Thuggish Phuket taxis targeted after 12 hotels complain
PHUKET: A meeting of all concerned is to be convened in Karon later this month to attempt to address the problem of unpleasant – in some cases thuggish – behaviour by local taxi groups.
Tanyaluk Sakoot
Monday 3 June 2013, 06:16PM
By no means a new problem: In September 2011 three Kamala taxi drivers were arrested for taking an iron bar to an ‘invading’ car (pictured). The case was eventually settled out of court.
Twelve hotels in Karon, Kata and Kamala have complained en masse to the Damrongtham Centre – twice – that they have been threatened by “Taxi Mafia” who sit at the entrances to the hotels and regard guests as their “property”.
The original complaint was lodged as long ago as December last year, and was reiterated on April 22, said Praphan Kanprasang, Chief of the Centre today (June 3).
The complaint came from six hotels in Karon, five in Kata and one in Kamala, acting in concert.
The hotels complained that taxi drivers:
- Blocked hotel transportation and threaten the drivers of hotels limousines or minivans;
- Tout their services aggressively to guests walking out of the hotels;
- Use foul language when guests choose to hire a car from a rival group of taxis;
- Block the entrance to the hotel to bar “invaders”;
- Drag “invading” drivers from their vehicles;
- Drag customer from taxis that do not belong to their group;
- Follow guests who walk out of the hotels to meet with a tour guide or tour group who have come to pick them up;
- Threaten tour businesses to extort money from them; and
- Use guns and sticks to threaten tour company drivers.
An official at the Centre explained that the six-month wait for action was because of the complexity of the complaint, and the fact that it involved three areas of the island.
The chief investigator in Karon, Pol Lt Narong Laksanawimon has reported to the Centre that he and his men have already interviewed 15 businesses – hotels and tourism companies – that have had trouble from taxi drivers.
One hotel complained that local taxi drivers had set up a sales counter in front of the hotel and always stopped and checked cars coming to the hotel. This frightened hotel guests.
The hotel also told police that the taxi drivers shouted obscenities at guests when they checked prices of other taxi services.
The hotel staff, too, were abused by the taxi drivers to the point where the staff were terrified of them. The hotel begged the police to “find the right man” to fix these issues.
The Damrongtham Centre file shows that Phuket’s Police Chief, Maj Gen Choti Chavalviwat, reported back in January that he had met that month with five hotels in the Karon area.
He recommended that a special committee of all concerned officials should be convened as the problem might affect tourism in Karon, Kata and Kamala.
A committee – the members have not been made public – has since been formed and will meet later this month in Karon.
With the “low” season started, tourists are becoming more scarce, aggravating the situation.
Last months, taxi and tuk-tuk drivers so frightened tour counter operators near Dino Park that they closed down and went away.
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