where you get door to door service ...this would shut up the ripoff taxi drivers

every time I have caught a taxi from the airport I have tipped the driver

well that has changed now with all the bullshi......t they have been going on with...they want this whey want that ...the law says they have to use meters but they have their own law and using the meters is not one of theirs

shuttle busses could take upto 20 passengers and would be cheaper than taxi's....drop off points in the BKK CBD and other places on the way would be better than Taxi...shuttle bus service like the BKK van service ...maybe would take a month to work out the routes but would be a better service

Look if they can provide a decent limousine bus service at Seoul airport as an alternative to taxis there is absolutely no excuse the same can’t be provided here.

http://www.kallimousine.com/eng/schedule_en.asp

[h90]

That's gonna push more people up to Floor 4 Departures looking for a taxi, or to the Airport Link.

there is that rotating thing that you can't reach the taxis anymore

[Hobiecat]

I through the surcharge was for the airport to provide the service. That the taxi paid the airport taxi desk and the passenger pays the driver. If you don't have to pay the fee to be picked up in town to go to the airport why should they get extra to pick you up at the airport. If they take someone to the airport they are assured of getting a trip back to town. If they want to see the taxi drivers make more money raise the meter rate and stop playing these games with these surcharges and baggage fees.

The surcharge is for the taxi driver because depending on the time of day and the arrival of flights he could be sitting there for an hour with no fare. It's 50 Bt you stingy bast**d's, I really don't mind paying it.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Hobiecat

[rasmus5150]

That's gonna push more people up to Floor 4 Departures looking for a taxi, or to the Airport Link.

there is that rotating thing that you can't reach the taxis anymore

You can open "that rotating thing" half way, more than enough to get through with your bags. If the guards does not allow it, go to the ground floor and take the far right exit and go towards the mini mart on the other side of the road - many willing taxi's are waiting there, with meter and no 50 thb surcharge.

[tomyummer]

I would pay the extra 50 baht if they used taxis without the darn LPG tank in the trunk and I don't have to ride into town with my luggage on my lap.

[Tokay]

100, 500, 1000.... it will never be enough to make the system work correctly.

[webfact]

Taxi surcharge at airport could double
THE SUNDAY NATION



BANGKOK: -- THE LAND Transport Department is studying the feasibility of doubling the surcharge for taxis at Suvarnabhumi Airport from Bt50 at present.

Transport Minister Prajin Juntong said an evaluation of the proposal to raise the surcharge to Bt100 would be completed by January 29, the National News Bureau of Thailand reported.

If the feasibility study result was in favour of the proposal, which came after taxi drivers complained they had insufficient income, a surcharge increase may be allowed, Prajin said.

The required regulation amendment for such a rise would take about two weeks to complete, he said.

The surcharge at Don Mueang Airport would also be raised if an increase in the surcharge at Suvarnabhumi went ahead, he said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has urged taxi drivers not to take advantage of passengers, referring to the infamous case involving a cab driver at Suvarnabhumi Airport and a Japanese tourist that has gone viral on social media.

During the weekly broadcast of his TV programme "Returning Happiness to the People" on Friday night, Prayut urged drivers to turn their fare meters on and not turn down passengers, be they Thais or foreigners.

According to Prayut, an advanced queue-management system is used at Suvarnabhumi to eliminate the issue of drivers choosing passengers.

He said that because the number of complaints had risen about drivers failing to turn on their meters or turning down passengers, the airport set up taxi checkpoints at gates one to eight last Monday to inspect passenger queue tickets and ensure all drivers turn on their meters.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Taxi-surcharge-at-airport-could-double-30252621.html


-- The Nation 2015-01-25

[scorecard]

When Bkk taxis provide overall good quality service (help with bags, stop chatting on their phone for half the trip, and more...) then I will support better rates for them.

[maidee]

so raise in taxi fares, many not using the meter, and those poor buggers still dont make enough money?

time to go work in the factory

[Michael8511]

The Surcharge is US$1.54. In my opinion its a very small amount and it may help keep the drivers waiting at the airports. I think the bigger problem is that the drivers refuse to turn on the meter and are always fighting for a flat higher fee. I live in New York and every time u take a taxi here it's a surcharge that it's much higher then the ฿50.00. And maybe if the drivers get the suggested higher surcharge of ฿100.00 they will follow the meter rules and the total amount will be lower then the flat fee they are demanding now.

[impulse]

I'd like to see them adopt the multi-price model where the fares vary by the age, quality and capacity of the taxi vehicle.

Seems to work great in Seoul. But I learned it the hard way when I got into a nice black taxi in town and paid almost $100 meter to the airport. Next trip was around $50 meter in a colored taxi. Live and learn.

That way, I can choose to save money in an old beater, or spend some more and get a newer van sized vehicle with room for my entourage and their luggage (if I ever get an entourage).

And taxi drivers can choose between upgrading their vehicles and getting more, or keeping the same beater and making less than the guys with newer, better vehicles.

The new kiosk system seems to support that model since they always ask me how many in my party (usually 1) before handing me a slip of paper that leads me to a smaller taxi.

Edited January 25, 2015 by impulse

[richusa]

The Surcharge is US$1.54. In my opinion its a very small amount and it may help keep the drivers waiting at the airports. I think the bigger problem is that the drivers refuse to turn on the meter and are always fighting for a flat higher fee. I live in New York and every time u take a taxi here it's a surcharge that it's much higher then the ฿50.00. And maybe if the drivers get the suggested higher surcharge of ฿100.00 they will follow the meter rules and the total amount will be lower then the flat fee they are demanding now.

This not NEW YORK. I$¥@T

[Traveling Sailor]

The Surcharge is US$1.54. In my opinion its a very small amount and it may help keep the drivers waiting at the airports. I think the bigger problem is that the drivers refuse to turn on the meter and are always fighting for a flat higher fee. I live in New York and every time u take a taxi here it's a surcharge that it's much higher then the ฿50.00. And maybe if the drivers get the suggested higher surcharge of ฿100.00 they will follow the meter rules and the total amount will be lower then the flat fee they are demanding now.

I doubt that very much. TIT! I am willing to bet that the majority of taxi drivers will complain that they need to make more money, no matter how much they make. Basic greedy nature. Some people will never make enough money to satisfy their ego.

[rotorbreeze]

That's gonna push more people up to Floor 4 Departures looking for a taxi, or to the Airport Link.

Yes that is true..you know the system..Mafa payment of overpirced transport to city center when a trip up to departure taxi await in desperate Taxi driver's hand ways for attraction...once the taxi driver drops off his passenger..I usually await near a pillar to keep from security that keeps taxis moving out after drop off..well here it is...I rush out of building like I forgot my passport..or more believable one I use is... left my wife at hotel and need to get back ASASP...this is said to any security person whom approaches me!... once inside I speak Thai..assuring him he is LUCKY to have me! and give him my hotel address..making sure meter is on..or I know what the price is in the past...dam I give him directions! in Thai..again Thai-ness a way of working in a fare FAIR way..!!! Mr. Ron

[daveAustin]

I have never understood this 50 THB surcharge system at Suv. Airport.

Why need this ???

Many tourists think it's a scam.

Just a precursor to get people ready...

[Nemesis7]

See there you GO. The THAi and TAXI drivers MUST IN. I knew this was coming, and the government had to bend on their demands.

[jaiyen]

Head up to the 4th floor....Departures and get taxi there. No problem with knobheads, they all want a return fare into town. Eager to help. Never had a bad one yet as you can choose who you want.