Taxi Driver Online

Row over £1m 'airport taxi toll'

TAXI and private-hire passengers travelling from Edinburgh Airport will face extra charges of almost £1 million a year under new regulations due to come into force in January. Taxis picking up fares at the airport will have to pay airport chiefs £1 per journey - and passengers will pick up the cost.

A shake-up of the taxi system at the airport next year will see black cabs, as well as private-hire vehicles, working from ranks near the terminal. And all taxis will have to pay the new charge every time they enter the airport grounds.

Currently, drivers with airport permits pay £245 a month to Onward Travel, which manages the terminal taxi rank. From that fee, Onward Travel pays the airport £99 a month.

Under the new proposals, the drivers will continue to pay the same, but Onward Travel will no longer be charged by the airport. Instead the drivers will have to pay a fee to airport owners BAA each time they enter the airport. While the plans are in the early stages, swipe cards are being considered for collecting the cash.

Airport chiefs said the charge was necessary to pay for transport improvements at the terminals. But black cab and private-hire firms warned that the passengers would have to pay the premium because they couldn't afford to.

A spokeswoman for Edinburgh Airport said around 450,000 passengers per year use airport taxis - which would bring in a revenue of £450,000 from the new charge. But figures released by BAA in 2004 showed that a total of 1.8 million passengers use either pre-booked or airport taxis to travel on from the airport.

With an average of just under two people per taxi, the airport stands to gain at least £1m from the fees paid by each cab. Councillor Michael Dixon, Tory representative on the regulatory committee which controls taxi regulations, branded the charge an "airport taxi toll". He said: "This is an abuse of the market by a big company at the expense of smaller, self-employed taxi drivers, which we, the customer, have to pay for."

Douglas Rowley, organiser of the Airport Taxi Drivers' Association, said: "The £1 charge will certainly hit the customer. It is not something the drivers can afford to pay themselves - as private-hire drivers we will already be paying a monthly fee of £245 to Onward Travel."

A spokeswoman for Edinburgh Airport said: "This £1 charge is a contribution to the facilities being built for taxi drivers and will help fund future public transport projects. Any suggestion that this is a money-making initiative is demonstrably wrong."

Under current rules, black cabs are allowed to drop off, but not to pick up at the airport, which has been the domain of Onward Travel - which manages around 300 private hire cars. In January, a black cab rank is set to be introduced for the first time, running alongside the private-hire stand.

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IDFIMH

Well said that man, but I take it the good councillor is thus not a fan of restricted numbers?

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

So the million pound a year is only a contribution to the facilities for cab drivers.

FFS what are they building them then?

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IDFIMH

It would seem someone shares my view.

http://business.scotsman.com/economy.cfm?id=1846112005

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IDFIMH

The article fails to point out, that it is one million pounds year on year and not just a one off payment. And should cabbies really have to fund the Airports future transport needs whne all they require is a rank and a feeder park?

Regards

JD

who mentioned feeder park? i heard that there will 13 spaces! ! ! a brillant idea or not

I think if BAA are going to kop seven figures a year, then they must be thinking it's the dogs what-nots.

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IDFIMH