Torneyboy Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Motorcycle taxi mafia extort thb 1.2bn a year. Registration plan to ease their grip. Gangs controlling motorcycle taxis in Bkk earn at least 100million baht a monthfrom fees imposed on more than 1800 cycle_taxi queues. Thai lucrative business is threatened by the governments anti mafia drive. The metropolitan Police Bureau has found 1838 motorcycle -Taxi queues on minor roads and housing estates. An unofficial survey estimates the city has at least 100000 motorcycle taxis. As drivers pay a daily fee of 30-50 baht to their controllers,the gangs are probably making 100million baht a month or 1.2 billion a year. Taxi motorcyclists say some of the money goest to police .They hailed the governments plan to free them from the influential controllers. Prasert Pumnarai who works on Charansanitwong soi 45 road,said he paid 4000bt for a queue vest and a daily fee of 40bt to the queue controller. He had to pay the fee even when sick,the controller would not allow a replacement. WE know well who our money goest to, Police are among the recipients. This id tru for all queues,without the payment they cannot exist,Mr Prasert said. He would be happier to pay 30bt a day to the state. Mrs Sompote Homchong , the queue controller denied she refferd the money to police. Mongkol Srisuwan said that excluding his daily fee of 50bt,he earned about 200bt per day. In his queue there were about 300 motorcycles and the controller was probably earning 450000bt a month. Somkiart Pasunai said his queue vest was 6000bt. He pays daily instalments for the vest and a daily service fee of 20bt. Our daily expenses are high but we have no option he said. Bangkok Governor Samak Sudaravej said the riders would have to register with the district authority and he would put a lid on their number. City officials would work with metropilitan police to find out the precise number of motorcycle taxis and their stands around the city. There will not be any more taxi motor-cycles popping up after this survey,he said. The Prime Minister agreed to put money from the Government Lottery Office into buying ubiform vests for all Bangkok taxi motorcy-clists to show they had registered with the authority. They will have to register at district offices for a licence,approved by the Bangkok Metropolitan administration and Police. They will also have to pay a small fee register or renew the licence. Registration will will ""liberate ''motor-cyclists from having to pay controllers,MR Samak said. Sangsidh Piriyarangsan,vice chairman of the National Economic and Social advisory Council,said registration of the taxis was not enough to rid them of the people who took advantage of them. Registration would result in motorcyclists paying local officials instead of people wielding mafia-type influence. The government should legalise taxi motorcycles by registering them with the Labour Ministry to privide them with social welfare and bring them under the tax system,MR sangsidh said. This story in our local thai paper. Interesting reading for those not privy to how these guys earn or try to earn a living in BKK. Also interesting that the police will be approving the licence of the riders :: I didnt realise they were paying so much for the privlege to earn 200bt a day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Hi, "I didnt realise they were paying so much for the privlege to earn 200bt a day" I think they make more than this though. My guess is that they (on average) make more than taxi drivers, say around 400 Baht a day. I do not have any hard evidence to back this up though, just sounds about right from what I have seen. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted June 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Hi, "I didnt realise they were paying so much for the privlege to earn 200bt a day" I think they make more than this though. My guess is that they (on average) make more than taxi drivers, say around 400 Baht a day. I do not have any hard evidence to back this up though, just sounds about right from what I have seen. Sanuk! Divide that by the hours these guys work they need some assistance to make a living. Btw i have never used one is it mainly locals that use the motorcycle taxi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharcyde Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Says torneyboy: Btw i have never used one is it mainly locals that use the motorcycle taxi? anyone can i guess, just have to negotiate the fare up front. they are a good solution if you have to hurry through town in times of heavy traffic. just dont forget the helmet , accidents happen. cheers. pharcyde Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Why is it every Taxi driver I ever asked tells me he earns 600 baht a day, sharing the car with another driver, 12 hour shifts. I see people posting about 400, 300, all sorts of figures, but has anyone actually asked a whole lot of drivers?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharcyde Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 generally i think the figure is somewhere between 5-800 baht for a 12 hour shift. this is the pure profit, after gasoline and rental costs have been deducted. one can imagine that a cabbie requires many kilometres and tours for a decent profit. however, the amount above is relative, because the earning dependes on where and when the taxi driver is fishing for passengers. if a taxi is shared its most likely an owned car, and two brothers or friends work together, one shift each. these are the green and yellow cabs, whereas the other white pink, red-blue and whatnot mostly are leaced (sp) for 12 hours. cheers, pc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Says torneyboy: Btw i have never used one is it mainly locals that use the motorcycle taxi? I do on dayly basis when in BKK, no problem....... As for the earnings, we have a member here, married, and his wife own a dozen or so bikes which she rents out, he could anwser the questions........ Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli13 Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 yes moto's is the (only) way to go in the soi's & for the daring even crosstown rides. prices are fairly standard & needs not negotiating except perhaps for crosstown rides. typical main rd - down the soi rides start from 5bt & upto say 20bt for down the rd & down the soi type of runs! I've never asked a moto guy or woman how much they earn, but discussed with severel taxis as typically your TG by your side will talk with the driver. Also the (step) father of a TG I was seeing way back was a driver & typical quotes are 600bt/day or 1 even said more than 1k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 Hi, "but has anyone actually asked a whole lot of drivers?" Partially. I know that they pay around 350-600 Baht to rent a taxi for 12 hrs, then pay another few hunderd for gas. So, a taxi driver grossing 1,000 Baht a day, only takes home about 200 Baht or so. Those that own their own car do much better though. The reason I think motorcycle guys make more is that they do not need to rent their motorbikes and their gas costs are much lower. Yet on longer trips the fare is about the same as for a taximeter. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straycat Posted June 21, 2003 Report Share Posted June 21, 2003 The reason I think motorcycle guys make more is that they do not need to rent their motorbikes and their gas costs are much lower. Yet on longer trips the fare is about the same as for a taximeter. I think it depends tremendously on where they work. Just imagine working motorcycle taxi in a long ass soi for 7 baht each trip...then wait in line for the 20-30 other drivers in your "team" to take their turn... Good example spot: Sukhumvit Soi 26. I doubt there can be much money made unless there is an odd long trip thrown in.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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