"Mike Hughes" wrote in message
...
I'm a London licensed taxi driver so I can speak with some authority
about the Heathrow system.

Taxis plying for hire at Heathrow have to first queue in a taxi feeder
park which can take as much as 3 hours before they get to the actual
terminal. The drivers are all 'green badge' drivers which means that
their knowledge is of the central London area, where the majority of
taxi passengers wish to go.

Taxis are legally obliged to take any fare up to 20 mile of Heathrow if
it is within the Metropolitan Police district. They can refuse any fares
outside the Met or over 20 miles. Fares outside the Met are by
negotiation and can be any amount.

In order to stop (or at least reduce) the frustration and bad feeling
that getting a local fare used to generate a 'local fare' system was
introduced. This means that a driver getting a fare to local areas is
given a special ticket which entitles them to return to any of the ranks
without going through the feeder park first PROVIDED THIS IS WITHIN ONE
HOUR of leaving the airport.

The problem is that some local journeys, particularly in the rush hours,
is that it takes more than an hour to get back so the driver loses his
place and has to go back to the feeder park. No driver enjoys this BUT
THEY SHOULD NOT TAKE IT OUT ON THE CUSTOMER.

The whole thing should have been sorted out with the introduction of a
new computer system. Guess what? The system is not up and running
despite the fact that we were given guarantees that it would be working
no later than the end of September. In the meantime drivers have to pay
£3.16 every time t hey go into Heathrow for the 'priviledge' of picking
up and can only charge £1 to the passengers. It seems that everything
anything promised with a computer system is always late and always costs
more that estimated! OK. now I'm ranting about computer programmers or
am I just being picking out one part of the system and ignoring the
(good) rest, just like people do with the taxi trade?


Taxi drivers still can't be doing too badly out of the current set-up,
otherwise there wouldn't be enough of them willing to wait "hours" in the
feeder park, while they could be elsewhere earning their crust.

--
Richard