PTY BU SUP_Nov19

BUSINESS SUPPLEMENT
CALLS FOR A FAIR PLAYING FIELD FOR
RIDE-HAILING SERVICES
The Transport Ministry is set
to legalize ride-hailing services by
March 2020, requiring changes
and amendments to existing laws.
Currently ride-hailing services are
not legalized and Thailand is one
of three ASEAN nations not to
have made the leap yet to liberalize
the law.
Yet, many concerns persist as
they have done in countries across
the world. The concerns relate to
the additional competition that may
become a burden to registered taxi
drivers, the ability to manage further
competition and the ability to
monitor and maintain service standards
and safety for passengers.
Across the world major
ride-hailing services have been
at odds with lawmakers and have
had to make substantial changes
to their terms and conditions in order
to ensure fair competition.
As such there are calls for the
sector to be not too liberalized and
for a lot of thought to be put into
legislative amendments.
According to the Thammasat
Consulting Networking and
Coaching Center (CONC), part of
the Thammasat Business School,
services should be adequately
regulated in the areas of driving
license requirements, checks on
vehicles and tax registration. Also
on the radar is a check on the
criminal background of would-be
drivers, as well as how stringent
the conditions and requirements
will be put in place on the part of
the ride hailing services, before allowing
drivers to commence.
The director of the CONC,
Suthikorn Kingkaew, was quoted
as saying, “I believe the giant
ride-hailing operators today have
already caused intense competition,"
adding, "If we allow too many
ride-hailing apps to come, small
operators may not be able to survive
and it will be difficult to control
service quality.”
Another concern is whether
drivers should have public or private
licenses. The latter are more
stringent with renewal required every
3 years. The licenses should
be the same for cabbies and ride
hailing service drivers to ensure a
level playing field.
Also advocated is a flexible
starting price for cabbies to avoid
refusal of fares. However, taxi
fares have only just been recently
reviewed and so are unlikely to be
reviewed again soon. In any case
refusal of passengers has little to
do with the fare in many cases.
Usually the cabbie will refuse a
customer because he has insufficient
time to complete a journey
before his or her shift ends. With
many cabbies renting their cars
they need to return them and ensure
the next driver gets them on a
timely basis.
Findings from a study that was
carried out by the OCNC indicated
that 95 per cent of participants
said they needed to use ride-hailing
services. There were approx.
2.4 million monthly passengers of
popular ride hailing services and
this is expected to increase five
fold by 2025.
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