Taxi Driver Online

Maybe it's just me. And can understand an initial error.

But, I mean, shouldn't he have it all sorted out by now to avoid stuff like this?


Southend Airport parking fines reach £1,600 for taxi firm

https://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/ ... ing-fines/

The owner of a south Essex taxi firm says his company was hit with £1,600 in fines at Southend Airport amidst an "admin nightmare".


Image: Eddies Cars/Romford Recorder

Jamie Webb, who runs Hockley-based Eddies Cars, says drivers have repeatedly been caught out by the airport’s barrier-less drop-off zone, where motorists must remember to pay the £8 charge online after using the facility.

He claims the lack of an automatic payment system has resulted in missed payments and a series of £100 penalty notices, leaving the business facing what he describes as an “admin nightmare”.

Mr Webb said Eddies Cars regularly transports passengers to and from airports including Gatwick and Stansted, where parking charges can be automatically deducted from a prepaid online account.

He wants Southend Airport to adopt a similar system, arguing it would better support local taxi operators making hundreds of airport journeys each year.

A Southend Airport spokesperson accepted the new parking rules could cause problems and said the airport would investigate issues raised by local taxi firms.

“We have been fined a total of £1,600 in the last year,” Mr Webb said. “It is going to break the company.”

Mr Webb said many customers rely on the firm’s airport transfer service, particularly for early-morning flights before trains from Hockley begin running.

“We are going to end up having to say we are not going to Southend Airport, and if we do that we will lose out on a lot of money,” he added.


Image: Eddies Cars/Romford Recorder

He believes a prepaid account, similar to the Dartford Crossing payment scheme, would eliminate the problem for both taxi firms and regular users.

The taxi boss also raised concerns about congestion around the airport, saying the growing number of destinations has increased demand while waiting space near the drop-off zone remains limited.

He claimed it is common to see vehicles parked in surrounding residential streets while drivers wait for passengers.

A spokesman for Southend Airport said the introduction of barrierless parking had been successful for most users but acknowledged concerns raised by local taxi companies.

The spokesman said: “The introduction of new car parking products at Southend Airport has gone well, with the vast majority of our customers finding the new barrierless systems easy and efficient to use.

“We do however accept that the changes in parking rules can create problems for some of our users, and indeed this issue has been raised at other forums to the airport.

“We have committed to investigating improvements to some of the issues raised by local taxi firms with our contracted operator Excel Parking Services.”


Image: Eddies Cars/Romford Recorder

Anyway, looking at his motor, three things stand out:

- A punctuation failure - shouldn't it be Eddies' Cars?

And I wonder why the newspaper didn't correct it?


- And think I'll paint 'drivers wanted' on the side of my motor. Except that I don't want any


- And it looks like he gives his motors a name as well

Not sure what I'd call my motor, except maybe 'the Skoda', or 'the Octavia'. Or maybe 'the Skoda Octavia'

In fact, I only call it names when it annoys me. And maybe I shouldn't use them on here

It looks like the 'fines' have been issued because the driver/owner/operator didn't pay the drop-off charge within the timescale allowed.

In short, the £1,600 is down to those drivers/owners/operators' forgetfulness.

_________________
IDFIMH

I'd guess the clue is actually in the 'Drivers Wanted' thing on the side of his vehicles. So he's probably small scale, with a few vehicles, and several drivers. And he's not keeping track of it all, and the drivers will just do the runs and leave all the admin to him, or whoever does it.

So he ends up with all those parking charge notices. And then he's ignoring them and getting reminders. And he's ignoring the reminders and ending up with letters marked 'NOTICE OF DEBT RECOVERY - Multiple Unpaid Parking Charges'

This is the full-res photo here - right clicked and downloaded it to my hard drive, then used the image viewer to turn it round and make it readable. It's not that high-res, but clear enough to read the stuff above, and to see that he's received them for three different vehicles

https://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/resou ... s/21510810