Man accused of being Uber driver after giving ride to foreign friends in Chiang Mai

[webfact]

Man accused of being Uber driver after giving ride to foreign friends

By Coconuts Bangkok 

 

Photos: CM108

 

CHIANG MAI: -- A Thai motorist was puzzled when he was accused of being an Uber driver just because he gave a ride to two foreign friends in Chiang Mai.

 

A Thai man, only identified as Parinya, sought help from netizens on a Chiang Mai web forum after a ticket was sent to his home — for the charge of using a private vehicle to provide public transport

.

Attached to the ticket was a photograph of his two foreign friends retrieving their suitcases from the trunk of his car.

 

Full story: https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/man-accused-uber-driver-giving-ride-foreign-friends/

 

-- © Copyright Coconuts Bangkok 2017-03-14

[ezzra]

 

This is crazy.. I'm taking my mother in law shopping today, should I be worried?....

[Thechook]

I think the lesson here is, don't help our foreigners, friends or not.  I will make sure my wife doesn't drive with me in the car.

[rkidlad]

Wow, that's it? Drive foreigners around and you're guilty of being an Uber driver. He should sue them for defamation. 

 

 

[clockman]

They hate any competition. That is why they are third world and always will be.

[hakancnx]

So he needs to prove that he is innocent..?

[Lupatria]

4 minutes ago, hakancnx said:

So he needs to prove that he is innocent..?

Of course! The other way around would create chaos to the local "judiciary system".

[fantom]

'The letter, dated March 2, states that Parinya must pay a fine of THB2,000, and if he’s innocent, he must report to the Chiang Mai Provincial Land Transport Office.''

 

Yes he must provide evidence he is not an Uber driver.  All based on an anonymous photograph.

[shady86]

How about a foreigner driver picking up foreigner friends in a car? Someone renting car and picking up foreigners? Seems like country missing a 0 in front with their 4.0 vision. 

[newcomer71]

Things are definitely getting out of hands here... 

This way of justice was very popular in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy...

Definitely scaring.

[Andrew Dwyer]

 
This is crazy.. I'm taking my mother in law shopping today, should I be worried?....

Only if she has your credit card !

[TheFishman1]

Crazy Thailand TIT

[timewilltell]

Thailand 0.00004 - crazier and more unjust day by day.

[PomPolo]

Call me cynical but there was nothing in it for him? a bit more info required I think like how they were such good friends he would collect them from the airport

Sent from my SM-J710F using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[Penicillin]

28 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Only if she has your credit card !

Haha , that was way too good a set up to pass by, but you beat me to it . 

[alant]

How about taking pictures of red cars and tuk tuks and sending them in saying doesn't have licences for it? 

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, ezzra said:

 

This is crazy.. I'm taking my mother in law shopping today, should I be worried?....

Only if your footing the bill. 

[manhood]

Defamation is the new game in Thailand: used by the government as well by the rest of the nation! A great step into democracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jalousy is the big problem between Thais...ups they learned that since childhood? Oh where you can learn that??

[lopburi3]

This is nothing new - any Thai driving foreigner has been subject to 'illegal taxi' charge since I first came here 48 years ago.  In those days the only airport taxi service was off-duty military driving private vehicles and more than once we were chased down by MC police at checkpoints entering downtown area and DL taken from driver and he having to report to police station to pay fine to get back.  Must admit first time it happened I was expecting gunfire as driver tried his best to outrun police - but when caught all very civil.  

[Redline]

Unbelievable, and they do nothing about innocent people being slaughtered on the roads daily.  Next they will say that foreigners must take taxi cabs unless they are leaving from the property of a Thai person.

[rkidlad]

I think to save everyone from confusion that no one is allowed to pick up anyone from the airport unless they're a registered taxi. Have to show ID when entering and leaving airport area. 

 

Or, everyone is given the benefit of the doubt and it's up to the state to prove a person's guilt. I think the first idea benefits the tiny 0.1% more so we'll stick with that one. Welcome to the most religious country in the world. 

[keep it real]

reminds me of the organized labor and union thugs in america early on, but only thailand could stagnate on this mentality, control the free market with corruption, violence, intimidation. Thailand should be proud of their model advancement, now that the army is in control, with no clear path to the future, which ain't looking too bright at the moment.

[ChakaKhan]

So does this means THAIS are watched also or just farang--as they say

there are a 1000 eyes on us  here.....and WHO took the photo?.monitoring us?

 

So i guess i can take photos of crazy speeding cars and send them in also?

then they will get a tix in the mail for acting like an a##hole and dangering lives?

[thai006]

the 3 reich come back or what , see uber and take picture and send to the police  

Mennnn what happend to thailand 

[Thechook]

Have friends/neighbour picking us up from the airport next week and they are a little worried about getting caught.  May be forced to use a taxi.

[Gramps]

On 3/14/2017 at 10:55 AM, PomPolo said:

Call me cynical but there was nothing in it for him? a bit more info required I think like how they were such good friends he would collect them from the airport

Sent from my SM-J710F using Thaivisa Connect mobile app
 

You don't have any Thai friends you can rely on to do you a favour and pick you up at the airport?  I'm not sure whether to be surprised or not.

[Peterw42]

I would tend to think the guy probably is an uber driver, I have caught many private car taxis in Thailand, even been asked to sit up front with the driver so it looks more like a friend drop off at the airport.

[Andrew Dwyer]

A similar sort of thing happened to me at São Paulo airport a few years ago:

The Airport taxis had their own deal going on and local taxis were not allowed to loiter for fares.
I arrived, came out the airport and my buddy ( who actually was a taxi driver ) met me outside upstairs at departures ( due to less traffic).
Well, the taxi mafia descended on us demanding proof that this was a booked job and not the taxi driver stealing their fares !!

I wanted to tell them to F off but my buddy was scared about losing his license. So they separated us and asked us questions about each other !!
Once they realised I knew his wife and parents name then they said ok , begrudgingly. But up until this point they were really aggressive and at one point wanted me to get on a bus until outside the airport !!

[Jdietz]

On 3/14/2017 at 9:05 AM, clockman said:

They hate any competition. That is why they are third world and always will be.

^ You mean Uber?

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

I would tend to think the guy probably is an uber driver, I have caught many private car taxis in Thailand, even been asked to sit up front with the driver so it looks more like a friend drop off at the airport.

 

And you never give any thought to insurance, whether there's any record of the driver, can't record the fleet number on the inside of the door, because there isn't one, etc. And if an incident happened there's only a 50/50 chance to get the rego number.

 

If you take a taxi from the proper taxi rank, they have some records and you get a slip with the taxi number to keep. 

 

Who would you complain to if the private car driver tried to molest you, etc?