Taxi drivers punished for rejecting passengers

BANGKOK, Jan 16 (TNA) -- Two taxi drivers have their driving licences revoked and 26 others have their licences temporarily suspended during the first quarter of fiscal year of 2016, or between October 1-December 31 last year, said Sanit Phromwong, director-general of Transport Ministry’s Land Transport Department. Of the total taxi drivers, 19 of them were found not to provide services to would-be passengers, three showed improper behaviours, two failed to use meter and two others did not send passengers at destinations as agreed earlier, Mr Sanit said. He said his department had told every punished taxi driver to urgently improve services and their licences would be withdrawn immediately if they would found to commit the same mistake in future. Records of punished drivers of public transportation are kept to make sure that they improve services, he said. So far four taxi drivers have their licences revoked and licences for 236 drivers have been temporarily suspended since the tough measure against the taxi drivers is imposed on April 1, 2014 until last December 31, said Mr Sanit. During the same period, 19 drivers of taxi van had their licences suspended temporarily, he added. (TNA)