The head of Pattaya's public transport association has painted a grim picture of the effect of the Covid second wave and the placing of the resort in the severest Red Zone restrictions.
Taxi drivers and song thaew drivers (called baht buses at the resort) are packing in the job and seeking new employment or just going home to their up country villages.
500 vehicles are simply gathering dust as only a skeleton service remains for the locals in Pattaya.
All the tourists – Thai and foreigners – have simply vanished.
Tawat Pheuakbunnak – chief of the Pattaya Bus Co-Operative – said that the first wave of the pandemic had a devastating effect on his members with there being no foreign tourists.
But with government stimulus measures and the events held in Pattaya there were genuine signs that the corner had been turned and drivers were returning to their vehicles.
Then came the second wave and, said Tawat in an interview with Sophon Cable TV, it is proving much worse than the first.
He said that his organisation is responsible for 712 song thaews and 170 taxis and in total there are 1000 public vehicles in Pattaya.
Of these now 500 have stopped offering a service – 50% of the total.
He said that there were so few customers that there was no point for drivers to rent or fill up with gas.
Many had gone to find other jobs or simply returned to their homes in the provinces.
A service of sorts was still running with Covid protocols in place like hand gel and insistence on registering with the Thai Chana app, he said. – Sophon TV
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