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I read on https://www.bangkokairportonline.com/bangkok-airport-public-taxi-service/ (mirror):

Bangkok Airport Public Taxi Service:

  • Public taxi stand is located on Level 1 (Ground Level).
  • Contact Taxi counter, Level 1 – Ground Level, near entrances 3, 4, 7 and 8.
  • Receive a ticket from a taxi queue machine, proceed to the lane number printed on your ticket.
  • Taxi fare: metered taxi fare plus 50 Baht airport surcharge, and expressway fees.
  • Public taxis serving Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport must be less than 5 years old.
  • Public taxi drivers must be certified by Airports of Thailand.
  • Passenger drop off at Departures (level 4 – outer curb).

Therefore I assume one could report taxi drivers who refuse to use the meter to the Bangkok’s airport authorities, since "public taxi drivers must be certified by Airports of Thailand". But I haven't found any information on that. E.g., can I find some airport employees directly at the airport to make the report, and show them a video of the taxi driver refusing to use the meter or directly bring them to the taxi to talk to the taxi driver? Or do the airport authorities have a dedicated phone line or online contact medium (form/email/etc.)?

I found https://www.richardbarrow.com/2012/09/how-to-report-a-taxi-in-bangkok/step (mirror):

Since the 1st September 2012, the police have been cracking down on taxi drivers refusing to pick up passengers. In the past they would have just received a warning, but starting this month, refusing to pick up passengers is now 1 of 13 traffic violations that will get a driver an immediate fine (see here). If this happens to you, you can contact the Land Transport Department Hotline on 1584. You need to make a note of the license plate (see above picture) and the time and place of the incident. They also suggest taking a picture but I would advise caution doing this. Taxi drivers have been known to attack passengers for doing this. An alternative number is 1197 which is the hotline for traffic police.

but I'd prefer to contact the airport authorities, so that they can revise which public taxi drivers are certified by Airports of Thailand.


I'm asking this question for the following two reasons:

  1. [short-term, self-centered reason] Showing to the problematic taxi driver that one is aware of how to contact the Thai airport authorities and thereby threaten the certification that the Airports of Thailand issued them may help convince the taxi driver to agree to use the meter.
  2. [long-term, altruistic reason] Travelers are a common target by scammers, and I believe it is one of the responsibilities of travelers to report such scammers to the proper authorities to reduce the odds that travelers are affected.
Franck Dernoncourt
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1 Answers1

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Unfortunately I have found no answer to this, and it's probably unlikely you can call the Thai airport authorities about this. But I can give you my general advice.

Reporting them to the Land Transport Department is the best and most recommended on the web. Plus, they have the authority to probably revoke their license and maybe discuss the matter with the airport. The airport only certifies which taxi driver can drive publicly, but the Land Transport Department deals with everything else. There's a reason why they're called "Land Transport Department" :)

Note that threatening to report them may or may not affect them, as tampered meters are always a problem too, so you can choose if you want to simply get out of the taxi and find another one if they refuse to use the meter or continue if they give up and starting using the meter.

DialFrost
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