Chiang Mai city taxi drivers signed a pledge to provide honest and fair service to passengers, but at the same time demanded a fare increase to be on a par with peers in Phuket.
The memorandum of understanding was signed with Pol Maj Gen Pacha Rattanapan, the deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5, and Charnchai Keelapaeng, director of Chiang Mai Provincial Land Transport Office, after their meeting to address problems related to public transport operators who took advantage of foreign visitors and tarnished the image of Chiang Mai's and Thailand's tourism industry.
The meeting was attended by 150 cabbies from Nakhon Lanna Cooperative and Taxi Vhiang Ping Cooperative, song taew drivers and representatives from the provincial tourism office and the 33rd Military Circle.
The MoU stated that taxi drivers must not reject passengers, not abandon them before reaching a destination and must use meters all the time. The cabbies and song taew drivers must provide service politely, not cheat passengers on fares, and operate only licenced vehicles.
Pol Maj Gen Pacha said about a dozen taxi drivers were arrested for breaching traffic regulations every month. He admitted that most local cabbies negotiated fares with customers rather than user meters and such practice must be changed to comply with the law.
Plainclothes officials would be deployed to randomly check and fine drivers who did not use meters, Pol Maj Gen Pacha said.
Singkham Nanti, Nakhon Lanna Cooperative president, said city cabbies were willing to cooperate with authorities to provide fair and quality services but they wanted the cab fare to be raised, same as that of Phuket taxi drivers.
He said Chiang Mai was not built on flat land and most attractions were on the mountains. When tourists asked for a one-way ride to a remote destination, the drivers had to drive back to town without passengers for a long distance, so they could not use the meter-based rates, Mr Singkham exaplained.
He said Chiang Mai and Phuket were both major tourist destinations and taxi fare rates should be the same.
He said the Phuket meter cabs currently charged a flagfall of 50 baht covering the first 2 kilometres, then 10 baht per kilometre between 3-10km, and 12 baht per kilometre after that.
But the current taxi fares in Chiang Mai was a 40-baht-flagfall for the first 2km, then 6 baht per kilometre between 3-10km, and 10 baht after that.