City orange vests on way out

The orange vests worn by motorcycle taxi drivers will soon disappear from the city.

Motorcycle taxi drivers wait for customers near Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok. Their orange vests will soon be replaced with luminous light green ones, as part of the National Council for Peace and Order’s attempt to regulate motorcycle taxi services. Pattarapong Chatpattarasill

The military plans to scrap all licensed vests issued under City Hall's registration system.

They will replace it with a free motorcycle taxi driver registration system using a vest of single colour — luminous green.

The move comes after the junta began a drive to register motorcycle taxi drivers last month.

The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) wants to regulate motorcycle taxi services and curb the problem of illegal motorcycle taxi drivers, said 1st Division commander Maj Gen Apirat Kongsompong.

Previously, each licensed motorcycle taxi driver's vest could be sold for hundreds of thousands of baht.

Such an illegal system was blamed for causing drivers to charge their passengers excessive rates, he said.

The NCPO's peacekeeping task force had then decided to cancel all existing licensed vests and replace them with the new luminous green vest bearing the Land Transport Department's logo.

The current orange-coloured vest bears the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's (BMA) logo.

Under the BMA's taxi motorcycle registration system, only a limited number of licensed vests were issued, which was seen as a key factor causing the licensed vests to be priced so high, said Maj Gen Apirat.

"From now on, all old licensed vests will be cancelled.

"The motorcycle taxi driver registration system will then be free of charge and there will no longer be a limit on the number of licensed motorcycle taxi drivers," he said.

"Anyone can become a motorcycle taxi driver and all one is required to do is apply for a licence with the Land Transport Department."

Asked whether the lifting of the limit on the number of licensed motorcycle taxi drivers and the free registration process would lead to an oversupply of drivers, Maj Gen Apirat said the market mechanism would run its course.

He said he didn't expect to see a far larger number of people flocking to register as motorcycle taxi drivers as they would have to consider whether they could compete with current motorcycle taxi drivers and still make a living.

Asked whether customers would confuse the green vests with the army's green colour, Maj Gen Apirat said the vests would be luminous light green, not the dark green used by the military.

The luminous colours, especially green, conform with international standards for traffic safety which recommend the use of bright and luminous colours to improve visibility, he said.

Maj Gen Apirat said the Land Transport Department chief would present some samples of the new luminous green vests to him today.

The department planned to organise training sessions on traffic rules for more than 1,000 registered motorcycle taxi drivers, said Maj Gen Apirat.

Meanwhile, a source said the top concern among the motorcycle taxi drivers now is they are afraid of being given traffic tickets more often once the old vest system is cancelled.

Under the current system, the taxi operators of orange-coloured vests usually have connections with police and have already paid bribes, said the source.

Under the proposed system, drivers could be forced by dishonest traffic police to pay bribes to avoid frequent checks, said the source.