"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
If taxis are waiting up to 3 hours between returning to Heathrow and
reaching a rank where they can pick up a passenger, doen't this suggest
that
there are too many taxis? The ideal number would be such that there is no
queue in a feeder park and as a taxi leaves the head of a queue at one
terminal, another is just being marshalled to the end of that queue.
Obviously you need *some* slack in the system, but three hours seems to be
excessive.

95% of the time there are far too many taxis. Unfortunately, the decision as
to the numbers appears to be based on the demand for cabs during those peak
times, such as a rainy Saturday night.

As a cab driver myself, I've often wondered if there'd be a benefit to
permitting knowledge boys in the latter stages of the knowledge to work
Friday and Saturday nights in the West End only. I've been out for 3 years
now, and I know I could have done the job 6 months before I got my badge.

That way, the public are happy, as there's a greater supply of cabs during
peak times, cab garages are happy as they have an increased market to rent
cabs out to, and cab drivers are happy as the constant pressure to increase
the number of cab drivers would largely cease.