Phuket Airport Bus Service Spells Trouble, Warns Patong Taxi Group Leader
By Premkamon Ketsara and Alan Morison
Friday, July 12, 2013
PHUKET: Many taxi and tuk-tuk drivers in Patong are unaware that the innovative Phuket Airport-Patong-Airport bus service is beginning next Friday and one is warning of potential violence.
Although the low-cost hop-on hop-off bus service begins in less than a week, Phuketwan discovered today that no precautions have been taken to ''sell'' the project to Patong tuk-tuk and taxi drivers.
One Patong taxi group leader, Vichai Maiseetong, said today when asked about the effects of the bus service: ''Surely there are going to be problems.''
Khun Vichai appeared not to not be aware that the service is beginning on Friday. A Phuketwan reporter chose not to enlighten him.
He said today that both a Phuket airport to Patong bus service and the proposed water ferry from the airport had the potential to cut into the income of local taxi drivers.
''Fighting is how disputes are settled in the Patong area,'' he said. Some locals were already struggling to make ends meet, he said.
Chanon, who prefers to use one name and runs the tuk-tuk stand at Jungceylon shopping centre in Patong, said the buses would have no real effect on his drivers.
''Mostly their fares are people leaving Jungceylon,'' he said.
Khun Vichai was less sanguine. He said that Phuket was now being run by profit-taking business people, mentioning how Russians now ran all businesses dealing with tourists from that country.
''We local people are being cut out of the market without revenue going to us or to Thailand,'' he said.
It came as a surprise to Phuketwan reporters that nobody has briefed the taxi and tuk-tuk drivers in Patong by telling them that the bus service does not pose a threat.
A bus service between Patong and Karon came to an abrupt end back in the 1990s when a driver was beaten.
Planning is going ahead with tickets to be sold by conductors on the buses and from a service outlet on the concourse close to the exit at Phuket International Airport.
An upgrading to the siteat phuketairportbusexpress.com, where details can be found about stops and fares, is likely to be made early next week.
Marketing officer Rungrat Pakdiwong said that each of the buses would be fitted with a suggestion box so that passengers could immediately deliver feedback on driver and conductor quality and service.
PHUKET WAN