Phuket Taxis Blockade Forces ‘Shuttle Retreat’
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/phuket-resort-blockade-forces-shuttle-retreat-12072/
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By Alan Morison
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
LOCAL TAXIS blockaded a west-coast resort last night for about an hour in a dispute over a new shuttle bus service.
The manager of the resort agreed to talk to Phuketwan on condition of anonymity. Readers contacted the site last night to alert us to the blockade.
”We gave them what they wanted,” the manager said today. ”We really had no choice. It was over a new shuttle service to Patong, and we had already tried to negotiate.”
Local taxi drivers called in other drivers from a neighboring beach to assist in making their blockade a bigger success.
It took place in one of Phuket’s better-known beach destinations, where hillside property remains expensive and where the only real difficulty experienced by tourists is the lack of efficient, reasonably priced public transport.
Neighboring resorts and apartment blocks have also been pressured on occasions by the drivers.
The fare in a tuk-tuk or taxi from the resort where last night’s blockade took place to Patong is 500 baht.
Blockades of the kind that disrupted traffic in and around the resort last night happen ”pretty well all over the place,” the manager said.
He preferred to remain anonymous because of concerns about his staff, who have to pass by the local drivers on a daily basis going to and from work. He is also concerned about the future business of the resort.
”If a tourist does not have a car on Phuket, then you either have to stay in your resort or pay for tuk-tuks,” he said.
”For the price of a fare from here to Patong, 500 baht, I could ride around practically all day in a taxi in Bangkok.”
He agreed that unless some solution to the existing extortionate fares problem was found, large numbers of tourists would eventually desert Phuket for other destinations.
”I had to go to tell the drivers last night that we were giving in,” the manager said. ”We had to back down. We had no choice.
”Just about every resort has these kinds of problems,” he added.
He said that he understood that shuttle buses from the FantaSea show in Kamala were tolerated because they had been in action for some years.
But the drivers have made it known they will not allow other shuttle services to pick up passengers ”in their territory.”
Phuket Governor Wichai Praisa-ngob has been involved in looking at potential solutions to transport crises involving tuk-tuks and airport taxis.
Provincial Hall was last week the destination for about 100 airport taxi drivers, protesting about the issuing of 30 new licences and airport rents that they say are excessive.
It is believed that problems with transport on Phuket are now also being raised at senior levels within the government in Bangkok.
Two incidents involving violence against tourists since Christmas have also intensified calls for changes.
Thailand; WARNING 
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