It’s the public, especially tourists’, “misunderstanding” of the way taxis fares are charged on the island of Phuket that’s the problem.
That’s the explanation from Phuket Land Transport Chief Jaturong Kaewkasi during an interview on an island radio station this week. The Phuket Land Transport has responded to final week’s viral video clip when a Thai man posted the altercation with a taxi driver demanding 600 baht for a 10-15 minute experience from Kamala to Patong Beach.
The native Land Transport division has also re-released a list of ordinary set fares to be charged by the island’s taxis and tuk tuks. No point out of taxi meters.
One of his feedback concerning the controversial fares suggested that passengers were entitled to “negotiate 50 baht higher or lower than the set fare”. Again, no point out of taxi meters.
When the first Sandbox project, in Phuket, was launched final year the Phuket Tourist Police revealed a schedule of charges after, just a year before, the previous Phuket Governor declared that every one taxis in Phuket could be required to use their meters.
Last July’s published taxi fares in Phuket represent an enormous enhance on what passengers routinely pay for journeys round Bangkok, for example. The set fares are also three – 4 times that calculated by taxi apps like Grab and Bolt who’re trying to get a foothold on Thailand’s hottest vacationer island.
Never again went on to say, in quotes published by The Phuket News, that the “agreed fares” (agreed by who?) had been fully supported by the Phuket Governor, the Phuket Tourism Association and the TAT.
Everything seems to be set in stone, except for the in any other case accepted use of taxi meters to ascertain a good fare for passengers in Phuket.
The issue of Phuket taxi fares has been an ongoing controversy for more than 20 yr with The Thaiger and its former incarnation The Phuket Gazette publishing over 50 stories on the difficulty over current many years. Even 20 years in the past there is a story published that Phuket Airport might eventually get served by taxis with meters.
“…metered airport taxis would cut back exorbitant fares and problems between legitimate and black taxi operators at the airport.”
Multiple Phuket governors, police chiefs, and even the military (following two past Thai authorities coups), have failed to break the robust grasp on the native industry by a cabal of taxi gangs..