Metered Taxis to Have Radios ALL metered taxis in Bangkok will become radio cabs, it was announced recently That means customers will be able to phone taxi firms and order cabs to pick them up and take them to their destinations rather than having to hail them on the street. The decision was made at a meeting of the Transport and Communications Ministry recently, according to Sutha Khansaeng who is adviser to Deputy Interior Ministry Sudarat Keyuraphan The Land Transport Department has drafted a ministerial regulation to require all new metered taxis to have radio equipment before being registered. old metered taxis will be given a period of grace but eventually will have to have similar equipment, Mr. Sutha said. The ocMRT also asked for Cabinet approval to get a 500 million baht loan from a bank to promote the installation of the radios in taxis, Mr. Sutha said. Talks had been held with firms in the past to try the idea but operators said it was too expensive. Meanwhile, the Transport and Communications Ministry would choose taxi firms radio centers to receive passengers calls and pass them on to cabs. to run Mr. Suha said the Telephone organization of Thailand would be asked to give four-digit phone numbers to such centers so passengers have an easy way to get in touch with taxi services. There are now around 40,000 metered taxis, he said. (Bangkok Post Student Weekly: November 27, 1995)