In a fight to stay “alive” in the airport, regular taxi drivers who are stationed at Suvarnabhumi airport threatens to block entry and exit points if the government fails to step in and remove Grab’s pick up points at the said airport.
In a Bangkok Post article, about 50 taxi drivers began rallying outside the parliament on Tuesday. They are demanding the government to intervene and cancel Grab’s service lounge at Suvarnabhumi airport and threatened to block entry points if it failed to act by Wednesday.
Waraphol Kaemkhunthod, head of the Thai Public Taxi Association, who led the protests, gathered outside entry gate 5 at the parliament, across the Ministry of Education on Ratchadamnoen Nok Road.
Protests began when the government allowed Grab drivers to establish pick-up and drop-off points at the airport.
Woraphol explained that passengers now hail drivers through the app, which was bad for drivers and operators of public taxis.
They are asking Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit to resolve the issue and “ensure them justice”, the report claims.
The association of cab drivers want the revocation of ministerial regulations on Hired Cars Carrying No More Than Seven Passengers and Ride-Hailing via an Electronic System.
Woraphol insists that these regulations only benefit the investors and platform developers, leaving traditional drivers behind. “We don’t want the Grab service to have designated spots all over the country, especially at airports… They are like the doors and windows of Thailand”, said Waraphol.
Some app drivers already caused damage to tourists, but news reports sometimes mistook them for public taxi drivers, he adds.
The association needs the government to decide between Grab and the taxi drivers saying: “If they choose Grab, it means they are selling the country because the app does not belong to Thais.”