Illegal taxi motorcyclists busted

Bangkok police chief Sutthipong Wongpin talks to taxi motorcyclists at their stand on Rama IV Road during the raids on Thursday. (Photo by Pornprom Satrabhaya)
Bangkok police chief Sutthipong Wongpin talks to taxi motorcyclists at their stand on Rama IV Road during the raids on Thursday. (Photo by Pornprom Satrabhaya)

Police on Thursday arrested 27 illegal taxi motorcyclists at 13 stands where licensed riders illegally rented their vests to unlicensed bikers and even sold them for up to 400,000 baht.

Pol Lt Gen Sutthipong Wongpin, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, led the raid on taxi motorcycle stands on streets along Rama IV and Sukhumvit roads. Soi Sukhumvit 26 was among the streets with the highest numbers of illegal taxi motorcyclists.

"People have complained about unusually high fares and bad driving habits of taxi motorcyclists since 2014," he said.

"No only that, taxi vests are being sold for 300,000-400,000 baht apiece. The higher the vests are priced, the higher fares are then raised illegally."

The Bangkok police chief said some licensed taxi motorcyclists leased their vests to people who did not have a motorcyclist's licence for public transport and this compromised passengers' safety.

Their public transport driver's licence would be revoked. The campaign would be expanded, Pol Lt Gen Sutthipong said.

The arrested illegal taxi motorcyclists were each fined 2,000 baht for using private vehicles to provide public transport services, he said.

One of them told police he rented a taxi vest for 100-200 baht a day, and earned 1,500-2,000 baht a day. 

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Vocabulary

  • commissioner: the head of a particular police force in some countries - ผู้ตรวจการณ์
  • compromised: when something is weakened and you cannot trust in it for protection anymore -
  • illegal: against the law - ผิดกฎหมาย, นอกกฎหมาย
  • lease (verb): to make a legal agreement which allows someone to pay you money in order to use a building, piece of land, vehicle, etc. for a period of time - ให้เช่า
  • raid: to use force to enter a place suddenly in order to arrest people or search for something such as illegal weapons or drugs - บุกเข้าจับ, เข้าตรวจค้น
  • revoke: to officially say that something is no longer legal - เพิกถอน
  • unusually: different from what is usual or normal - ผิดปกติ
  • vest: a sleeve-less covering for the top part of your body -

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