Thousands of taxis are parked in the larger cities, many of the rooftops of multi-storey car parks and other parking spaces where they wait for better times to come.

In Bangkok, unused taxi fleets are now being put to new use as long as they are idling around, with taxi drivers using the cab roofs as vegetable plots, Associated Press reported.

Workers from the taxi cooperatives Ratchapruk and Bovorn Taxi in Bangkok assembled the miniature gardens using black plastic garbage bags stretched across bamboo frames. On top, they added to soil in which a variety of crops, including tomatoes, cucumbers and string beans, were planted.

 

 

Drawing attention to the plight of taxi drivers

However, the taxi-rooftop gardens do not offer an alternative revenue stream so far but rather serve as a supply for the taxi drivers and their families and a sort of “art installation” to draw attention to their plight.

The cooperatives’ staff is confronted with salary cuts and layoffs. Drivers say that while Thailand went through a lot of turmoil in the past decades, business was “never this terrible” and 80 percent of their fleet is sitting idle.

A number of drivers surrendered their cars and returned to their homes in rural areas when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit last year because they were so scared. More gave up and returned their cars during the second wave, and it is still unclear when and under what conditions the country might get back on its feet again.

 

According to Investvine