The End of Bolt?

[Bruce Mangosteen]

4 hours ago, Rawhide2 said:

Appears that Bolt may well have licence revoked this May as so many of the drivers didnt comply with the requested changes previously

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/bolt-licence-2193-legal-cases-dlt

Thailand’s Department of Land Transport (DLT) announced yesterday, April 29, that it may refuse to renew Bolt’s licence after finding 2,193 legal cases linked to the ride-hailing platform since the start of the year.

Department director-general Sorapong Paitoonpong issued the warning during a press conference on measures to regulate ride-hailing platforms.

[...]

Sorapong said offences had continued despite the government allowing drivers to enter the system under rules issued by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) over the past three to four months.

The Ministry of Transport is now preparing stricter enforcement, especially against platforms that fail to supervise drivers properly or comply with legal conditions.

Bolt’s licence to operate app-based taxi services is due to expire on May 11. The DLT said that Bolt’s licence renewal in Thailand may not be approved if the company cannot show credible improvements in safety standards, transparency, and driver supervision.

More at link.

[jacko]

Above  appears to say 'maybe' and 'might', but Tim Newton seemed to be more certain yesterday. Same was on PBS. Maybe some back pedaling going on here. I hope so.  The recent case of some kid using a fathers app to go pick up a young lady highlighted problems.

[Rawhide2]

1 hour ago, jacko said:

Above  appears to say 'maybe' and 'might', but Tim Newton seemed to be more certain yesterday. Same was on PBS. Maybe some back pedaling going on here. I hope so.  The recent case of some kid using a fathers app to go pick up a young lady highlighted problems.

Lets hope they can sort this out. Where I stayed in Condo before and where I want to again really requires Bolt or similar if I'm with someone. If I'm out locally in Jomtien and going home alone no problem I can and do walk but cant expect some girl to do likewise

As an example getting from Rhompoo markets bars back to Laguna Maldives would be nigh on impoosible trying to get a baht bus......(I refuse to use motorbikes unless absolutely necessary)

Grab when I downloaded the app before seemed very expensive by comparison

[Bruce Mangosteen]

4 hours ago, jacko said:

Maybe some back pedaling going on here. I hope so.

IMHO the entire point of this exercise is that the taxi operators persuaded the government to kill ride-sharing services.  But the government needed political cover, so they put in place a set of hurdles they calculated the ride-sharing services would never be able to clear, and that appears to have panned out.

Don't get me wrong, I was a frequent user of Grab when it first appeared, and I'm a strong proponent of the so-called "gig economy".  This just appears too much like a government put-up job designed to solve a political problem to me.

[Bazle]

5 hours ago, Bruce Mangosteen said:

IMHO the entire point of this exercise is that the taxi operators persuaded the government to kill ride-sharing services.  But the government needed political cover, so they put in place a set of hurdles they calculated the ride-sharing services would never be able to clear, and that appears to have panned out.

Don't get me wrong, I was a frequent user of Grab when it first appeared, and I'm a strong proponent of the so-called "gig economy".  This just appears too much like a government put-up job designed to solve a political problem to me.

My thoughts were exactly the same.