Woman besieged by taxi drivers at Chiang Mai airport on suspicion of being Uber driver

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Woman besieged by taxi drivers at Chiang Mai airport on suspicion of being Uber driver
By The Nation

 

CHIANG MAI: -- A woman was surrounded by a group of aggressive taxi drivers and verbally abused at Chiang Mai International Airport because they thought she was an Uber driver picking up a fare.

 

The woman, however, an importer of tea from England and a DJ for a Chiang Mai radio station, was picking up a foreign friend who was visiting the city.

 

Chiang Mai land transport officials' crackdown on Uber drivers came to light on Wednesday when a video clip of the incident was posted on a popular Facebook page.

 

 

The clip was viewed over 291,000 times in 22 hours and was shared 1,926 times and received over 45,000 reactions.

 

Many Chiang Mai Facebook users cried foul over the aggressive actions of the taxi drivers and the apparent sanction by officials.

 

The clip said the officials apologised to the woman after they determined she was not an Uber driver.

 

Matichon Online identified the woman as Aristhapat Puethai. She told Matichon that she went to the airport on Tuesday to pick up a friend and when her friend got into the car, a group of taxi drivers surrounded her car and shouted and hit her car with their hands and took photos.

 

She said she was frightened and angry.

 

Earlier, a Chiang Mai woman who was at the airport to pick up a Chinese business client who had rented her condominium faced similar incident.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30318772

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-22

 

 

[rkidlad]

Time to start issuing some serious fines and revoking of licenses for taxi drivers taking the law into their own hands. If you think there is a crime being committed, contact the police. This is just lawless and makes Thailand look so. 

[colinneil]

Innocent woman verbally abused by taxi scum/ mafia!!

What did airport authorities and police do?Sweet f...a..

[impulse]

1 hour ago, rkidlad said:

Time to start issuing some serious fines and revoking of licenses for taxi drivers taking the law into their own hands. If you think there is a crime being committed, contact the police. This is just lawless and makes Thailand look so. 

 

Unless, of course, the taxi drivers are just following instructions from their paymasters who would also be the paymasters for the guys issuing the fines.

 

Go after the common thread.  The paymasters.

 

Like that will happen in my lifetime.

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by impulse

[NCC1701A]

good to see things starting to get back to normal.

 

 

[Canceraid]

TAxi drivers are basically...bast..ds!! People should start the same to them by threathening them , abusing their families ie wifes or children etc. 

[jimstar1]

I use the Uber App In Chiang Mai taxi modern fast service polite and Cheaper then The Bastards running around in Taxis and Tuk Tuks so easy and so much more respect if you haven't tried it try it

[hobz]

4 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Time to start issuing some serious fines and revoking of licenses for taxi drivers taking the law into their own hands. If you think there is a crime being committed, contact the police. This is just lawless and makes Thailand look so. 

I'm pretty sure the taxi mafia is a sub-division of the police, so technically they have the same rights as police to do police work. 

[hobz]

I bet the average IQ of the taxi guys and the police watching crime being commited is way below 80.

[gandalf12]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Unless, of course, the taxi drivers are just following instructions from their paymasters who would also be the paymasters for the guys issuing the fines.

 

Go after the common thread.  The paymasters.

 

Like that will happen in my lifetime.

 

It will happen in your lifetime as long as you pass away at some age in excess of 999 years old

[newcomer71]

4 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Time to start issuing some serious fines and revoking of licenses for taxi drivers taking the law into their own hands. If you think there is a crime being committed, contact the police. This is just lawless and makes Thailand look so. 

Well, sadly that's just the truth: Thailand is a lawless and failed country already. Fact.

[gandalf12]

The passenger is the one who should be able to decide with whom they travel. If it is the standard taxi, Uber or any other form of transport it is the passengers choice not a bunch of dimwit taxi drivers to decide.

Thailand, many times, talks about making the country look bad to the overseas market, well do they think such irresponsible actions by the taxi drivers makes Thailand look good? Only in a morons mind would it do that.

Let the passenger decide  how they want to travel not the taxi mafia.

The lady should sue each of those drives for verbal assault and threatening behaviour.

Edited June 22, 2017 by gandalf12

[hobz]

Just now, newcomer71 said:

Well, sadly that's just the truth: Thailand is a lawless and failed country already. Fact.

It's not lawless and it's not failed... But it has serious problems... mostly due to the fact that police and government is extremely incompetent.. Police can't see or are not willing to act on a crime being  commited right in front of them... preventing someone from moving is equivalent to kidnapping.. Hitting the car can be viewed as harassment, threatening behavior etc... ..

 

Why police not acting against these drivers? Probably out of incompetence,, police doesn't realize that it's a crime .. because they can't add 1 + 1 + 1 together ...

 

They are too stupid and get confused because the taxi mafias are yelling uber, so they focus in on checking if it's indeed uber or not, completely forgetting that uber or not civilians doesn't have the right to make an arrest or stop people unless it's a much more serious crime. 

[Mickmouse1]

Government agencies including police seem to support taxi drivers illegal actions up and down the country. 

Now it is high time citizens stop using taxis.Simply start a campaign "Boycott Thai Taxi" BTTC?

[Redline]

They won't do anything to stop the harassment.  Why don't these people file lawsuits for embarrassing them and making them look bad.  Everyone else does!

Edited June 22, 2017 by Redline

[YetAnother]

way out of hand; and shows where we live 

[gazza4]

9 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Time to start issuing some serious fines and revoking of licenses for taxi drivers taking the law into their own hands. If you think there is a crime being committed, contact the police. This is just lawless and makes Thailand look so. 

I think it is fair to say that Thailand is not lawless. There's just no-one here interested in enforcing the existing laws. Too many pecuniary interests.

[YetAnother]

no penalty for the instigators; that is thailand

[PomPolo]

Idiots

Sent from my C103 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Thechook]

Filthy disgusting pigs.

[Jonmarleesco]

The DLT certainly seems to find the energy and willpower to do its job when it involves Uber drivers. At what point, I wonder, will it get off its fat collective a___e and take punitive action against these drivers, most of whom would also seem to have too much time on their hands, suggesting there are too many of them?

[hobz]

2 hours ago, YetAnother said:

no penalty for the instigators; that is thailand

Deeply problematic. Maybe next time somebody innocent (or guilty of being uber) will get hurt.

Imagine being a woman when these scum surround your car somewhere outside the airport.. Might run one over .. Or bring out the pepperspray.. Or the gun...

[hobz]

52 minutes ago, Jonmarleesco said:

The DLT certainly seems to find the energy and willpower to do its job when it involves Uber drivers. At what point, I wonder, will it get off its fat collective a___e and take punitive action against these drivers, most of whom would also seem to have too much time on their hands, suggesting there are too many of them?

Never.. They have not used their meters for decades in chiang mai.. And this is never even talked about or mentioned..

[Rhys]

Bring in the gimp....

[Sig]

I've had enough of these taxi nutjobs.
As much as humanly possible, I will NEVER use another Thai taxi to the absolute utmost of my ability.
I don't think I'd be able to contain myself if I was being picked up by a friend and they were confronted like this. And that wouldn't come to a good end at all, especially being a farang....
 

[jacko45k]

We can all see who are the real criminals in these events.

Personally if this is the type of person driving taxis I would feel safer in an Uber vehicle!

[KKr]

when arriving and departing in CM, about 20 times the last few years, I found the airport taxi was ok, and the charge fair.
Just get a ticket inside at the luggage collection area, the fare is written on the slip they hand to you.

UBER and others, of course, are cheaper than Taxis. Using a private vehicle, not counting insurance and depreciation, an UBER driver makes some cash. That does not mean (s)he is making money, nor that the passenger knows whether the person driving the car is actually the person who registered himself with UBER. 
Taxi drivers have to pay for licenses, and a majority pays for daily rent as well, so they need to make money. 
Based on Licensed Taxis, government then sets out parking bays, taxi lanes, and so on that were a prerogative and competitive advantage of Licensed Taxis.
So the aggravation caused when a taxi sees "his" perceived ride taken by an UBER car can be rationalized. 

That, however, is nowhere a reason to beat someone up, or to surround and attack the car and intimidate driver and passenger.
It would be a good reason for taxi-drivers, all things being equal, to go to their local elected MP with the demand to do something about it. 

However, 
Law enforcement standing by is inexcusable.
And I agree with an earlier suggestion that the intimidated driver should press charges.
(Seems like Law Enforcement are scared of a few drivers.
Officers are armed, so one shot in the air would likely disperse this flock of cowards.)

[midas]

22 hours ago, jimstar1 said:

I use the Uber App In Chiang Mai taxi modern fast service polite and Cheaper then The Bastards running around in Taxis and Tuk Tuks so easy and so much more respect if you haven't tried it try it

yesterday I saw the same kinds of scumbag people harassing 2 Chinese tourists outside Central Festival shopping centre on Pattaya Beach Road because they were suspected of looking to use Uber. They were saying to the Chinese visitors that the police would be watching them if they tried to use anyone other than the official taxis. Quite pathetic really and it reminds me of the story of the Dutch boy sticking his finger in the dike to try to stop the flow of water.

[balo]

I wonder what her foreign business friend was thinking of all this ? The rumors will spread fast if the taxi mafia continue like this.

[beachump]

What is the catch phrase for people who assault/threaten/abuse UBER drivers,  uberphobics?????