Originally Posted by
Jimgotkp
I despise taxi drivers in BKK so I used AoT between BKK and my hotel. For trips within Bangkok that required a car, I used Uber but during one of the rides my driver was pulled over from the police and given a ticket. Since then, I realized that all my drivers have been hiding their phones from their dashboard and/or asking myself or my companion to get into the front seat due to the police. Disappointing that this is the case since there are a lot of taxi drivers who drive away if they're not happy with the fare and/or destination. I waited for a taxi at the St. Regis before getting into an Uber for roughly 20 minutes after the doorwoman was unable to get a taxi driver to drive us to our hotel.
I always recommend trying Grab(Taxi/Car) at least once. My progression is GrabTaxi, GrabCar, Uber but varies a lot on my location and destination. My primary concern is getting a vehicle as quickly as possible. I am often going between the city center and the suburbs. I also have a few local GrabCar drivers on LINE who I message first. They live very close to me, know where I live (difficult to find) and often come in a few minutes.
Uber vehicles are limos so require green license plates, so easy for the police to figure out who might be an Uber driver. It can be a pain. In a related issue, some Thais who are simply transporting foreign-looking friends have been pulled over and accused of being Uber drivers. In at least one case the Thai driver and passenger were surrounded by angry taxi drivers and held while the police were summoned.