Taxi Rate Hike

[crows]

My wife's children have been catching a taxi to school for the past 2 years. The daily fare has been around 100 baht and the trip takes about 20 minutes. Today her daughter contacted her and said there were lots of cars on the road and the trip took nearly 2 hours (we have since heard that there was a motor vehicle accident which was delaying traffic). When the children arrived at school the Taxi Driver charged them 200 baht. His reason being the extended time they had been in his vehicle. My understanding is that fares are based on the distance travelled not on a time basis. Can anyone confirm that this is correct or otherwise? As these children are young teenagers they were not prepared to question the driver and didn't take the driver's details. I just need some clarification so that my wife can encourage the children to question the fare should there be a similar occurrence in the future

[Sophon]

The fare is primarily based on the distance, but the meter will add 1.5 Baht/minute for each minute stationary or moving at less than 6 km/hr. You say that the trip took about an hour and a half longer than usual, so if all of those 90 minutes were spent (almost) stationary that would add 135 Baht to the normal fare.

The number in the top left corner is the minutes (almost) stationary, the distance is displayed in the top right.

All in all the fare doesn't sound out of the norm considering the traffic conditions you describe.

Sophon

Edit: Added pic

Edited July 21, 2016 by Sophon

[Chapelroad]

If it is a regular occurrence, as you suggest, surely you could have agreed a set daily rate with a regular taxi driver ?