Taxi Driver Online

Airport clips cabbies' wings

Dozens of cabbies have been banned from Edinburgh Airport for blocking an exit road for buses and coaches. A total of 62 taxis have been handed a three-month ban after falling foul of the airport's strict rules on waiting for fares.

The rank is one of the city's busiest but has only 22 spaces, resulting in a number of cabbies queuing on the road in front of the terminal building, causing congestion and blocking the path of buses and emergency vehicles.

Airport chiefs today said they had no choice but to ban the drivers. And it emerged today that they are hoping to reduce the number of black cabs queuing by tendering out the rank to a single operator, rather than the current free-for-all.

Jim Muldoon, the Edinburgh representative of the Scottish Taxi Federation, which represents the vast majority of the city's cabbies, said: "These people have been causing congestion by blocking buses and other taxis as well as making things more difficult for passengers.

"While I have sympathy for the situation faced by drivers, if they continue to break the rules then the airport doesn't have any choice but to ban them."

The taxi rank opened in January last year and meant for the first time that all black cabs were allowed to pick up fares at the airport. A crackdown in June last year saw dozens of taxis receive similar three-month bans.

A new electronic system that allows only registered vehicles to drive in front of the terminal can recognise the cab's number plate and block entry.

Raymond Davidson, secretary of the Edinburgh Taxi Association, said: "This has been a long-standing problem and a lot of cabbies would like to see some sort of feeder rank in place. It would be a holding area where maybe 30 or 40 taxis wait away from the rank for a space to come up.

"A the moment you have them chasing their tails around the airport complex and the space might be gone by the time they get back to the rank."

An Edinburgh Airport spokeswoman said: "While the vast majority of taxi drivers who drop off and pick up from the airport follow our operating protocols, we have had to withdraw access for a small number of drivers who have failed to comply. This means they are no longer allowed access to the inner forecourt or the public taxi rank.

"They can, however, still drop off in the outer forecourt area or access the pre-booked area. "Their actions have caused problems to the front of the terminal such as the blocking of the carriageway and congestion.

"This has a knock-on impact for public transport and other vehicles trying to get into the inner forecourt, causing unacceptable delays for passengers.

"To improve this situation we intend the reduce the number of black cab operators to a single operator. The company who wins the tender for this will have responsibility for controlling the operation of the rank, and only taxis from that company will be permitted to pick up passengers from the public rank."

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IDFIMH

Maybe a PH firm should give it a go.

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IDFIMH

A PHC firm does it now thats why they need a second one a wee bit of research goes a long way

So those big black things that look like TX1/2/4s are infact PH.

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IDFIMH

Edinburgh has two ranks at the airport one PHC one hackney a little goes a long way

Sussex the way the have lay-ed out the exit up there is it any wonder there is a bottle neck, 3 lanes into 1.
the taxis used to line up on the approach to the buildings, where there is still plenty of room, and there was a feeder rank in one of the car parks but for some reason they moved the rank to the other side and that's the problem

Imagine what the situation will be like if the council lift the current number controls.

The phc rank still has a feeder rank and the council cannot delimit the airport it has no jurisdiction c`mon try to keep up you guys are supposed to be knowlegable do us women have to tell you everything.

Word on the grapevine: ComCabs have secured the contract for the rank on jubilee road.

Nae luck for City and Central then like they were ever in with a chance

Start date 1st December 07


What a bunch of numpties

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

what you can now put a bid in for a rank Skull, or is the jubilee rd something special, I was under the impression that if there's a rank any where in your area you could sit on it.

Don't see the airport mob moaning about the way PH 'rank' up, and they don't have numbers control.

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IDFIMH

The jubilee road rank is a common rank for anyone prepared to put a pound in the slot. The Edinburgh Taxi companies are tendering for exclusive use and management rights of said rank.

In short if one company gets it the rest are fecked.

As you can imagine any one company that is based at the airport will have tentacles all over the city - even in the outlying areas. While the other companies are forced to work the city centre all fighting for a bite of the same donut. Logistically the company that secures the airport has a great advantage over the rest.

If you had a choice who would you work for?

Btw, ComCab already have control over the private rank at the airport.

You can see where I am going with this....

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

So if comcab take control of the other airport rank this means a greater number of there cars will be sitting at the airport less cars to cover there contract work it follows that there customers will suffer and probably swap companies i.e. central,city or phc they are struggling to cover the contracts now that is why they lost EDC and rumour has it there new scot executive customers are none too impressed with the service and are lookin to envoke there get out clause oh dear!!!

No because more cars will join their circuit.

Do you really think a firm as big as this (the owners), will pay big bucks to lose work?

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IDFIMH

Maybe the airport work is more lucrative than their contract work so they don't mind loosing a bit.

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Grandad,