Charter van operators want 110kph limit, not 90

Charter van operators want 110kph limit, not 90

Chanakan Prommun, centre, president of the VIP Van Association, and some of his members file their speed limit petition at the Transport Ministry in Bangkok on Tuesday. (Photo by Thodapol Hongthong)
Chanakan Prommun, centre, president of the VIP Van Association, and some of his members file their speed limit petition at the Transport Ministry in Bangkok on Tuesday. (Photo by Thodapol Hongthong)

Charter van operators have asked the Transport Ministry to raise the speed limit for their vehicles from 90 to 110 kilometres per hour, to avoid traffic fines costing them 300 million baht a year.

Chanakan Prommun, president of the VIP Van Association, and about 30 members submitted their written request at the ministry on Tuesday.

Mr Chanakan said they were aware that Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob planned to increase the speed limit to 120kph and felt that the present 90kph speed limit was unfair to van drivers.

"Vans overtake others by going faster than 90kph for more than two minutes. Sometimes van drivers going  at only 91kph are ordered to pay the 1,000-baht fine immediately. Besides, the GPS system overseeing their speed is imprecise," Mr Chanakan said.

He said members of his association operate about 57,000 vans nationwide, and last year were forced to pay about 300 million baht in total fines for speed violations.

He said the 90kph limit was driving tourists to charter other types of vehicles, because chartered vans went too slowly for them to complete their tour itineraries on time.

The 110kph limit could meet the tourists' needs and remained safe for traffic, Mr Chanakan said.

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