More than 80 airport taxi drivers demonstrated angrily outside Phnom Penh International Airport's arrivals terminal Saturday on the first day officially sanctioned airport tuk-tuks began work there.
"If they [tuk-tuks] are here, we will die," said Penh Rith, a taxi driver. "We have families; they are taking the food from their mouths...Maybe all of our jobs will be lost."
The taxi drivers had already used their cars to block in three new tuk-tuks adorned with official stickers proclaiming them as: "Three-wheeler taxis - Phnom Penh International Airport," and as being operated by the Cambodian Association for Informal Economy Development (CAID).
A uniformed tuk-tuk driver, who did not wish to be named, said that there is plenty of customers for both sides and that CAID has full approval to operate from the Société Concessionnaire de l'Aéroport (SCA), the French company that runs the airport concession.
"We don't want to make a problem. Why do the taxi drivers want to control the airport? It's a free market in Cambodia and we also have families we need to support," he said, adding that the drive into the city costs US$5 on a tuk-tuk and US$9 in a taxi.
Lous Seyha, President of CAID, said that Prime Minister Hun Sen decreed in a Government-Private Sector Forum in October 2007 that official airport moto-taxis be stopped and a fleet of airport tuk-tuks be established as they are safer from accidents and theft.
"This is a new alternative for tourists and an increase in the incomes for the tuk-tuk drivers, who all previously worked as airport moto-taxi drivers," he said, showing an SCA approved map which shows 31 CAID tuk-tuks will service the airport with three allowed at the terminal each time.
"Three wheels and four wheels can compete in a free market," he said, adding that his association will negotiate with the taxi drivers to find a compromise.
Craig Guthrie is a Reporter for the Mekong Times
This article first appeared in The Mekong Times
The Mekong Times is a daily newspaper distributed in Cambodia.
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