Speed limit for passenger vans proposed/minivans to be replaced

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Spitfire
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

Post by Spitfire »

Total joke....they can introduce as many ideas as they like from the "Ministry of Knee-Jerk Reactions & Lofty Ideas" but it will change sweet FA until they get a grip on the assholes driving the vehicles and actually deploy some meaningful enforcement....dream on.

As have said before...problem is, no-one on the ground actually give a toss.
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

Post by PeteC »

HHTel wrote:
prcscct wrote:So we're all on the same page, is the below a good representation of that they're talking about? If it is, it simply seems like a big van to me. :? Pete :cheers:

EDIT: The photo is labeled as "Izuzu micro-bus". Seems to be in use in Jakarta.

phpc6lUfrPM.jpg
Nothing like the micro-bus I know. As has been stated, they were purple and comfortable and efficient.
Yes, my post and Nereus post crossed. Will be interesting to see though if they stick with the purple type design or go with something new. Pete :cheers:
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

Post by PeteC »

Good to see this man ripping into them. :thumb:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... ans-stupid

It's the vans, stupid

"New Year was another highway slaughter, the bloodiest long weekend ever recorded, which is saying a lot when you're already starting with the world's second most sanguinary roadways, and then get worse than that for a week.

To outdo the most murderous "seven dangerous days" in Thai history required the deaths of 478 people, or one every 21 minutes of every hour of every day.

Unable to come up with a highway safety battle plan, the military leaders by chance found a scapegoat. Never mind that 3,206 of the 3,919 accidents involved motorcycles. Ignore the glaring statistic that 2,661 were the result of excessive drink or speed.

The real villain is the van.".....
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

Post by HHTel »

Good article. Very true. Also quite brave as 'You are not allowed to criticise the government or the military'. Careful that Section 44 is not used against him.
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

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HERE’S WHY FEWER WILL DIE ON THAI ROADS IF VANS REPLACED
When the New Year’s holiday ended in tragedy for the families of 25 people killed in a flaming wreck in Chonburi, the military government responded with a plan to replace the ubiquitous vans that travel between provinces with minibuses.

While the idea was met with skepticism by a public suddenly demanding urgent solutions, experts who met to discuss the root causes for Thailand’s dubious rise to lead the world in road fatalities agreed vans should not be used for traveling across provinces.

“The vans which we are using are modified. It creates more risks,” said Thanaphong Jinwong, a member of governmental road safety organization. “When the incidents happens, it’s difficult to rescue passengers from them.”

Under pressure to rein in the carnage, the Department of Land Transportation said it will move forward a plan to phase out the vans in favor of 20-seat buses – originally slated for 2019 – to begin in the middle of this year.

With 215 accidents, vans were involved in the most public transportation accidents last year, according to a study. Nine people were killed on average and 100 injured each month.

The top causes were reckless driving and aftermarket vehicle modifications which turn them into death traps.

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/tran ... -replaced/
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

Post by HHTel »

As has already been said, the vans are not reckless. Put those same drivers into any vehicle and the same will happen.
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

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Van operators face end-March GPS deadline

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... s-deadline

A Global Positioning System (GPS) will have to be installed in all 4,000 vans being used by operators of joint public-private van services by the end of March.

After March 31, if any such van is found to not have GPS, a warning will be given first, said Transport Co acting president Amnat Unardngam.

Van operators will be fined if they are later found to have still not complied.

The Transport Co, which grants transport concessions to inter-provincial van services, is sorting out vans according to types of operators for a possible plan to make them switch to micro-buses instead, said Pol Gen Amnat.

Special report: The race to Songkran

Some vans are operated by juristic persons and others are personal vans owned by individuals, he said, adding one operator now owns close to 3,000 vans.

Meanwhile, a source at the Department of Land Transport said Monday that the department has proposed new regulations aimed at curbing road accidents to the National Council for Peace and Order.

The proposals deal mainly with stricter punishments for those violating traffic regulations, said the source.
The punishment for driving without a licence, for instance, would be raised from a maximum one month's jail sentence to a maximum three months' imprisonment, said the source.

Under the regulations, private operators of public transport services could face a range of tougher penalties such as the suspension of a driver's licence for violating traffic regulations, or licence revocation in case of repeated misconduct, said the source.

Car drivers in general will also face tougher punishment including driving licence revocation if they are found guilty in traffic violation cases such as running a red light causing death, or drink-driving resulting in deaths, said the source.
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

Post by HHTel »

Looks like the usual communication failure. Only a few days ago, the following was said:
he Transport Ministry has ordered that all 6,400 interprovincial passenger vans operating out of Bangkok be replaced with microbuses by year-end to improve safety. The 6,431 vans operating under concessions from the state-owned Transport Co would be phased out starting from July 1, Deputy Transport Minister Pichit Akrathit said on Friday.
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

Post by Nereus »

Is this the usual piss poor reporting, or is it true?
...........................................................................................
Govt axes renewal of van permits

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... an-permits

The Transport Ministry has abolished the renewal and issuance of passenger van permits as part of measures to replace the vehicles with minibuses in a bid to curb traffic accidents.

Speaking after a meeting on the safety of van transport, Deputy Transport Minister Pichit Akrathit said the meeting agreed to terminate the extension and issuing of all passenger van permits nationwide as of Thursday.

All vans will be replaced with minibuses with a minimum of 20 seats. Ending passenger van transport is part of the government's plan to decrease the number of casualties from van-related road accidents.

As for existing vans which are currently in operation, Mr Pichit said they are required to complete vehicle inspections and be installed with global positioning systems by the end of March to monitor drivers, and put in fireproof seat cushions. However, those vans will be allowed to operate for a maximum period of 10 years.

Mr Pichit said new minibuses were scheduled to operate on 13 routes with a distance not exceeding 300 kilometres, as set out by state-owned Transport Co Ltd, starting from July 1.

The route change is aimed at encouraging van operators to invest in minibus transport. The Department of Land Transport (DLT) will also help operators who are interested in the new mode of transport to manage their operating routes.

The department is working on measures which will help lessen the effects on van operators of changing vehicles as much as possible, he added.

Meanwhile, Transport Co vice-president Nopparat Karoonyavanich said the 13 routes were now-defunct lines which were revoked by the company earlier.

A total of 55 minibuses will be put in place for all routes. The first two pilot routes are Bangkok to Ayutthaya and Bangkok to Saraburi with 10 minibuses for each route.

Mr Nopparat said the agency is drafting the terms of reference for the procurement of the minibuses, adding the document will be tabled at a meeting of the firm's committee for consideration.

DLT director-general Sanit Promwong urged all van operators to replace their vehicles with minibuses.
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Re: 90kph speed limit for passenger vans proposed

Post by Big Boy »

However, those vans will be allowed to operate for a maximum period of 10 years.
This type of statement never fails to amaze me. It's a serious problem, so you're only getting 10 years to do something about it :?
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Re: Minivan, bus and road accidents

Post by Bristolian »

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... avel-firms
Faulty culture of travel firms

The first specific details of the programme to replace vans with micro buses for inter-city and inter-provincial passengers are now known. The Central Land Transport Control Board, under the supervision of Deputy Minister of Transport Pichit Akarathit, aims to have 55 buses on the roads by July 1. The pilot project will provide useful information. However, this optimistic report leaves out the single most important point.

It is well recognised that vans are involved in too many road and highway crashes. The main catalyst for the current programme to replace passenger vans with micro buses was the horrific crash in Chon Buri during the New Year long weekend. It was when a van driver lost control, crashed head-on into a pickup and killed 25 people in the smash and resulting fire that authorities decided to rush ahead with this bus-for-van replacement.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that the ill-fated van did not crash itself. Post-accident investigation revealed a story that is far too common. The driver of the van was on his fifth Chanthaburi-Bangkok round trip of the holiday weekend. This is far beyond any reasonable safety limit. The driver wanted the money that multiple trips bring, and his company's attention to driver fatigue was, at best, questionable.

It is unambiguously clear that driver-company collusion is at the bottom of dozens, if not hundreds of fatal accidents involving vans. Tired drivers, irresponsible drivers, speeding drivers and just unqualified drivers are common in this branch of public transportation. If airlines hired and supervised their cockpit crew like van companies obtain and schedule drivers, there would be plenty of plane crashes.

The coming changes to inter-provincial and inter-city travelling must not focus on the physical change from vans to micro buses. The incoming system must put safety over expediency. This will require new rules, which are under discussion. But most of all, it will require regulation, supervision and constant, unyielding enforcement of those rules.

To put it starkly, placing micro buses on the city streets and inter-provincial roads without a completely new transport regime only means more highway deaths. The need for massive change is clear. The fact that the country has the world's second most deadly highways only means that reforms are neither fast nor comprehensive enough. But change has to begin somewhere, and the micro bus replacement programme provides an opportunity for proper, strict and life-saving control.

Mr Pichit, along with concerned departments and ministries across the board have a choice. They can view the vans-for-bus replacement as a bureaucratic move. Or they can bring in sweeping steps that are all-encompassing.

The deputy minister is currently making much of equipment and technology -- new vehicles, reorganisation of bus companies, GPS and the like. This will amount to little without better driver selection and training, proper regulations including hours-worked and, most of all, unrelenting reinforcement.

Last weekend, Mr Pichit revealed the first details of the programme. Its exceptionally optimistic goal calls for the replacement of 6,400 inter-provincial vans by the end of the year. Transport Co concessions will automatically lapse, and new regulations will come into force as the buses replace vans. He detailed new rules such as the size and number of seats, and said fire extinguishers and emergency exits will be mandatory.

This a good start. From past practice, it will occur and continue only with strong enforcement. In short order, one hopes Mr Pichit and his ministry deal with those details as well.
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Re: Minivan, bus and road accidents

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" If airlines hired and supervised their cockpit crew like van companies obtain and schedule drivers, there would be plenty of plane crashes. "

In it's own way there are all ready of plane crashes. The equivalent of a jumbo jet crashes here in Thailand every week.
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Re: Speed limit for passenger vans proposed/minivans to be replaced

Post by StevePIraq »

Faulty culture of travel firms
Yes blame others always. The first step is to enforce the law as it presently stands, if this fails establish firing squads and all bad locations and slowly get rid of the f*^kers
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Re: Speed limit for passenger vans proposed/minivans to be replaced

Post by Nereus »

A long commentary, but shows up just how ridiculous some of the logic is in this country. (open link for all of it)
................................................................................................................................
Bus plan forces van owners to reroute future

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... ute-future

Standing at the van ticket booth at Mor Chit 2 bus terminal waiting for his van's 14 seats to be filled up, Anun Phutsong is still serving passengers from Bangkok to Ayutthaya despite the government's ambitious plan to replace all inter-provincial vans with minibuses by this year's end.

Walking away from what he has been doing for the past eight years is not easy. Mr Anun, in his 40s, still cannot figure out where to go and what to do for a living afterwards. "I owe 700,000 baht to an auto finance company. The sad fact for the passenger van's owner is that a vehicle with a yellow plate cannot be sold to anybody. No one would buy it," he said.

A yellow licence plate means that the vehicle is licensed, legal and only used as a hired vehicle for public transport.
With no other possible options, his van will have to be seized by an auto finance company, Mr Anun said.

The Thailand Accident Research Centre pointed out that, besides the speeding habits of van drivers, the structure of vans is not suitable for human transportation. :roll:

As the inter-provincial vans are legally serviced as contractual partners of Transport Co, Mr Pichit said that the company should find ways to support small van operators to form cooperatives or set up legal entities so that the government can better regulate their services and ensure safety.

Mr Wirat disagrees. "The problems are not with the vans. It is about the drivers who neither have good manners nor follow driving regulations. The traffic laws and any other requirements for van drivers must be made consistent," he said, strongly recommending that authorities fix the problems right at the source.

From the passenger's viewpoint, the safety of passengers not only comes from the proper vehicle model but also from the drivers' appropriate manners on the road.

"The passengers will never feel safe in either a van or minibus if the driver does not follow the traffic laws," said a 56-year-old male commuter who travels frequently from Nakhon Si Thammarat who wished to remain anonymous.

"There are many good van drivers out there. Replacing them with minibuses is probably not the best solution. The state agencies must get tough on traffic law violations," the passenger said.
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Re: Speed limit for passenger vans proposed/minivans to be replaced

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New mini buses put on trial run to provinces
The Transport Company yesterday (Oct 9) put on show the first batch of 21-seat mini buses that it said will replace the current commuter vans on the route from Bangkok to the provinces.

Transport Company’s board chairman Maj Gen Suraphol Tapananond said the 7-metre long mini buses will be first put on service from Bangkok to destinations in the provinces within a distance of no more than 300 kilometres.

All these new mini buses have passed all specification requirement test and have been registered by the Transport Company, he said.

He said pool bus operators will first put on services the new mini buses from Bangkok to Buddhamonthon and Ratchaburi tomorrow (October 11).

They will replace the current commuter vans which have been in use for over 10 years, he said.

Meanwhile the Transport Company will first rent 55 new mini buses to run on its routes to destinations in the provinces, possibly in November.

The renting process is expected to be finished in two months.

The mini bus is eight million baht costlier than the commuter van, but operators saw it worthy to invest as it will have longer working service.

Operators are asking the ministry for a longer concession of up to 40 years.

For operators of commuter vans, they are also seeking permission for extension of service to 14 years from 10 years.

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/new-mi ... provinces/
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