Excerpted from: Very Thai, by Philip Corrnwel-Smith
Motorcycle Taxi Jackets
Hopping on a bike to beat the traffic
The unsung heroes of Thailand’s battle with traffic, motorcycle taxis are a very Thai response to a universal problem. Flitting between jammed cars with knee-hyphen endangering speed, the
motercy is the one sure way to make an appointment. Perhaps with your next life.
Most shuttle customers up and down
soi with as many as 100 taxi-bikes gathering at each
soi mouth, known as a
win. A sartorial symbol of street life, their
seua win - zipped sleeveless vests in neon-hued nylon - is a uniform with surprising value. “A glamorous evening gown may be worth less than the weather-beaten tag of a jacket,” report Wassayos Ngamkham and Manop Thip-osod. “That’s because drivers must pay protection money to the mafia types that run motercy taxi queues.” Originally of multiple colors and bearing names of businesses or politicians, a jacket costs a joining fee of anywhere from 4,000 - 100,000 Baht. Drivers also pay around 15% of their 4-500 Baht daily earnings, enabling
win mafia to extort 1.2 billion Baht a year.
“The
win owner then pays the police up to 30% - 40% of his earnings” explains Piak, who drives on a
win of 16 without an owner. “At the end of the month we each put 100 Baht in the kitty and present it to the police station. It’s just our way of building good relations.”
Prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra made
win reform the opening salvo in a ‘war on dark influence’, a policy to open the black economy to control - and tax. All 114,452 Bangkok
motercy taxis from 4,324
win had to register with the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority by June 2003. The small annual license fee gets them a numbered orange
seua win bearing a reflector and the location.
Before the scheme could be applied nationally, non-standard jackets re-appeared and driver revealed they still had to pay the mafia. The fixed limit of jackets also faces challenges as the city expands and transport patterns change. The SkyTrain and subway increased demand for bike shuttles. But bikes may face competition from new narrower electric
tuk-tuk and cheaper tricycle pedal carts with seating under a huge umbrella.
At a
win, each bike makes about 50 - 70 trips per shift for a profit of 3-400 baht after fuel, excluding repayment on their bike. Small ranks may work up to 12 hours though most have a 10 hour day shift and a shorter night shift when fares are slightly higher and
win fees lower. Fares reflect distance and the wealth of the neighborhood with a premium for heavy loads, side trips and foreigners. Only a few drivers have second jobs but some get more lucrative work as salaried couriers.
Companionship, joshing and games enliven the wait until their turn to drive is indicated by chalked-up numbers or ignition keys hanging on a series of hooks. Some sew fishing nets, read comics or help at the nearby stores. And others dose on narrow benches under ragged plastic shelters, head resting in a colleagues lap. Many play the Thai version of checkers.
Everyone squats around an eight-by-eight board scored into old wood or chalked on the pavement, using bottle caps as counters and doubtless making the occasional bet. To keep going they swill energy drinks and scoop iced water from a lidded tub using a shared metal cup.
There’s more to
win style than the jacket. Amulets cover the dials, sacred string wraps the steering column and their jacket number may be a ‘lucky’ one. Stickers, unmuffled exhaust and multi-colored bolts are secular ways they customize the bike. Usually Japanese bikes now include the Thai brand Tiger. Leathers, knee-pads are unheard of in this humidity, so protective clothing runs to long sleeves and trousers to keep the sun from darkening the skin. Footwear is typically flip-flops worn with socks, sweater and anorak in winter when the wind chill factor dips below 20º.
A few don surgical masks and bandanas in a vain attempt to block fumes. Women passengers often press handkerchief to nose and hold aloft something to shade them from the sun, while teetering side-saddle, toes brushing truck tires. Sitting cupped behind the driver runs the risk of incurring ‘eau de
seua win’ cologne.
Helmets also offer a scope for self-expression. Despite safety laws however they are hardly ever worn in
soi, almost never upcountry and often get left unfastened on Bangkok highways. Aside from the expense and cramp on freedom, their simply too heavy and hot. Instead of wing mirrors inconveniently clipping cars as they zigzag through jams, the mirrors can be folded inwards to create a handy helmet-rest while riding. Some perch a helmet above their face, lending them the profile from
Alien. If brand names like Safetymet or Ladymet aren’t sufficiently hip riders sport helmets with horn like spoilers, blue visors, or stickers perhaps to cover cracks. A few don Nazi style helmets complete with swastika. To be safe helmets should fit snugly, but the spare ones for passengers generally have the strength of a plastic salad bowl. Commuters who bring their own helmet arouse nervous laughter. It’s a loss of face for the
win and besides accidents only happen on Karma’s command.
Each
win suffers 1 or 2 scrapes a week, while bikes account for the large majority of road injuries and especially of fatalities. The government introduced cheap personal accident insurance premiums of just 1 baht a day as one of it’s poverty policies. Insurance might reduce the tendency of drivers causing an accident to flee the scene in an act of conflict avoidance. Truckers and car drivers have been known to drive back over an injured motorcyclists to prevent them being a witness or a cripple they’d have to compensate.
Resistered
win drivers are elegible for training just as well; pathologist Vira Kasantikul found that only 0.1% of motorcyclists involved in accidents had passed a driving course. While car, bus and truck drivers break road rules too, they get fined far less than bikes, partly because they may have influential connections.
Motercy collect like a swarm of metal hornets at red lights then zoom off speedway-style. Scary at 50 kmh this primal thrill intensifies at 140 kmh at illegal speed duels for cash, pride or girls in cities like Had Yai and Chang Mai. Late at night Bangkok’s ring road (dubbed Ratchadaphisek Racetrack) draws spectators, gamblers, groupies and competing crews of charity ‘body collectors’. Police may chase or impede boy racers who lie flat on the seat ‘when they hit the ground they’re already horizontal quips a letter to the
Bangkok Post’. Thais call the illegal motorcycle racers
malaeng wun (flies) because of the way they buzz around - loud, irritating, erratic and dirty” writes Philip Blenkinsop in
The Cars That ate Bangkok. “They also happen to die like flies”.
In this substantially two-wheeled society, there are few organized motor racing outlets, aside from Tycoons' Harley-Davidson club. Circuits, courses and training could create new sport-biking role models, just as licenses increase respect for the bike taxi profession. So far, though,
win reform dwells more on how they impact others-insurance, training, nice jackets-than on
win welfare. Just as police get comfy traffic booths,
win need shelter, seating, water, toilets, fair treatment, and safe affordable helmets. After all like the high-tech trains they connect, motorcycle taxis are modern mass transit.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Originally Posted by DJ Pat
All get here but its really so easy. My house and area actually lie on a grid.
Bookmarks