IT’S not just the hot weather or the rain or the sheer drudgery of the job that make motorcycle taxi drivers occasionally grumpy. As is pointed out in our story this month on Bangkok’s two-wheel taxis, the drivers have to ‘buy’ their jobs in the form of a vest that distinguishes them from other motorcyclists and allows them to pick up passengers. The fee they have to pay for that all-important piece of clothing can be as much as 140,000 (and sometimes even more) for the privilege of driving up and down a few streets, day and night, in return for 10-20 baht a ride. That’s one heck of an expensive vest.
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