Wichai Thongchai, 20+ years professional driver, Bangkok

Wichai Thongchai has driven for a living in Bangkok for more than twenty years, first in a metered taxi and, for the last several, on the ride apps as well. He has worked the airport queues at both Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, the late shifts when the trains have stopped, and the daily grind of a city where the difference between a ten-minute trip and an hour is a single flooded junction. Few people know the practical mechanics of getting a passenger across this city better than a driver who has done it every day for two decades.

He checks the guides on Thailand Taxis from the driver’s side of the glass: whether a claim about surcharges, tolls, airport queues, meter rules or how the apps dispatch a car actually matches what happens in the cab. Where a well-meaning tip would annoy a driver or simply not work, he says so. He is not a spokesman for any taxi cooperative or app company, and nothing here is an advertisement for one. His role is to make sure the advice a visitor reads is the advice a good driver would quietly give them.