News Forum - VIDEO: Taxi meter rises suspiciously quickly in Bangkok, Thailand

[Thaiger]

A passenger of a taxi in Bangkok, Thailand, filmed the metre rising suspiciously quickly and posted it on Twitter, asking netizens, “Is this normal?” Facebook page “Do you want to be famous? I’ll make you famous return part 5.3” – comrades of citizen journalism in Thailand  – publicised the video on Sunday. The passenger said they got in the taxi at Don Mueang Airport and the metre had already risen to 347 baht by the time they were approaching the Din Daeng Expressway. When the female taxi driver saw the passenger filming the metre, she suddenly turned it off, despite having […]

The story VIDEO: Taxi metre rises suspiciously quickly in Bangkok, Thailand as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Ramanathan.P]

Just avoid taxi and take public transport or arrange transport with your hotel to pick-up. 

[TheDirtyDurian]

3 hours ago, Ramanathan.P said:

Just avoid taxi and take public transport or arrange transport with your hotel to pick-up. 

In three decades of visiting or living in Bangkok, apart from drivers refusing to turn on a meter, or refuse to go somewhere, I can only recall one time where a driver deliberately set out to rip us off. Which is pretty good going I think. 

Did happen to me as described in the article in Bahrain one time though. Meter ended up in about 1000 baht equivalent for what was about a 5km journey. I refused to pay being aware of the price and told him to call the police if he didn't like it, at which point he suddenly agreed to let me and my son go for free...

[MrNovax]

They can tweek these meters for sure.  I have a considerable ride from the city out to our home and it seems that the price can vary depending on the cab even when traveling the same route late at night with little to no traffic.  This driver flew a little to close to the sun and hopefully is about to get burned.  

[Soidog]

Use Grab or some other similar scheme. You know what it is before you step foot in the vehicle. 

[HolyCowCm]

Bad it happen 3 times before from Suvarnabhumi to down town. One was shone on me. Second was waited and finally called him on the semi fast the meter. Third was directly out of the airport not 2 km down the highway and threatened him by taking pictures to turn him in. That meter was spinning like a top. It does happen do not do uncommon. Just a flip of the toggle switch 

[Maikel]

thai govt do a lot of advertising to attract tourists, but never fix the basics. Ive been refused several times in Silom for not agree to enter a taxi without taximeter. taxis in Thailand are a real gang and authorities need to do something. 

Now it seems they are frauding the taximeters...

[Mandy]

We used to use buses and trains but on the rare occasion we used a taxi, we sort out a price that's fair to both of us, we only had one driver that tried it on by going in the completely opposite direction, we explained the route but he took no notice, we simply got out in the middle of the bridge and walked away

[Marc26]

10 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

Bad it happen 3 times before from Suvarnabhumi to down town. One was shone on me. Second was waited and finally called him on the semi fast the meter. Third was directly out of the airport not 2 km down the highway and threatened him by taking pictures to turn him in. That meter was spinning like a top. It does happen do not do uncommon. Just a flip of the toggle switch 

Happened to me in Hanoi, Vietnam 

 

I saw the metre jumping and a 8min ride was trying to charge me about $30usd

 

I didn't say anything 

Just when he pulled up to my hotel, The Sofitel

I told him I knew the metre was jumping and gave him what the fare should be

Got out and told the bellman and they told him to beat it

[Mamachigawa]

Same thing from with me from BKK recently.

I Heard of these Turbo mode meters but never experienced I thought they were an urban myth.

[Mamachigawa]

12 hours ago, Soidog said:

Use Grab or some other similar scheme. You know what it is before you step foot in the vehicle. 

I tried the GRAB app from BKK airport though there were many drivers appearing to be standing by in the carpark none would respond for over 15 minutes so I joined the taxi rank queue.

[Havana]

12 hours ago, Soidog said:

Use Grab or some other similar scheme. You know what it is before you step foot in the vehicle. 

Couldn't agree more. Price quoted prior to Grab Taxi arriving regardless of journey time, though I can only speak for CM.

[HolyCowCm]

1 hour ago, Marc26 said:

Happened to me in Hanoi, Vietnam 

I saw the metre jumping and a 8min ride was trying to charge me about $30usd

I didn't say anything 

Just when he pulled up to my hotel, The Sofitel

I told him I knew the metre was jumping and gave him what the fare should be

Got out and told the bellman and they told him to beat it

Same for me in Saigon. Guy was a turd.

[HiuMak]

22 hours ago, Thaiger said:

 The passenger said they got in the taxi at Don Mueang Airport and the metre had already risen to 347 baht by the time they were approaching the Din Daeng Expressway.

I travelled quite a few times to Don Mueang airport. Don Mueang airport to Bangkok city should be around 300-400 baht including surcharge and toll fees. Seems meter moves really fast to me.

[Soidog]

4 hours ago, Mamachigawa said:

I tried the GRAB app from BKK airport though there were many drivers appearing to be standing by in the carpark none would respond for over 15 minutes so I joined the taxi rank queue.

Yes, I’ve had the same thing in Pattaya. You know why that is though? 

[Mamachigawa]

10 hours ago, Soidog said:

Yes, I’ve had the same thing in Pattaya. You know why that is though? 

Why? I use GRAB all the time other places. Do the drivers want you to go to some secret pick up spot?

[Soidog]

27 minutes ago, Mamachigawa said:

Why? I use GRAB all the time other places. Do the drivers want you to go to some secret pick up spot?

Well that’s what happened to me in Pattaya. I asked to be picked up at my hotel as I was moving hotels. The driver called me to ask if I could meet him 50 metres down the road as normal taxis were parked outside my hotel. I met him and he explained that he would most likely get in to a fight with the regular taxi guys if he had met me at the hotel. I suspect the same thing is happening at the main airports, though that may be a licensing issues? 

[Marc26]

6 hours ago, Soidog said:

Well that’s what happened to me in Pattaya. I asked to be picked up at my hotel as I was moving hotels. The driver called me to ask if I could meet him 50 metres down the road as normal taxis were parked outside my hotel. I met him and he explained that he would most likely get in to a fight with the regular taxi guys if he had met me at the hotel. I suspect the same thing is happening at the main airports, though that may be a licensing issues? 

The airports is a licensing thing and yours in Pattaya was a mob thing

[Haole.TH]

22 hours ago, Havana said:

Couldn't agree more. Price quoted prior to Grab Taxi arriving regardless of journey time, though I can only speak for CM.

Even Grab is too expensive in CM.  Try "In Drive" (on Google Play Store).  Much better prices ...

[HolyCowCm]

9 hours ago, Soidog said:

Well that’s what happened to me in Pattaya. I asked to be picked up at my hotel as I was moving hotels. The driver called me to ask if I could meet him 50 metres down the road as normal taxis were parked outside my hotel. I met him and he explained that he would most likely get in to a fight with the regular taxi guys if he had met me at the hotel. I suspect the same thing is happening at the main airports, though that may be a licensing issues? 

CM airport you have to walk out before you can get an app ride. Well at least thats what I see everyone doing. Might be fist fights or quite possibly arrested by security. Didn't the main AOT jerk running Phuket airport just say app rides are not allowed on airport property? His reasoning was something about safety or certified licensed or something total BS like that. But then they still let hotel vehicles in and out. don't figure. 

[Soidog]

6 hours ago, Marc26 said:

The airports is a licensing thing and yours in Pattaya was a mob thing

Yes I suspected that’s the case. I assume if Grab overcome the licensing thing it would be replaced by the mob thing? 

[Soidog]

2 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

CM airport you have to walk out before you can get an app ride. Well at least thats what I see everyone doing. Might be fist fights or quite possibly arrested by security. Didn't the main AOT jerk running Phuket airport just say app rides are not allowed on airport property? His reasoning was something about safety or certified licensed or something total BS like that. But then they still let hotel vehicles in and out. don't figure. 

Well we both know the reason for all this, especially in Phuket. To use safety as an excuse is laughable. At least with an App like Grab there is a record of who picked you up and which car you were in. With a normal taxi there is often very little proof. As for safety of the driving skills, well I’m sure the App driver and taxi driver are likely just as bad. 

[Marc26]

10 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

CM airport you have to walk out before you can get an app ride. Well at least thats what I see everyone doing. Might be fist fights or quite possibly arrested by security. Didn't the main AOT jerk running Phuket airport just say app rides are not allowed on airport property? His reasoning was something about safety or certified licensed or something total BS like that. But then they still let hotel vehicles in and out. don't figure. 

Taxis usually pay a concession to pick up at the airport, and more importantly, wait quite awhile for a fare

 

So it is not a level playing field to allow APP pickups

 

That has been the case in pretty much every country, with the APP drivers having to pay the concessions

[HolyCowCm]

2 hours ago, Marc26 said:

Taxis usually pay a concession to pick up at the airport, and more importantly, wait quite awhile for a fare

So it is not a level playing field to allow APP pickups

That has been the case in pretty much every country, with the APP drivers having to pay the concessions

Demographics of peaches and herbs. Not relevant

 

[Marc26]

10 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

Demographics of peaches and herbs. Not relevant

Of course it's relevant, it is the reason one is allowed to operate at the airport and one is not

 

Every airport in the world charges fees/concessions to operate there

Thailand is no different