Open System Will Bring Equality to Airport Taxi Operations

By Darci Evans, Charley's Taxi

Since even before statehood, the Honolulu International Airport has been a sort of microcosm of the problems that exist when openness and fairness are forgotten, while favoritism and unjustness prevail.

Due to Gov. Linda Lingle's administration's work on this issue, a new, impartial, non-transportation entity will soon take the helm managing taxi operations at HIA.

It is exciting to see that "business as usual" is experiencing a shake up on the state level. It is also exciting to see a highly reputable company anxious to fix what has too long been broken.

Ampco, a subsidiary of ABM Industries Incorporated, is most recognized as a parking fee-collection company. However, they operate or serve as consultants in extremely successful taxi management systems at many highly trafficked airports across the U.S.

Several hundred drivers have made the news in recent days, protesting new rules and regulations set by the new contractor, Ampco. At the forefront, they cry that it is unfair to disallow the $400 monthly fee they paid to avoid the $4 per trip cost charged to them without the pass.

In actuality, the $400 monthly fee is riddled with inconsistencies, irregularities, unfairness and opportunity for fraud:

Taxi-affiliated companies that have operated what was to have been an "Open Access Taxi Management System" at the airport have corrupted the monthly fee and bundled it with "promos" to join their own companies, which is unfair competition and has the air of antitrust.

Drivers who pick up more than 100 passenger loads per month from the airport get "free trips" or do not pay a fee, while other users pay $4 per trip, every trip.

Moreover, some monthly passes have reportedly been used by more than one driver, thus cheating the operator, the taxpayers and state out of fees rightly due.

Loitering and long lines have been the norm at the airport. Savvy and efficient taxi drivers do not wait in long lines. The public is not properly serviced when these types of drivers are taken out of the equation because they tend to be the most professional drivers with newer cars.

Since the mid-1990s, Charley's Taxi has consistently taken the position that the fees were arbitrarily set. There were no numbers to support the $400 monthly fee. And the $4 per trip fee seems inordinately high compared to the rest of the nation. The fee is not a "pass on" to the customers.

Charley's Taxi has repeatedly been on record on these issues and we haven't changed our position. However, Charley's Taxi realizes that controls must be established, to truly figure out the scope of business at the airport.