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.