Gatwick bosses explain why Hackney Carriage taxi drivers can’t pick up passengers from airport

 

GATWICK bosses have given their reasons why Hackney Carriage drivers cannot pick passengers up from the airport.

The issue was raised by Amin Mirza, chairman of the Crawley Hackney Carriage Association, at a Crawley Borough Council licensing committee meeting last November.

Mr Mirza asked why the 122 Hackney Carriage drivers in Crawley could drop passengers off at the airport, but not pick anyone up.

He put a request to the council to ask for a five or six-vehicle rank to be set up at Gatwick for Hackney Carriage drivers, to provide passengers more choice.

In the last week a Gatwick Airport spokesman has given the following response to the council.

The statement reads: “A taxi concession has been in place at Gatwick for some considerable time.

“At one point two concessions operated side by side – both providing (the) same pricing and almost identical service, dispensation was then provided by the Competition Commission to allow this to become one operator.

“There was little benefit to the customer from the two companies operating side by side.

“There is finite space at the airport and controlling this service to provide high quality vehicle transfer is a key requirement.

“Having one company provide the service becomes a far more manageable contract than individual contracts with in excess of 250 drivers.

“This allows one company to manage driver issues and, most importantly, quality control of both driver and vehicle standards – a key requirement of the airport contract.

“This becomes quite difficult to uphold and enforce with individual taxis rather than one private hire management company.

“This type of concession agreement not only provides a good control of vehicle and driver standards it provides a supporting income stream to the airport to allow growth for the future.”

    Source : Crawley News