Taxis in Bangkok go for total revamp

[CLW]

For once I think the junta is on the right track. 
Try to compete with uber instead of just going after uber legally. That's how a free market is supposed to give the customers (the people!!) the best product for the best price.
Thats more than can be said of many western countries reaction towards uber. 
Only problem is.. Talk is cheap.. And just because you entered a competition doesnt mean you will win... You still need competence.

Thailand and free market.
That is a dream.
Almost everything here is controlled by influental people and mafia structures.
Why you think they go so much about Uber and Grab....
Another examples why there are endless 7-11 but no other convenience store.
Why there are mostly PTT gas stations.
How did become CP company so big and influental?

[ben2talk]

On 5/7/2017 at 11:29 AM, richard_smith237 said:

I took a taxi the other night for the first time in a while without an initial handful of refusals... 

Great, I thought, the driver was polite, switched on the meter straight away... 

 

...But no seatbelt, I felt quite vulnerable as he screamed up Rama IV road weaving through traffic... He took it easy after I asked him to...  but my thoughts... why? Just why is it so difficult for these guys to provide a simple service without any issues? Do I ask too much ?

 

What I think are reasonable expectations - which are the norm in many other countries. 

1) Seatbelts

2) Serviced vehicles

3) Safe & Professional driving

4) Uses the meter 

5) No repeated refusals

 

 

ALL of the issues with BKK taxis stem from the poor attitudes of the drivers which over time has become the norm, such that a sense of entitlement has slipped into the fray... I'd happily pay a little more for a better reliable service. 

 

 

 

Rubbish.

The police could set up a 'helpline' where you can simply report taxis that refuse to take you... they could keep some records and start to punish repeat offenders.

 

Sorry, this word 'police' again. Doesn't exist here in Thailand. Authority = 6000 Generals (no army, just a private armed force that forms the hand of the monarchy and controls politics).

 

Everytime I drive out on the expressway or motorway, or Bangna-Trad road from Bangplii.... I see idiots driving like idiots. I see no real speed limits.

I see NO traffic police cars enforcing rules - only occassionally police walking the street snatching trucks or bikes apparently to collect cash.

 

They can't manage to set up an MoT scheme for testing cars annually. They can't manage to set up properly trained Driving Instructor licencing.

 

I use GRAB for taxis, and I refuse to cancel bookings if they call me up and ask me to do that for them. I trust that GRAB will encourage good people to work better and realise that just being in a taxi isn't an automatic living - at least through the GRAB portal you can filter out many of the bad taxis.

 

As for driving, the minute a driver does something I don't like - I tell them to drive nicely or I will not pay.

[ben2talk]

2 hours ago, CLW said:

Thailand and free market.
That is a dream.
Almost everything here is controlled by influental people and mafia structures.
Why you think they go so much about Uber and Grab....
Another examples why there are endless 7-11 but no other convenience store.
Why there are mostly PTT gas stations.
How did become CP company so big and influental?

But there's a great choice of Supermarkets, right? and no problems about the products on the shelves (although certain items might be out of stock for 7 months of the year... that's not due to interference, right?)

 

You're free to buy a 79p can of Heinz beans for about 2 quid.

 

Livin' the dream here m8 (",)

[chivo]

The rear seat belts don't even work. How is an emergency button expected to!?!?

[hobz]

14 hours ago, CLW said:

Thailand and free market.
That is a dream.
Almost everything here is controlled by influental people and mafia structures.
Why you think they go so much about Uber and Grab....
Another examples why there are endless 7-11 but no other convenience store.
Why there are mostly PTT gas stations.
How did become CP company so big and influental?

There's mom&pop convenience stores everywhere. There's tesco express. There's family mart. There's big c mini.

[CLW]

There's mom&pop convenience stores everywhere. There's tesco express. There's family mart. There's big c mini.

The majority is 7-11, especially in Bangkok

[hobz]

On 5/9/2017 at 11:21 PM, CLW said:

The majority is 7-11, especially in Bangkok

Yes, nothing wrong with that. They seem to have the best business model and ability to expand.

[ben2talk]

Yes, nothing wrong with that. They seem to have the best business model and ability to expand.

You know that part of the mafia culture here actually prevents 7-Eleven's opening up in many residential areas, because the idea of public space is not the same here as in other countries. Even in MooBans they will have rules, they tell people that they are not allowed to run shops or do anything without express permission. You can go and buy new house, but they will tell you that you are not allowed to fit through Internet or AIS Internet because another organization has been into the office and paid a fee and registered says that they have the monopoly.

It is a great business plan - they do not need to worry about customer Service very much because the customers have only one option.


Sent from my nose.

[hobz]

18 minutes ago, ben2talk said:

 

You know that part of the mafia culture here actually prevents 7-Eleven's opening up in many residential areas, because the idea of public space is not the same here as in other countries. Even in MooBans they will have rules, they tell people that they are not allowed to run shops or do anything without express permission. You can go and buy new house, but they will tell you that you are not allowed to fit through Internet or AIS Internet because another organization has been into the office and paid a fee and registered says that they have the monopoly.

It is a great business plan - they do not need to worry about customer Service very much because the customers have only one option.


Sent from my nose.

 

Ok, we have that same concept for internet in sweden. A residential building may sign a contract with one provider and then everyone can only get internet from that provider. Not mafia, just contracts...

[CLW]

Yes, nothing wrong with that. They seem to have the best business model and ability to expand.

No, just money and power to eliminate competition.
You know cartel and market monopoly?

[hobz]

21 hours ago, CLW said:

No, just money and power to eliminate competition.
You know cartel and market monopoly?

I dont have any evidence, do you? Otherwise I suggest we agree to disagree on this one and call it a day :)

[steve187]

On 5/7/2017 at 0:36 AM, colinneil said:

Total revamp !! WOW !!

What about all the unlicensed drivers?

Also good idea, but who is going to pay for it?

not me or you

[ben2talk]

On 5/13/2017 at 9:54 AM, hobz said:

Ok, we have that same concept for internet in sweden. A residential building may sign a contract with one provider and then everyone can only get internet from that provider. Not mafia, just contracts...

Lolz no - I'm talking about estates covering several kilometers with hundreds of houses; not a residential building. The street poles which carry Government electricity are not permitted by the local Areeya office to carry any other provider here - only 3BB. As a result we had to pay off a contract with True as they weren't allowed to offer us a connection.

 

Happily, 3BB is far better and faster than True Fiber was in Bangna... 

[ben2talk]

On 5/8/2017 at 10:32 AM, bubba said:

Well we have a choice.  If you prefer to haggle for the meter, ride in beat up taxis without seatbelts, get refused five or ten times for your requested destination, get "lost" while a driver rides you around, or even just walk to the end of a long soi to find a taxi to flag down, then that is your choice. Good luck getting a refund if the service was bad or finding the taxi in which you may have left something. All that said,  you will be able to relax in a meter taxi and enjoy that special feeling of knowing that the car in which you are riding has paid taxes and "fees" to the government.

Well, you can opt for GRAB TAXI which combines the two... 

 

SImilarly with 'Uber' cars, or 'Grab' cars which are not Taxis, they should be registered with Green number plates as private hire cars (as with the AOT Limousines).

 

I generally prefer to stand around than take taxis that don't look pretty new... a 1-2 year old car is generally going to give a better experience.

 

 

[bubba]

On 14/05/2017 at 10:05 PM, ben2talk said:

Well, you can opt for GRAB TAXI which combines the two... 

 

SImilarly with 'Uber' cars, or 'Grab' cars which are not Taxis, they should be registered with Green number plates as private hire cars (as with the AOT Limousines).

 

I generally prefer to stand around than take taxis that don't look pretty new... a 1-2 year old car is generally going to give a better experience.

 

 

But Grab Taxis are just regular taxis with an app. I've tried them. I even had one guy roll up and give me a fixed price and "no meter"!

[richard_smith237]

On 5/8/2017 at 8:50 AM, Itay said:

Richard. when you are willing to pay $8 worth just to start the drive like in some western countries THAN the majority of your trips will be as you wish.

we are in a place without law and regulation (or at least not enforcing it) and that's a big reason why its still cheap here.

as someone said here, THE CUSTOMERS will end up paying for those improvements... so make sense to me why you wishlist will not be happening soon.

i own a car for the past 15 years and each and every time i do need to take a taxi, I refuse to go on old ones and I make it very clear if they start behaving, go off if needed. Make a call to 191

 

True...   But how much more expensive is it for the Taxi drivers to 'keep the seatbelt the car was provided with'...  or to 'drive Safely'.... or to 'Use the Meter & not refuse fares'...  I accept that serving the vehicles may cost, but servicing should cost the owner not the driver, so fault also lies with the company. 

 

I choose to drive everywhere when I can. But if I'm having a beer I won't, so I rely on Taxis (UBER).

 

To be honest, the taxi service in Bangkok is OK, it certainly beats other cities in Thailand which have far greater issues. It also beats other cities hands down for price. However, I would happily pay a little more (double in fact). But I don't need to as UBER have offered an excellent alternative to risking a poor taxi journey, so have All Thai Taxi with their Prius'. 

GrabTaxi use conventional taxis but with the added bonus that both the drive and passenger are registered which means their is an open pathway for recourse should their be any issues. 

 

Quote

1) Seatbelts

2) Serviced vehicles

3) Safe & Professional driving

4) Uses the meter 

5) No repeated refusals

My list of expectations (above) are more than reasonable for any journey and this 'wish list' is readily achievable, it is also offered by UBER. 

Not all taxi's are substandard, but the elevated chances of encountering a 'displeasing' ride and tarnishing an enjoyable evening when having to deal with the frustrations of repeated refusals, a dangerous driver, stinky or unroadworthy vehicles can be readily offset by using a viable alternative such as UBER. 

 

IMO: It is the sense of entitlement that some drivers have which damages their reputation. They are not of the believe that they are providing a service, they are of the belief that a living is 'owed' to them by the public of Bangkok. This is the route cause of the issues. 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

On 5/8/2017 at 9:53 AM, impulse said:

 

Nobody's arguing that the current system isn't screwed up.  But letting even more unregistered (untaxed) taxis on the streets at pricing that doesn't follow the legal prices -just because some outfit has a big war chest of investor money to burn through to fight the legal battles- isn't the solution.  

 

If Uber would register all their taxis, pay the appropriate registration fees and pay taxes and fees into Thailand the same as a legal taxis (or AOT cars), I'd withdraw my objections. But their drivers aren't competing on an even field.  It's not fair to current drivers, and more than a little risky for those of us who count on them being in business next year and beyond.

 

You make a good point regarding the bigger picture.... but people are so sick of the service provided by the regular taxi's that they are switching to UBER... I have (as much as feasibly possible).

 

I would happily switch back to conventional taxi's when they have improved their service. Unfortunately this may take a lot of time, the taxi drivers have only themselves to blame for their tarnished reputation. 

[richard_smith237]

23 minutes ago, bubba said:

But Grab Taxis are just regular taxis with an app. I've tried them. I even had one guy roll up and give me a fixed price and "no meter"!

 

When using GrabTaxi both you and the driver are registered - you have a pathway for recourse / complaint. 

You can report the driver for his 'fixed price' and abusing the system.

 

I hope you refused to take the taxi and ordered another Grab. 

 

 

Over the past 3 years I have had two bad UBER drivers... one tailgating at 120 kmh... I took a photo and sent it to UBER with a complaint. Another was a driver who had no idea where she were going, I did, but the driver for whatever reasons simply did not listen to directions which took additional time getting to our destination. UBER responded positively to both issues. 

These are issues I face on every other journey in a conventional taxi... but I expect better from UBER as a better alternative to taxi's. 

 

[Bastos60]

On 5/7/2017 at 1:36 AM, colinneil said:

Total revamp !! WOW !!

What about all the unlicensed drivers?

Also good idea, but who is going to pay for it?

This is just another excuse for taxi mafia to increase the taxi rates by 30%. I guess they will start using a separate Falang rate so not to burden Thai people themselves.

[ben2talk]

4 hours ago, bubba said:

But Grab Taxis are just regular taxis with an app. I've tried them. I even had one guy roll up and give me a fixed price and "no meter"!

Then you report him to Grab and he will lose out to other taxis that use Grab well. Similar concept to Uber, but the point being that they're licenced public vehicles, but in the Grab and Uber apps also monitored and can be removed.

[bubba]

37 minutes ago, ben2talk said:

Then you report him to Grab and he will lose out to other taxis that use Grab well. Similar concept to Uber, but the point being that they're licenced public vehicles, but in the Grab and Uber apps also monitored and can be removed.

Couldn't be bothered to report him. It was one of those rare occasions when there were no Ubers nearby.

 

Being a "licensed public vehicle" means nothing to me in terms of an advantage. I have been in too many licensed public vehicle taxis that were beat up and smelly, blatantly unsafe, had no seatbelts, played games with the meter or just plain wouldn't accept my destination. I have experienced none of those issues with Uber, and I am quite happy to continue using them. 

[fruitman]

On 2017-5-14 at 4:59 PM, ben2talk said:

Lolz no - I'm talking about estates covering several kilometers with hundreds of houses; not a residential building. The street poles which carry Government electricity are not permitted by the local Areeya office to carry any other provider here - only 3BB. As a result we had to pay off a contract with True as they weren't allowed to offer us a connection.

 

Happily, 3BB is far better and faster than True Fiber was in Bangna... 

 

In our estate there are several suppliers for fibreinternet...and they make the cabling look like crap since it was all new and tidy.

[ben2talk]

6 hours ago, fruitman said:

 

In our estate there are several suppliers for fibreinternet...and they make the cabling look like crap since it was all new and tidy.

Wow, they have an underground conduit?

All of our cabling is new and tidy - it's only a matter of time before constant additions and a few years of weathering and concrete poles shifting in the mud change that.

 

I'll wager your estate is not less than 4 years old.

Edited May 17, 2017 by ben2talk
missed the 'NOT'

[elgenon]

I just flew into Suvarnabhumi and took a taxi to my hotel. I was astounded that the taxi had seat belts and the police were at the toll booths checking that passengers were using them. You go PM. You're the man!

[fruitman]

21 hours ago, ben2talk said:

Wow, they have an underground conduit?

All of our cabling is new and tidy - it's only a matter of time before constant additions and a few years of weathering and concrete poles shifting in the mud change that.

 

I'll wager your estate is not less than 4 years old.

It's about 6-7 years old now but still being extended. All cables are above ground and looked tidy but the fibrecables are making it messy since they just hang them in the tree's. When the tree's got pruned they broke our fibrecable and had to replace it for a few km to our home. Now the new cable hangs again in the tree.

[ben2talk]

26 minutes ago, fruitman said:

It's about 6-7 years old now but still being extended. All cables are above ground and looked tidy but the fibrecables are making it messy since they just hang them in the tree's. When the tree's got pruned they broke our fibrecable and had to replace it for a few km to our home. Now the new cable hangs again in the tree.

Lolz - laughable. So annoyingly typical - with no limits (I mean, moobahn isn't government property) they could build concrete roads with good drainage and service conduits and create an entire village with no aerial cabling... maybe just a decent service hatch every few hundred metres.

 

But - as they say 'even if it's broke, don't fix it and just do it the same again next time'.

[fruitman]

1 minute ago, ben2talk said:

Lolz - laughable. So annoyingly typical - with no limits (I mean, moobahn isn't government property) they could build concrete roads with good drainage and service conduits and create an entire village with no aerial cabling... maybe just a decent service hatch every few hundred metres.

 

But - as they say 'even if it's broke, don't fix it and just do it the same again next time'.

We have very good concrete roads except where they had to cut the concrete to make another cable/waterpipe there...

 

We also had good cables for all the streetlights but now there are open naked uncovered electric connections everywhere. If you walk outside after rain you can see explosions/flashes from the shortcuts right on the sidewalks.

 

When Thai build something it's only supposed to last for 2-3 years, after that it will be broken and nobody cares anymore untill it goes wrong.

 

Waterpipes are underground and so are drains. But electricity needs education and that's a mai mee krab.

[ben2talk]

1 hour ago, fruitman said:

We have very good concrete roads except where they had to cut the concrete to make another cable/waterpipe there...

 

We also had good cables for all the streetlights but now there are open naked uncovered electric connections everywhere. If you walk outside after rain you can see explosions/flashes from the shortcuts right on the sidewalks.

 

When Thai build something it's only supposed to last for 2-3 years, after that it will be broken and nobody cares anymore untill it goes wrong.

 

Waterpipes are underground and so are drains. But electricity needs education and that's a mai mee krab.

Is it really complicated? put a an extra large concrete pipe in the ground when building the road.

The only difficult part is that they'd need (I believe) some kind of mole to pull a line through so that they can use the line to pull a cable through.

 

When I did the front of our house, I just put a blue water-pipe on the ground before concreting - so I had somewhere to run a power cable for lights, plus a smaller pipe for aircon drainage... 

Edited May 18, 2017 by ben2talk
shorten

[fruitman]

15 hours ago, ben2talk said:

Is it really complicated? put a an extra large concrete pipe in the ground when building the road.

The only difficult part is that they'd need (I believe) some kind of mole to pull a line through so that they can use the line to pull a cable through.

 

When I did the front of our house, I just put a blue water-pipe on the ground before concreting - so I had somewhere to run a power cable for lights, plus a smaller pipe for aircon drainage... 

Yes it's really complicated (for the Thai). My neighbour has construction now, i told him 5 times to put all pipes in the new concrete floors which is all around the house.

 

After the floors were poured there wasn't ANY pipe in it, except a 3 inch one going into the septictank. They will cut all out and also straighten the new floors with cement because they are all crooked at the edges.

 

But empty pipes are also easy for termites/cockroaches and so on. Bigger pipes might get rats/mouses eating the cables.

 

The shooting of cables underground might not be possible in BKK, the soil is hard clay full of rocks and debree. They use anything to get higher landlevels.

 

[bubba]

Bangkok taxis?