PHUKET: The Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) has reissued a notice threatening ‘illegal’ taxi drivers with fines of up to B100,000 or even up to five years in jail if caught.
The notice was posted late yesterday (Apr 11), as Phuket enters the Songkran holiday period, when Phuket is expected to reap more than B4.5 billion from tourists.
In a rarity for the PLTO, the notice was posted in both Thai and English.
The English version, verbatim, in full, is as follows:
Announcement of the Phuket Transport Office
Subject: Using a private car to hire illegally
According to information from social media and complain about the use of personal cars to hire and pick up passengers illegally has caused controversy, that causes trouble, and affects to the occupation of legal public transport operators affects the image and reputation of the country, Phuket is known as a world-class tourist city.
Phuket Provincial Land Transport Office would like to announce for acknowledgment as follows:
- Using a private car to carry passengers by hire illegally whether contracting the service through an application or by any means, if an offense is found, the Phuket Provincial Transport Office will proceed according to the regulations and consider penalties as provided by law in all cases. In the case of an offense under the Transport Act B.E. 2522 (1979), will be considered to be sent to the investigating officer to prosecute in accordance with the legal process (The statutory penalty rate is up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine from 20,000 to 100,000 Baht, or both.)
- Passengers should choose to hire a legal car. If choosing an illegal car, the passenger may not be covered in the event of an accident, or it may not be convenient by wasting their travel time and may be required to testify in court if the driver is detained and arraigned. However can search for public car information as follows:
1) Website of the Phuket Provincial Land Transport Office at https://pkt.dlt.go.th/
2) Facebook page anunnuvääniña (The Phuket Transport Office)
3) Line Official of the Phuket Provincial Land Transport Office (ID: @704jhnxb)
- 4) The Land Transport Department Hotline 1584.
To report a guilty or inconvenient being exploited, etc. from using public transport able to report the offense through the Public Transport Passenger Protection Center Hotline 1584 or LINE @1584DLT
Announcement Date 5 September 2022
(Mr Atcha Buachan)
Phuket Provincial Transport
The English version of the notice carries the final closing note, in Thai:
วิสัยทัศน์กรมการขนส่งทางบก
“เป็นองค์กรแห่งนวัตกรรมในการควบคุม กํากับ ดูแลระบบการขนส่งทางถนนให้มีคุณภาพและปลอดภัย”
That is:
Vision of the Department of Land Transport
“To be an innovative organization in controlling, regulating and maintaining quality and safe road transport systems”
There was no explanation of why a notice issued in September was repeated yesterday.
The notice also made no mention of specifically which taxi drivers would be deemed illegal, despite the PLTO openly carrying out a continual crackdown on taxi drivers using inDriver and Bolt ride-sharing apps.
Tourism officials have made no comment on the PLTO’s threat of holding tourists to attend court duty when prosecuting ‘illegal’ taxi drivers.
