Worst Places to Catch a Taxi in Bangkok

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Taxi drivers in Bangkok have a really bad reputation of cheating customers or refusing fares. You really have to be street savvy if you want to survive. The main tip I suggest is never use a taxi that is sitting outside a hotel, shopping mall or tourist attraction. Just walk down the road a bit and flag down a passing taxi. Then, get in, close the door, and say where you want to go. They might still refuse you, but I have found from recent experience, that they are more apologetic than normal. Why is this? I think it is mainly due to the success of the DLT Check-in app that you can download for free for your smartphone.

So far, the DLT app has been downloaded 30,000 times and it has been used 11,185 times to report a service. I have used it four times so far, but only to give a good review. According to the Deputy Director General of the DLT, 1,832 complaints were made about taxi drivers refusing to take passengers. If the driver does this repeatedly, they have their licenses revoked. Someone on Twitter told me that they were contacted by the DLT a few days later to say their driver had been fined. So, it does work. But, more people need to use the app to report bad drivers. Only together can we make a change.

Some interesting statistics that have come out of people using this app shows which roads in Bangkok that drivers refuse passengers the most. These are Sukhumwit, Silom, Sathon and Phaya Thai between the hours of 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.

2 thoughts on “Worst Places to Catch a Taxi in Bangkok

  • June 1, 2015 at 10:26 am
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    Exactly the opposite of what you should do. If you are fortunate enough to get a taxi at your hotel, you can at least ensure that the bellman will direct the driver to your intended destination. Hail a taxi on the street, and more likely than not you will get someone who does not speak a word of English. Many cannot even read so your hotel card or iphone google translate app is equally useless.

    Personally I spend a week in Bangkok last year, took many taxis, and never had a dishonest one in the entire bunch. Most were unfailing polite, and the largest fare I ever paid was USD$3. You can’t even go 100ft in NYC or London for that price!

    Reply
    • June 19, 2015 at 6:26 pm
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      I’m also of the opinion that the taxi’s sitting outside of hotels and other establishments with few customers are the worst offenders … These are the ones (in my experience) that want to negotiate a high fare (rather than the meter). And they rarely (in my experience) refuse to use the meter.

      Think about it …. the taxi’s that sit on the street for hours waiting for a fare have no income … so they must be predatory in their pricing to recover their income.

      Reply

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