Thailand's cabs to be equipped with GPS tracking

BANGKOK, June 26 (TNA) - The Thai government is upgrading cabs' services nationwide, covering the installation of the global positioning system tracking (GPS tracking) to detect whereabouts of public taxis to enhance public security. Sanit Promwong, Director-General of the Department of Land Transport, under the Thai Ministry of Transport, told journalists that his department is in charge of implementing the government's policy through the Taxi OK and the Taxi VIP projects. Sanit said the new cabs' service is expected to be legally-launched by October 2017, after two public transport regulations that have been revised and approved by the Thai Cabinet are published in the Royal Gazette. Sanit revealed that his department will also legalize personal cars that have been used as taxis to protect legally-registered cabs from unfair competition, referring to those running under UBER and Grab Car companies that have launched their services through online applications on people's mobile phones. Pending his department's study on a best approach to bring the personal-car cabs under the law, the senior official urged drivers of legally-registered taxis to report to authorities concerned in their areas, rather than taking any unilateral action against any personal-car taxi. The senior official's remarks followed a recent incident in which a group of drivers of legally-registered taxis besieged a personal car they suspected to illegally serve passengers as a taxi at the Chiang Mai Airport in the Thai North, but the sedan was later found to be a personal car entering the airport for the private owner's business. (TNA)