Uber ban slams brakes on the digital economy

As a regular user of Uber I can’t find fault in your report and I appreciate the fairness it shows to Uber and to appreciative users like myself.

In contrast the Land Transport Department’s aggressiveness in shooing away Uber makes me question whether it knows what it’s doing. Services like Uber represent exactly what Deputy Premier Pridiyathorn Devakul means by the digital economy, which he says Thailand must adopt. I have been using Uber for two months and my permanent driver has now switched to gardening. My car is used on weekends only. If, one day, Uber is allowed to thrive in Thailand – as it already does in 50 other countries – I could dispense with my car altogether and rely on my Uber chauffeurs cruising Bangkok. Economists call this an economy of scale, versus one car-and-driver per executive.

Banning Uber because its cars lack public-transport licences is using a technicality of the law to prevent progress and the wellbeing of the citizens. Why can’t authorities here accommodate the situation, as they have in Vietnam, by making Uber take insurance coverage for all passengers and register all drivers? Pricing is currently fair – a 30-40 per cent premium for smart and well-mannered drivers and a Toyota Camry or Mercedes. The annual inflation rate could be imposed as a ceiling for yearly price rises.

Bring Uber into the fold and drop the threatening tone of legal action and a Bt2,000 fine every time a driver is caught. 

Songdej Praditsmanont