The Land Transport Department will launch a smartphone app in the middle of next month to make it more convenient for passengers to call taxis, a spokeswoman for the National Council for Peace and Order said on Monday.

Colonel Sirichan Ngathong, deputy spokeswoman of the NCPO, said the launch of the Taxi OK app is part of the reform of public transportation administration under the fifth national administration reform steering committee.

Sirichan was speaking to reporters after the panel, which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, held its meeting at Government House on Monday morning.

Sirichan said about 10,000 taxis would join the Taxi OK programme and passengers would be able to call them conveniently with the app. Bangkok taxis have been notorious for rejecting passengers, allowing taxi-hailing apps such as Grab and Uber to become popular.

Under the “Taxi Ok-Taxi VIP” project, Thailand is scrambling to raise the standard and credibility of its taxi drivers, who are known for endless misbehavior from rejecting and overcharging passengers to threatening and sexually assaulting them.

Drivers who want to participate in the “Taxi Ok” project must not have criminal records, and their taxis must not be older than two years and be registered as public transportation. Once accepted, they must install a GPS tracking device in their car, CCTV camera, and an emergency button that will send a signal from the passenger to the app center.

For “Taxi VIP,” riders are promised more premium service than normal taxis, but it is unclear exactly what the services are aside from the safety measures above.

Ekkachai Sumalee, director of the school’s Smart Cities Research Centre within the Engineering

Faculty, said the app was a joint project with Burapha University’s Faculty of Logistics.

He said Taxi OK could be used along with other devices installed in cabs to increase both driver and passenger safety.

There are seven components in the proposed system, he said, involving the taking of photos, identifying locations, summoning the taxi, monitoring driver behaviour, lodging complaints, an emergency alert button, and assessing both the driver and privately run taxi-information centres.

Users would be able to summon a taxi from any affiliated service and lodge complaints with authorities, Ekkachai said.

Once a cab is in use, its movements and other information would be automatically shared with a supervising information centre run by the private sector and the Land Transport Department’s own taxi centre. Location, speed, engine performance, driver identification, meter fare and booking information would all be recorded.

Source: The Nation, thaitech