Taxi Driver Online

No doubt this news will be all the rage in a few days.
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Bristol Evening Post

February 2, 2007 Friday

HEADLINE: Firm loses lucrative airport taxi contract

By James Cowling Business editor j.cowling@bepp.co.uk

A TAXI firm which has the exclusive rights to ply for trade outside Bristol International Airport has lost its contract.

Airport Carz, which has held the multi-million pound concession since 1998, failed to win a new deal with the airport after the contract was put out to tender in December.

From April 1, Chequer Cars, which has a similar operation at Gatwick, will run the concession under a three-year deal. Under the terms of the contract, taxis from Chequer Cars will be able to accept fares directly outside the airport terminal - something which other taxi firms operating locally cannot do.

Under airport rules, rival taxi firms can drop off passengers outside the terminal building, but cannot pick up casual fares in the same place.

Passengers can pre-book taxis from other firms, but the taxis must wait for their customers in the rapid pick-up car park on the far side of the terminal building.

Jim McAuliffe, Bristol International Airport's financial director, said Chequer Cars was one of a number of firms which had applied for the taxi contract.

He said: "We contacted a number of different taxi operators in December, prior to the expiry of the Airport Carz contract, which runs out on March 31 this year. From these, we were able to get down to a shortlist of four operators.

"Each of the operators had to fill out a number of forms, answering our criteria for the taxi contract. There are a number of various conditions in our pre-qualification questionnaire, which include the need to have access to a number of high-quality, relatively new vehicles - in excess of 50 of them.

"We provide the company with administration offices at the airport, together with an adjacent car park, for which they pay us a yearly concession."

Mr McAullife declined to give a value for the Chequer Cars deal. However he added there would be no risk of job losses at Airport Carz.

He said: "The drivers who work for Airport Carz are self-employed and all of the drivers have been offered roles with Chequer Cars when the new contract starts."

Airport Carz, based in Stansted in Essex, first won the exclusive contract in 2000. The firm rebid for and won the contract in May 2003, at which time the airport provoked a storm of anger from local independent taxi drivers, when it barred them from picking up fares directly outside the terminal.

At the time, the airport said the new regulations were a result of its continued expansion and action had to be taken to combat congestion.

Private car drivers picking up travellers from the airport were forced to pay 50p to park their cars for half an hour, even if they collected their passengers in a matter of minutes.

By June 2004, the airport opened its rapid pick-up point, which gives drivers 10 minutes of free parking while they collect or drop off passengers.

In 2004, Bristol International Airport had around 4.5 million passengers pass through its doors - a figure expected to rise to six million this year, and to nine million by 2015.

Under expansion plans unveiled in November, the airport will build a hotel directly opposite the terminal building, subject to planning permission. It is not known whether a taxi firm will strike an exclusive deal for its guests.

Airport Carz declined to comment about the loss of the contract.
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