Hundreds of taxi drivers arrested

An associated – and equally widespread – problem is their refusal to accept a passenger because the required destination is inconvenient.

I sent a copy of that letter to the Department of Land Transport and your readers might be interested to hear the response.

Apparently, their records indicate that 50 taxi drivers were arrested for these forms of illegal conduct last December, another 257 in January and 397 more in February. What is not clear is the percentage of re-offenders here – or were all those drivers arrested only once each? In any case, it’s all very well arresting some drivers who break the law, but does the punishment (if any) deter them from re-offending?

Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence suggests that both types of offence continue to be widely encountered by local people as well as tourists. This causes much inconvenience and gives a poor impression. More stringent punishment that does have a strongly deterrent effect is clearly needed. Readers can do their part by declining to travel in a taxi whose driver refuses to operate the meter.

Paul Surtees

Bangkok