AoT clarifies expulsion of Uber driver from Suvarnabhumi

A sign on the second floor of Suvarnabhumi airport’s passenger terminal prohibits any act deemed to seek commercial benefits in its traffic and parking spaces without a permit. (Photo by Sutthiwit Chayutworakan)

Airports of Thailand on Sunday defended its expulsion of an Uber taxi driver from Suvarnabhumi airport grounds earlier this week after the incident drew a mixed reaction from city commuters.

Suvarnabhumi airport director Sirote Duangrat said the Uber taxi driver was expelled because his vehicle was illegal and breached the Land Transport Act.

On Wednesday, Pollapat Sawanloke, an Uber taxi driver, used his private car – a Nissan Almera – to pick up two Japanese passengers on the second floor Passenger Terminal platform at about 5pm.

Mr Pollapat planned to charge the passengers 300 baht to take them to Le Méridien Bangkok Hotel in the Silom area.

Airport authorities stopped him from providing the service, saying he and his vehicle were not properly registered to provide a public service and doing so violated AoT’s regulations governing public transport services for passengers and their safety. They told him to leave the airport premises.

He was fined 2,000 baht for using an illegal vehicle and had his personal information recorded at Suvarnabhumi airport police station.

Similar incidents have taken place at the country’s main airport after an increasing number of passengers started using smartphone taxi apps. These include California-based Uber, Malaysia-based Grab Taxi and Brazil-based Easy Taxi.

Wednesday’s incident drew a mixed response from social media users. Many renewed calls for smartphone-based taxi services to be allowed to pick up passengers at Suvarnabhumi airport which they said provided better service than the legally registered, conventional taxis on the first floor of the terminal platform.

A Facebook user, Phumipat Mayura, said she preferred using Uber taxi and “the authorities should ask the passengers’ opinion and not just think on our behalf”.

Vorawit Chen said he had decided to no longer use the services of the airport taxi stand after he had some bad experiences concerning meters that kept rising too quickly and bad manners of drivers.

Some agreed taxi hailing applications offer an alternative to commuters but said they should abide by the public transport law and register their drivers and vehicles properly.

“The airport has every right to do so because the law does not allow unregulated cars to provide public services,” Worayut Sopananukul wrote.

Koko Tanakorn suggested the state work with the operators of taxi-calling apps to improve local taxi services rather than crack down on them.

Mr Sirote said the airport would allow Uber taxis and those from similar companies to collect passengers once their drivers and vehicles were certified by the Department of Land Transport and they had submitted a formal request to operate at Suvarnabhumi.



