Airport taxi service

Terrontress

After arriving in Dublin airport at about 11.10 on Sunday night, walking along the elongated portakabin, queued up to get through the Garda checkpoint and waited for my bags, I proceeded outside to get a taxi.

The queue stretched the entire length of the covered area, doubled back on itself beyond the length of the covered queuing area, past the airport police sign and then doubled back, halfway along the length of the queue again.

This took 30 minutes to finally get to an early 90s Toyota rustbucket import to charge a sizeable sum to take me home. The queue was getting longer as we queued, stretching further down the arrivals ramp before doubling back.

There was no sign of any Dublin Bus services. There were 3 aircoaches parked up but these go nowhere near where I live.

There seemed to be a never ending supply of taxis but just an inefficient means of getting them led to the queues. The drivers seem to have to go through some form of a barrier to get to the customers. And on three occasions in the half hour, a car other than a taxi pulled up to the barrier. This leads to no taxi being able to pull up. In one case a car with green headlights was there for more than 3 minutes and everyone had to wait for someone to go over and open the barrier so more taxis could get through.

Let's face it, in most major European cities,a taxi is a luxury, given the options of public transport from the airport. It is an expensive luxury. It does not feel luxurious standing in the rain for 30 minutes. I wonder what someone from London, Frankfurt or Amsterdam would feel arriving to our airport with a destination in mind.

Ham'nd'egger

This is getting to be a very regular issue, a dearth of taxis at the airport at certain times of the day.

Much of this is to do with the DAA charging taxi drivers a hefty €400 a year to be allowed to pick up at the airport, and this to sit in a car park (The Kesh) before being called up to the rank. Adding to this is the fact that the management of the calling up of drivers is inefficient at times; drivers can only go up to the Airport rank when called up unlike a normal rank where you simply follow the car in front. All it takes is for a moment of inattention or a controller to be off his post and chaos ensues Many drivers don't serve the airport as a result of both issues, hence the queues such as those you met on Sunday. Now, the city was swamped with the GAA game as well so this didn't help the supply of cars...

Terrontress

There didn't seem to be an issue with the supply of cars, it just seems that they are unable to get the passengers in and then get away quickly enough. And the drivers being allowed to approach the barrier with no pass to get through is ridiculous.

The driver we took back to Donabate said he was going to go straight back to the airport because there were so many people waiting.

There were one or two jumpers in the queue as well, one particularly uncouth family just in front of us turned their trolley around and got into the queue in a position which took us a further ten minutes to get to. Given the look of them though, nobody wanted to say anything.

As well as managing the flow of taxis, the daa should have an effective system of managing the queue.

Terrontress

There didn't seem to be an issue with the supply of cars, it just seems that they are unable to get the passengers in and then get away quickly enough. And the drivers being allowed to approach the barrier with no pass to get through is ridiculous.

The driver we took back to Donabate said he was going to go straight back to the airport because there were so many people waiting.

There were one or two jumpers in the queue as well, one particularly uncouth family just in front of us turned their trolley around and got into the queue in a position which took us a further ten minutes to get to. Given the look of them though, nobody wanted to say anything.

As well as managing the flow of taxis, the daa should have an effective system of managing the queue.

is_that_so

yep they pay €2.50 to sit in the Q. Mind you it didn't stop him charging me €15 to Swords :eek:

Wishbone Ash

You could book your taxi in advance and go to the dedicated area to get it (although I realise that it's not always practical especially if the flight is delayed etc.).

markpb

Potentially very expensive if the flight is delayed or your luggage is last out of the hold or anything else goes wrong. You're charged from the time you ask the taxi driver to be there, not the time you get into the car.

Beta Bill

is_that_so wrote:

yep they pay €2.50 to sit in the Q. Mind you it didn't stop him charging me €15 to Swords :eek:

WRONG! they dont pay €2.50 to queue they pay €400 per annum which has done away with the requirement to pay per trip. If you live in Swords get the bus home, even the Nitelink goes through the airport for gods sake. Why should a taxi driver queue for an hour to take you around the corner! :eek:

antoinolachtnai

A taxi is obliged to accept any passenger who is travelling less than 20 miles, that's why. It's part and parcel of being a a taxi driver. If he wants a guarantee of longer runs, he should join Dublin Bus.

Wishbone Ash

Beta Bill wrote:

If you live in Swords get the bus home, even the Nitelink goes through the airport for gods sake. Why should a taxi driver queue for an hour to take you around the corner! :eek:

A traveller is entitled to get a taxi to their destination. Why should you think that they should be expected to use public transport? There are a few B&Bs located near the entrance to the airport on the R132. I've seen taxi drivers bringing people there as they are obliged to. Any taxi driver who has a problem with short runs from the airport shouldn't be in the job. Taxi drivers are occasionally hired to go to the hotels within the airport. They have to take the rough with the smooth.

Terrontress

Donabate is so close to the airport but unfortunately there is no bus connecting the two. I'd gladly get the bus instead of queuing for ages to have to pay taxi rates!

Bluetonic

antoinolachtnai wrote:

A taxi is obliged to accept any passenger who is travelling less than 20 miles, that's why.

Thats incorrect.

It's 30 km, you stand corrected.

Wishbone Ash

Terrontress wrote:

Donabate is so close to the airport but unfortunately there is no bus connecting the two. I'd gladly get the bus instead of queuing for ages to have to pay taxi rates!

There is no direct bus but you could get any bus to Swords and then a 33B to Donabate.

EDIT: I've just realised that you are referring to late at night.

antoinolachtnai

The core problem seems to be that the taxi stand isn't arranged properly. They need some sort of parallel parking arrangement at the taxi stand, so that more customers can get into taxis in a shorter time.

Wishbone Ash

Hamndegger wrote:

Adding to this is the fact that the management of the calling up of drivers is inefficient at times; drivers can only go up to the Airport rank when called up unlike a normal rank where you simply follow the car in front. All it takes is for a moment of inattention or a controller to be off his post and chaos ensues ...

I find that most problems are caused when the controller calls too many rows from the 'kesh' and as a result there is a huge backlog going all the way down the ramp and beyond the roundabout at Corballis House.

(This does not affect passengers waiting for a taxi but it causes problems for passengers trying to access the departures road and buses attempting to get onto the arrivals road. It seems to happen regularly on a Saturday night for some reason).

Beta Bill

Terrontress wrote:

Donabate is so close to the airport but unfortunately there is no bus connecting the two. I'd gladly get the bus instead of queuing for ages to have to pay taxi rates!

Donabate is actually a decent distance for any taxi i would have thought. Swords and Santry are not and are well serviced by buses that drive through the airport. Why would route 41 including the 41N nitelink go through the airport (delaying all onboard) if no one wants to get on at the airport.

Terrontress

Beta Bill wrote:

Donabate is actually a decent distance for any taxi i would have thought. Swords and Santry are not and are well serviced by buses that drive through the airport. Why would route 41 including the 41N nitelink go through the airport (delaying all onboard) if no one wants to get on at the airport.

Taxi drivers aren't too keen on a trip to Donabate from the airport. My girlfriend has been shouted at in the past by drivers because the journey is not long enough. But then on a Saturday night in the city centre, some aren't too keen on going so far out of town!

I'd say all in all it is about fifteen minutes in the car from the airport.

Wishbone Ash

Terrontress wrote:

My girlfriend has been shouted at in the past by drivers because the journey is not long enough

I can't understand why people put up with this sort of crap from taxi drivers. They wouldn't accept in from any other service provider.

Also it's particularly difficult to understand why people accept it when each taxi has a number which can be used to identify the taxi when reporting to the taxi regulator.