Transport Ministry wants to phase out passenger vans in six months

[DNPBC0]

A major problem with passenger vans is the same as the problem with  buses - driver fatigue. What is being done to remedy this?

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by DNPBC0

[z42]

Just now, snoop1130 said:

40,000 passenger vans could be taken off roads 

By The Nation

 

 

AS MANY as 40,000 inter-provincial passenger vans could be taken off Thailand’s roads by 2019 because they are not appropriate for public transportation, Deputy Prime Minister Wisanu Krue-Ngam said  Friday.

 

Wisanu said that the Transport Ministry’s proposal to use Article 44 of the interim charter to immediately tackle the problem with passenger vans did not solely stem from the horrific crash in Chon Buri on Monday which killed 25 people and injured two others.

 

He said the Royal Thai Police had earlier this week proposed an amendment to the Land Traffic Act for the Cabinet’s approval, while another road safety committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan presented road safety measures to the Cabinet last October. 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-1-6

Jesus weapt why will these fools continue to deliberately not see the enormous elephant in the room that is the atrocious driving standard adopted by 90%+ of the drivers?

I expect stupidity as par for the course. But this ridiculous tripe being wheeled out lately is really tiresome especially when the numbers of deaths and injured per annum using them is likely comparable to that of a warzone.

 

I'd have more respect for these unelected buffoons if they just said outright that no changes will be made as anything tried is doomed to failure from the start. 

It's been said a lot here but you really can't fix stupid however hard you try

 

[pookiki]

6 minutes ago, DNPBC0 said:

A major problem with passenger vans is the same as the problem with  buses - driver fatigue. What is being done to remedy this?

 

Not only driver fatigue but reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol and Lord knows what else. No meaningful laws or enforcement on driving time and rest between hauls.  There needs to be a firm and enforced regulatory environment but that is just a pipe dream.

[cmsally]

How can they not be appropriate for public transportation ? They have yellow plates, the plates that are needed for public transportation. Vehicles are checked twice per year, drivers take different test to get their "yellow plate license".

So they are giving them a license for public transportation and next minute saying the whole process is a farce ?

The major issues are - driver competence, driver fatigue, road safety/signage

 

[ramrod711]

10 hours ago, Sphere said:

 

Is the magical 6-month deadline back in fashion?

 

Yes, Chalerm is back at the helm, loaded up with ear medicine, which explains this goofy "plan".

[whatawonderfulday]

3 hours ago, possum1931 said:

I know all about the minivan drivers and don't dispute all I have read about them here on Thaivisa, I live up country and in the eleven years I have been here I have used a local mini van company to go to Bangkok. I have never had any reason to complain about the standard of driving from this company, any regular TV member will know my views on Thai drivers and motorbike riders, but whoever runs this local company must be doing something right. Are there any posters who live upcountry who travel on minivans from their town or village to Bangkok who can back me up on this?

maybe a few like myself who are still alive after risking it once or twice

[Cuchulainn]

At least they're starting to recognise this huge problem. A knee jerk reaction yes, but a step (albeit miniscule) in the right direction.

 

Ban all drivers until they have satisfied foreign, competent examiners in a stringent new test!!

[NoshowJones]

23 minutes ago, whatawonderfulday said:

maybe a few like myself who are still alive after risking it once or twice

I do not blame you for saying this, nobody knows more than me just how bad Thai drivers are, I would even go as far as saying at least 80% of them are not fit to be on the road, their mentality and road sense is dreadful. But if I said I was wary of going on any of the minivans from my village to Bangkok, I would not be being truthful, it could be that the boss gives them a good bonus for being accident free, though that would only be guessing.

[Artisi]

12 hours ago, samsensam said:

 

there is a blatant refusal to acknowledge the root causes of the large number of RTAs is puzzling. do the MOT really not understand the problem? or is the amount of work required to solve the problem too much like hard work?

 

even more puzzling, given the huge number of people in the country who must have been affected by the madness on the roads, is the lack of any campaign, protest or demands from the people, the newspapers, the media that the government do something.

 

is it laziness, ignorance, cultural reluctance to accepting responsibility or make decisions, religious belief in reincarnation that means death is not the end...? i guess you have to be thai to understand.

 

it is a great sadness that hangs over the country and is ignored by the country.

You farang no understand  ..

[Artisi]

2 hours ago, DNPBC0 said:

A major problem with passenger vans is the same as the problem with  buses - driver fatigue. What is being done to remedy this?

 

Bugger - all. 

[PJPom]

I have been following this thread and can obviously see that very little will change regardless of any action by government. 

It struck me that everyone blames the drivers, so if we are passengers why don't we speak out, are we all sheep, are we going to let someone scare the life out of us and say nothing?. My first ride in a van in Thailand was in Surat Thani a few years ago when I got off the train from Bangkok, it lasted all of three minutes.I called a halt grabbed my bag and got out, driver and his offsider couldn't give a damn, off he drove and then stopped about fifty metres up the road. Next the van is backing up and "please sir get in" turns out the chap I had been chatting to at the Station carried a fancy badge and a big gun, very sedate ride after that.

I have since done one more van trip to Penang and I hate to admit I sat there with fingers crossed, none of us protested and unfortunately nobody had a gun. 

The onus is on the passengers, 12 to 1 is good odds.

[rebo]

11 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

there MUST be some TV folk here married to thais--what do they say?...or too busy

watching wonderful lakorn soap operas.....mai,,,kao,,jai 

Exactly! So it is.
Not interested at all.

[fruitman]

10 hours ago, carlyai said:

But what can the average Thai worker do about this?

 

They can buy a car on monthly payments so 70% of their income goes directly to the bank. Many thai do that.

 

So many minivans plus taxi's plus bahtbuses plus mototaxi's would not be needed if there was more and better public transport.

 

But the government only makes false promises, the waterways could also be used but for some reason they won't do it. And what about the new buses? Why is it so quiet? So that importer won't be the importtax i guess, than the buses will be on the boat back to china soon.

 

Nothing goes normal and well in Thailand, they even can't buy new buses and are busy talking about them for years now. 

[Tony125]

Really makes no sense to phase them out. Because of the accidents? Just had 

Fourteen Korean tourists in hospital as tour bus overturns in Phetchaburi . So van , bus, micro bus all will have accidents if they keep the same drivers driving over long hours falling asleep or trying to stay awake taking yaba or energy drinks.

[Aquasky]

5 hours ago, possum1931 said:

I know all about the minivan drivers and don't dispute all I have read about them here on Thaivisa, I live up country and in the eleven years I have been here I have used a local mini van company to go to Bangkok. I have never had any reason to complain about the standard of driving from this company, any regular TV member will know my views on Thai drivers and motorbike riders, but whoever runs this local company must be doing something right. Are there any posters who live upcountry who travel on minivans from their town or village to Bangkok who can back me up on this?

 

Yep, got them regularly and it's not fair to tar them all with the same brush. Some were maniacs, but most were fine.

[wakeupplease]

So hard for Thailand to understand

Get the dam police off their ars-s and patrol the highways and issue real fines starting at 5000B

run nightly adds on TV around 8pm on road safety

20-seat micro buses, so those in green brown and karky? want to kill more do they?

Are there any brains in Bangkok?

 

May as well  shut Thailand down till the self drive car arrives, then have the election

 

[wakeupplease]

We all quote Tea Money Time can we drop this as a Thai copper may think this is a good phrase

 

just call it Corruption Time

 

Then they may start to think

 

But I guess not knowing the BIB

[BuckBee]

Quality driver and vehicle and respecting legal requirements is what required, micro bus or mini van makes no difference when have a tit driving it and a stingy owner slacking on maintenance or using cheap & dumb service mechanic .

Cure is massive education and change in personal values, and that unlikely in lala land where everyone happy happy, magic amulets available on every street corner  and real number 1 love is the $ bill baby ...  blood will wash off ...

 

[puukao]

I worked hard for 45-years, saved EVERY penny..

 

yesterday I bought two van companies for super cheap..

 

now i'm ruined!!!!!

 

oh well, mai bpen rai

[tomyummer]

Rather than changing vans, just outfit each van with speed regulators, say for 100 kph.

Changing van sizes is just dumb because it will raise costs to operators and passengers and would not change the habits of exisiting drivers.

[KKr]

15 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

I just wish there was ONE willing thai to join these forums and

at least TRY to give a reasonable explanation--could use any

name etc..JUST admit to being thai and try to explain this

 

I just cant process this in my mind--there MUST be some TV

folk here married to thais--what do they say?...or too busy

watching wonderful lakorn soap operas.....mai,,,kao,,jai 

Yes, too busy watching " I can see your voice ",

During the commercials I'll do some thinking why the big buses were replaced by minivans; 
and now the minivans must be replaced by small buses; so logically speaking, the big buses will return with small bus drivers that cannot keep a minivan in lane so even more cutting corners and larger buses cutting off of other vehicles to be expected.

Where is a driving school that does Driving license category D training ? (I got ABCE already)
Where is the state body that issues permits to driving license holders to operate  a commercial bus with passengers, (or a large truck for that matter) and renews the permit after one or two years after the driver has been re-tested.
Where are the tracking devices that monitor driving time limits, and the authorities that check and when necessary take serious action like compulsory  3 months, 6 months, 1 year suspension of Driving Licenses.
Then, a points system is a pain, but very effective.

Sorry, have to stop thinking, next round of singers coming up....

[chrisyork]

Thailand used to have exactly the same problem with the public long distance bus system. Improved regulation has fixed that.

Tourist busses and private hire busses still have a little way to go, though.

It's unclear to me what the advatage to the operator is of running vans over proper busses. Fuel costs and lifetime purchase and maintenance cost would appear to be much higher for vans than the equivalent number of bus seats.... I accept that the additional wage costs from all the extra drivers are less of a problem here.

Perhaps the advantage is in serving a much gretaer number of routes and destinations? Yet I see public long distance busses in the most out of the way locations.

So for once, I think the transport ministry have the right answer. Simply convert all the van route licences to bus licenses. There looks to me to be a net benefit to Thailand in that.

[hawker9000]

18 hours ago, guzzi850m2 said:

I am not sure why he want to do that?

 

It will be extremely expensive to do on such short notice, how about those who just bought new vans and who to sell it to for a good price? 

 

I like the idea of a 90km/h speed limit for those things but I seen big +50 seater buses drive much faster than that, full of passengers off-course, so a limiter have to be fitted on the engine with a seal, so the bus can't go more that that, otherwise it wont work.

 

Yes much better training for the drivers is needed.

 

"It will be extremely expensive "

 

Bulls-eye!!   It's the prospect of m-o-n-e-y that actually penetrates that "hermetically sealed bubble"!

 

 

[jaywalker]

18 hours ago, ignis said:

Far cheaper would fit all Public Service Vans/Pickup/Bus with a tachometer 

Then have Inspectors stopping and checking them, as they have done for years in Europe.. Some Companies checked these all the time to see what there drivers were driving like..

 

Another thing in Europe also years ago was PSV and HGV had governors fitted on the engine, you just could not drive at 140 kph +

 

 

Many years ago (20+), when I was in the US Army, they had governors on the 2.5 ton trucks.

 

It would barely reach 50 MPH. We quite cleverly figured out that four quarters ($1.00 USD stuck in a strategic spot on the fuel injection pump) would make it go about 70 MPH.

 

GPS/Telemetric records/chips are the only way to go.

[timewilltell]

Just no thought given to anything.  Any old change will do as long as we are seen to be doing something.  Jeez!

[maoro2013]

Big bus accidents seem to be a common occurrence too. What could be done about replacing them, many more people at risk in those ones?

[tandor]

23 hours ago, Fookhaht said:

And the same kamikaze drivers will move over to THOSE larger weapons of destruction?

Would someone please explain what is the magic pill in adding five more seats?

The drivers and their habits are the elephant in the room that the Transport Ministry seems to be totally blind about.

Every government announcement dealing with this crisis pushes the "ridiculous meter" up to another incredibly higher notch. It's like the gov't "experts" are in a hermetically-sealed bubble that cannot be penetrated by logic.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

 

...Song taews seem to have very fatalities..they travel constantly the same routes..maybe because the drivers are older, more experienced, travel slower and don't take the risks.

Start regulating the drivers of these mini vans.

Start regulating the drivers of pickups.

After that...

[hansnl]

12 hours ago, z42 said:

Jesus weapt why will these fools continue to deliberately not see the enormous elephant in the room that is the atrocious driving standard adopted by 90%+ of the drivers?

I expect stupidity as par for the course. But this ridiculous tripe being wheeled out lately is really tiresome especially when the numbers of deaths and injured per annum using them is likely comparable to that of a warzone.

 

I'd have more respect for these unelected buffoons if they just said outright that no changes will be made as anything tried is doomed to failure from the start. 

It's been said a lot here but you really can't fix stupid however hard you try

 

Unelected buffoons?

Elected buffoons are any better, or worse?

As if the elected buffoons in he past could do something about this carnage on the roads.

Do remember, the elected buffoons opened up the can of worms by allowing those killer vans to take over from regular bus services.

[whatproblem]

So what about the 40,000 idiots who drive them?

[kwak250]

Drivers fatigue is a huge problem. 

The drivers get paid per round trip then join the queue of minivans for the next round trip.

The more they can do the more money they get which is why they drive flat out.

This doesn't probably happen at every minivan company but it is the system at mine which is why I have avoided them.