Thai taxi drivers receive record amount of complaints

The Department of Land Transport received 93,474 complaints about public transport in Thailand this year. Taxi drivers were complained about the most, receiving an impressive 14,158 complaints.

Most of the complaints were about bad manners, dangerous driving, refusing passengers, illegal licenses, and illicit taxi metres.

Between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2022, the department’s Passenger Protection and Complaint Centre received 93,474 calls via their hotline 1584.

In the same period the previous year, the hotline received a minuscule 8,980 complaints, comparatively. The centre said complaints have shot up given the ease of Covid-19 restrictions. More people are back at work and using public transport this year.

Taxi drivers faced the most complaints of anyone at 14,158. Motorbike taxi drivers faced 1,118 complaints in total.

The public was not so impressed with the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA)’s public bus drivers, who received 3,814 complaints this year.

Bus drivers were criticised for dangerous driving, not stopping at stop signs, impolite manners and illegally modifying their vehicles.

The remaining complaints were about the following forms of public transport…

• Air-conditioned private buses – 1,551 complaints
• Private buses – 806 complaints
• Public buses from the Transport Company – 1,311 complaints
• Public vans – 642 complaints
• Public pickup truck (songthaew) – 505 complaints
• Public mini-buses – 471 complaints

The Department of Land Transport promised passengers that they would investigate naughty taxi drivers and solve the issues as soon as possible to provide safe and quality service to residents.

Yesterday morning, ten foreign tourists and one Thai passenger were injured in bus crash when two drivers tried to switch places without pulling over first.

Thailand is notorious for its dangerous roads. Earlier this year, Thailand was deemed the second most dangerous place in the world to drive after South Africa.

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation has labelled the Christmas and New Year holidays the “seven dangerous days” due to increased amount of accidents.

The Seven Dangerous Days actually happens twice a year, with increased accidents and road deaths during the Songkran holidays, or Thai New Year, in April.