Airport blacklists 'no meter' cabbie

Suvarnabhumi airport authorities have blacklisted a taxi driver who tried to charge a lump sum for a trip from the airport, after a passenger complained the car had no meter.

After placing his taxi driver ID on a blacklist and prohibiting him from entering the airport, the officials asked the Land Transport Department to investigate further and take legal action against the driver.

A photo of the no-meter taxi posted by a pantip.com user which led to its ban. (Photo from Pantip.com/Mun Thow)

The move followed a complaint on the Pantip.com community website by a user by the name of Mun Thow. After looking into the facts, the authorities found that a Thai passenger had hailed a taxi from the first floor of the passenger terminal at 2.10pm on Thursday.

The passenger had obtained a ticket from the queuing machine and was served by a Toyota Innova taxi driven and owned by Thinkimo Seesopa.

The passenger stated his destination, which was the Bang Wa BTS station. The driver then asked him what he usually paid for the trip and he told him the fare was normally 250-400 baht in a metered taxi.

At this point, the passenger noticed there was no meter installed in the car and there was a sign saying "800-900 baht in Bangkok and 1,000-2,000 to the provinces".

Since the passenger had booked a metered taxi, he was unhappy but the driver claimed all large taxis did not have meters installed. The passenger did not believe him and cancelled the service. He was dropped on the fourth floor, which was not a drop-off point for taxis.

An airport official summoned the driver to give an explanation and the driver admitted that the passenger's account was true. He was therefore banned from entering the airport from Friday.

Officials have urged passengers to keep service tickets as evidence and say they can take swift action against taxi drivers who do not comply with the law since they maintain a database of the drivers at the airport.