A modest proposal to raise baht bus fares

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, sandgroper2 said:

Quite rightly so if one has to take multiple trips. For me to go from jomtien  to Tukcom, its 2 rides, nearly 2/3 of a dollar. Exorbitant. And then of course, i have to come back , another 2/3 of a dollar.

Sarcastic I see, but double that considering the level of the experience and arguably too much. 

[sandgroper2]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Sarcastic I see, but double that considering the level of the experience and arguably too much. 

 

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Sarcastic I see, but double that considering the level of the experience and arguably too much. 

I am confused, i was agreeing with you. "double" what? What "experience"? "too much" what?

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, sandgroper2 said:

 

I am confused, i was agreeing with you. "double" what? What "experience"? "too much" what?

I really thought your post was in a mocking POV.

In any case, doubling the fare from 10 to 20 would make your example trip arguably overpriced, costing 80 baht RT.

By "experience" I mean they are open aired trucks, the drivers are often rude, the driving is often jerky/ too fast / erratic, the drivers often speed up before incoming passengers have a chance to sit down,  you are often crammed in there like sardines, sometimes have to wait in queues and hustle for seats, cross town queues you need to wait in a HOT truck for it to fill, the passengers sometimes blow smoke in your face, some of the trucks are spouting out masses of exhaust that goes right into the truck, etc. etc. 

Edited September 9, 2016 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, thaitero said:

Separate token system

In Thailand we have this 10 baht coin and 5 baht coin. Here is your "token(s)".

 

That is very true and that is another option, just simply raise the fare to 15 baht. In that case I reckon they would also raise the undefined "long ride" fare to 30 baht.

 

But I doubt they'll ever do that. I think someday they'll raise the regular fare to 20 baht and probably go with a racial based cheaper fare for Thai appearing people.  They would also raise the long ride fare to either 30 or 40. 

 

The reason I think they haven't tried 15 baht is that it would greatly increase the time drivers take with making change.

 

Currently, I think that majority of groups are either one or two persons, meaning the fare is 10 or 20 baht.

With that majority, the majority of them pay with either one coin (10 baht) or one note 20 baht.

Most people don't need change ... that speeds things up for all.

If most people did need change ... that slows things down for all.

If the fare was 15, the majority of fares would be 15 or 30 (for one or two passengers). I think most people would not have exact change for that.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

The rent may indeed be too damn high (probably isn't in Pattaya) but perhaps it's true that the baht bus fares are too damn low?

 

 

Maybe I should do a poll? 

Edited September 9, 2016 by Jingthing

[rapom]

Why wait for a price increase, just go ahead and pay him more.

[KittenKong]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I think the fact that in high season you can see 10 trucks going by empty in Jomtien hustling for CHARTER fares, passing crowds of angry tourists seeking 10 baht bus rides, proves something is wrong with the 10 baht fare. Yes it shows the drivers are greedy as well, but if the bus fares paid them better, logically that behavior would be reduced. 

 

Raising prices would have little effect on that. I think you are mistaken about why these drivers dont stop to collect the many people waiting for transport in Jomtien as logic indicates that a full load of passengers at 10B each will probably be as much as they would get for a charter, and possibly even more. The bird in the hand would count for something also.

Quite why the drivers dont stop in Jomtien is unknown to me (perhaps they dont want to spend 30 minutes in the massive nightly traffic jam in South Pattaya and know some way around it?) but the answer, if there is one, is to make it a licence offence for them not to stop to pick up "regular" fares. Just like it is for taxis and buses in most countries. Of course enforcement of such a rule is another matter and this being Thailand it would not be easy.

[anto]

>>  In fact I suspect that they earn a very good living.  <<......i suspect they are struggling at current rates ,plus current traffic congestion .B15 would seem about right .

When i first came to Pattaya around 2002 ,the fare was B5 for Thai and B10 for all others .A few years later it became a flat B10 fare for both .

[Bangkok Barry]

14 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah, could be.

I had thought of that but this was a rough concept thing. Devil is in the details.

Perhaps do it by prompt pay on mobiles.

A 15 "token" or some other way / 20 if paying by cash would in effect be a very substantial raise in fares as many people would just pay the 20, even for short rides. 

So any overhead / risk with the 15 system could be well worth it for the baht bus operators. 

 

You've obviously been in Thailand too long. You are trying to make a simple thing difficult 

[Jingthing]

>>  In fact I suspect that they earn a very good living. 
When i first came to Pattaya around 2002 ,the fare was B5 for Thai and B10 for all others .A few years later it became a flat B10 fare for both .

Exactly. The non Thai fare has been 10 baht for dogs years. Everything else goes up.

[Jingthing]

Why wait for a price increase, just go ahead and pay him more.

No. I'm all about paying the required fare. No more. No less.

[JHolmesJr]

This is a ridonkulous idea….OP should just pay 20b to them…they won't mind at all….just spare the rest of us.

[Jingthing]

 

Raising prices would have little effect on that. I think you are mistaken about why these drivers dont stop to collect the many people waiting for transport in Jomtien as logic indicates that a full load of passengers at 10B each will probably be as much as they would get for a charter, and possibly even more. The bird in the hand would count for something also.

Quite why the drivers dont stop in Jomtien is unknown to me (perhaps they dont want to spend 30 minutes in the massive nightly traffic jam in South Pattaya and know some way around it?) but the answer, if there is one, is to make it a licence offence for them not to stop to pick up "regular" fares. Just like it is for taxis and buses in most countries. Of course enforcement of such a rule is another matter and this being Thailand it would not be easy.

I don't think I'm wrong. I think a higher bus fare would reduce the charter hunting behavior. Not eliminate it. Of course forget about enforcement.

[rapom]

11 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

No. I'm all about paying the required fare. No more. No less.

 

Then, why do you think there should be a price increase?  I'll bet Thai's do not share your opinion.

[sharecropper]

1 hour ago, KittenKong said:

 

Raising prices would have little effect on that. I think you are mistaken about why these drivers dont stop to collect the many people waiting for transport in Jomtien as logic indicates that a full load of passengers at 10B each will probably be as much as they would get for a charter, and possibly even more. The bird in the hand would count for something also.

Quite why the drivers dont stop in Jomtien is unknown to me (perhaps they dont want to spend 30 minutes in the massive nightly traffic jam in South Pattaya and know some way around it?) but the answer, if there is one, is to make it a licence offence for them not to stop to pick up "regular" fares. Just like it is for taxis and buses in most countries. Of course enforcement of such a rule is another matter and this being Thailand it would not be easy.

 

And this behaviour was increasing, even in the very lowest season.

 

I think it might be because they are told to hunt for charter hires, so a proportion of all baht buses have to scour the streets for special rides - which is risible when you see how few punters there are on the streets some days - especially coming out of town in the afternoon.

 

Otherwise it makes no sense to me that they won't stop to fill their baht bus within about 200 yards of beach Road. What Thai would do that? Even baht bus drivers have to eat, so I think some of them are told not to stop for regular passengers.

[whitemouse]

What is wrong with 10 bht fee? Why rise it, is there some sort of point behind it? 

[Skeptic7]

15 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Fare increases are typically associated with getting a better service.

 

Are the songtaews giving any better service than they did say 20 years ago?

EXACTLY...and the answer is NO, much worse service and much more crowded too. Nowadays many of them are cattle cars that wait around indefinitely until they are filled to overcapacity -or- they just drive by looking for a gouging "private hire".  

Edited September 9, 2016 by Skeptic7

[Skeptic7]

19 hours ago, anotheruser said:

Should be 50 Baht already.

Yeah...right. MORE than an air-con private hire metered taxi in BKK. How 'bout YOU just pay B50 each way and leave the rest of us out of it. 

[Jingthing]

42 minutes ago, whitemouse said:

What is wrong with 10 bht fee? Why rise it, is there some sort of point behind it? 

Hi there WM.

The point is that it's going to up to 20 anyway. That's obvious. I don't want to see it go back to RACIAL based pricing which I think will happen if they just rise it to 20. In other words, those passing for Thai based on RACIAL appearance pay 10 and others 20. Like it did in the bad old days of RACIAL baht bus pricing here.

So I'd prefer to see a more logical and not RACIAL based stepped increase to 15 baht for all. Somehow. 

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

You've obviously been in Thailand too long. You are trying to make a simple thing difficult 

Nothing to do with living in Thailand. 

[dotpoom]

When I came it was 5Bt. then 100% increase to 10 Bt.

[Rimmer]

Multiple baiting troll posts by the same user have been removed.

[Ulic]

I told my mother the baht bus fare was 10 baht and not to ask the driver, just give them 10

baht when you get off. She of course always asks "how much"  and is always told 20 baht.

She refused to believe me that the correct charge is 10 baht. The drivers have ways of

upping there income. I am not concerned. 10 baht 20 baht, but if the price goes up I hope

service will improve. The route the baht bus is taking should be clearly displayed.

[sevenhills]

They get to much as it is, there are far to many of them and they are mostly a bunch of Fa**** Idiot Mafia wanna beas. As like the Mafia Moto cy, whom I will never use. 

[Jingthing]

47 minutes ago, Ulic said:

I told my mother the baht bus fare was 10 baht and not to ask the driver, just give them 10

baht when you get off. She of course always asks "how much"  and is always told 20 baht.

She refused to believe me that the correct charge is 10 baht. The drivers have ways of

upping there income. I am not concerned. 10 baht 20 baht, but if the price goes up I hope

service will improve. The route the baht bus is taking should be clearly displayed.

That is true. It's an ambiguous pricing system by design. But if you live here (or listen to people that do) you know the fare and also not to speak to drivers.

[Jingthing]

3 minutes ago, sevenhills said:

They get to much as it is, there are far to many of them and they are mostly a bunch of Fa**** Idiot Mafia wanna beas. As like the Mafia Moto cy, whom I will never use. 

There is a good and bad among the drivers. The drivers didn't design the transport system where the buses and non-metered "Taxi Meters" are owned by the same company. I don't begrudge them from making a decent living. That's not the same thing as supporting the bad behavior that does occur. Overall the baht bus system is both horrible and wonderful, and part of the wonderful part is the cheap price.

[balo]

It's 10 baht and it always will be     

 

 

 

 

 

[mcfish]

I am thinking 10 baht is plenty for what amounts to 12 people sitting in the back of a pick up truck and many of them unwashed for days..

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk

[Jingthing]

36 minutes ago, balo said:

It's 10 baht and it always will be     

 

 

 

 

 

It's 10 baht, yes. It won't always be. 

[Jingthing]

22 minutes ago, mcfish said:

I am thinking 10 baht is plenty for what amounts to 12 people sitting in the back of a pick up truck and many of them unwashed for days..

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk
 

That's one way of looking at it.

Plenty of times I've been on long rides with just me riding.

It's still 10 baht.