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I had a case where I took a metered taxi in Bangkok with another passenger: when we stopped at the other passenger's destination to drop them, the taxi driver didn't understand that I would stay in the taxi and go somewhere else. Instead, the taxi driver said he had stopped the meter and that he couldn't resume it (i.e. that instead of resuming the trip, we'd have to start from scratch, i.e. with the 35 THB base fare preloaded or agree on a fixed fare).

The meter was looking as follows when the taxi driver said he had stopped it:

enter image description here

This led me to wonder the following question: If a taxi driver in Thailand stops the meter (the amount is still visible on the meter screen as shown on the picture above. I.e. the meter screen wasn't turned off), can they resume it?

Franck Dernoncourt
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1 Answers1

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This will likely depend on the specific regulations in force in Bangkok at the time, and possibly the model of taximeter installed1.

However, for the one model of taximeter I could find an operations guide for it was clear that the operator had an option to Pause the meter (from which he could press Pause again to resume the trip), but once Pay was selected then the only available option subsequently was Reset.

If the taxi driver believed that the trip was complete he'd probably go to Pay, and quite possibly he would have no option but to start a new trip. If he understood that the trip was to continue he'd have just left the meter running.

1 Taximeters have software tailored to the specific market they're intended for. If a specific sequence of operations isn't covered by the regulations then different models of taximeter may operate differently.