Taxi Driver Online

For quite a few years now there have been two official providers at Edinburgh Airport - a private hire operator, and a separate black cab rank.

Now it looks like a private hire operator has won the contract to provide both the PHVs and HCs

Not sure if the airport has thought this through. I think the vast majority of black cabs in Edinburgh are attached to a circuit, so they won't be able to work the airport. So the private hire firm will be relying on independent HCs signing up, and maybe some HCs breaking away from the HC circuits.

But if there's a general shortage of both HCs and PHVs in Edinburgh, and if HCs are so vital to the service at the airport, then I can't see this going well at all. But it'll be nearer the summer when it becomes clear how it's all panning out


Edinburgh airport: Taxi services from airport to be provided by private hire company Capital Cars under new deal

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/ ... al-4055768

The new deal has sparked fears that there will be a lack of available black cabs from the airport.

Taxi services from Edinburgh Airport will now be provided by a private hire firm after previous operator City Cabs lost out on the contract.

From April 14, Capital Cars will provide both the black cab and private hire operation at Edinburgh Airport after a joint bid by black cab companies was rejected. The move from two operators to one single company will see Capital Cars – which currently only provides private hire vehicles – managing the airport service for the next five years. It’s understood they will need to recruit black cab drivers, who are largely self-employed, but the move has sparked fears about a lack of available black cabs for those with disabilities.

A spokesperson for Edinburgh cab branch of Unite said: "Our big concern is that there will be a lack of available black cabs and these are crucial for peak times, families and larger groups and for people with disabilities or mobility issues. It will go from hundreds of black cabs to a handful or a dozen if they are lucky. There’s a real danger then that disabled people and particularly those that use wheelchairs will struggle to get accessible transport from the airport.

"It’ quiet now but during the summer and peak times there’s huge demand for vehicles, after we’ve seen a reduction in taxis since the pandemic."

Airport chiefs said the change will allow a ‘closer working relationship’ and that the deal would ensure "a steady supply of vehicles for passengers.”

An Edinburgh airport spokesperson added that they were confident that Capital Cars could deliver on the deal to provide a mix of both black cabs and private hire vehicles and stressed that the tender process had been ‘stringent'.

The changes will also see a shift to upgraded technology, including charging points for electric vehicles, a queue monitoring system, and new automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, being installed to improve the passenger experience. A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said: “Onward travel from an airport is an important part of the passenger journey and we want to make that as easy and smooth as possible by providing as many options as we can.

“The tender process has worked to identify how we can ensure a consistent and reliable supply of taxis and private hire cars for passengers who need that option and we are now able to confirm Capital Cars as our black cab and private hire operator for the next five years. We think the news measures we will introduce as part of this deal will provide passengers with up to date data on taxi and private hire times, as well as encourage that move to electric vehicles thanks to the installation of new charging points.

“We know the taxi industry has faced challenges during Covid recovery and that has been experienced in cities across Scotland and the UK, and we hope the new measures together with a sole operator operating our rank will allow us to have a closer working relationship to identify where and how we can improve the experience for passengers.”

A spokesperson for Capital Cars said: "We understand there is some trepidation around this contract, as it's the first time Edinburgh Airport has had only one operator delivering both black cabs and private hire vehicles. But we already have some hackney cabs registered to work with us and we are looking to recruit more in the coming weeks. Comments about a lack of black cabs are just scaremongering. We are confident we can deliver the mix of both vehicles and meet customers' needs."

City Cabs has been contacted for comment.

So City Cabs is the current official black cab provider at the airport, and has 450 HCs covering Edinburgh as a whole.

It will be interesting to see how many HCs the private hire firm Capital Cars manages to recruit, but I can't see them managing to recruit enough

https://www.citycabs.co.uk/services/airport-transfer/

Who writes this rubbish FFS?

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IDFIMH

I was of the view that no PH vehicle on a traditional circuit would ever join up with Uber, and I was 100% incorrect in that.

Same with PH operators, yet they are queuing up to work with Uber.

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IDFIMH

I would also wonder how many black cabs the new firm will actually need, as I doubt they will be needed other than for WAV work, and there is nothing stopping the new firm from buying some new PH WAVs.

Gatwick has three times as many punters going through their airport and I doubt they have more than half a dozen WAV vehicles.

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IDFIMH

Some PR/'comms' spiv?

But you may be right - I doubt if there's huge demand at EDI for WAV capacity per se and, as I recall it, a lot of it was about alleviating shortages at peak times if there was a PH-only facility, and no ranking cars as such. And also because of the environmental considerations regarding HCs taking people to the airport, but always returning to the city empty.

To that extent, I wouldn't be surprised to see a bit of politics opening up over all of this. But it may presage mixed HC/PHV fleets in Edinburgh, which are in fact the norm in Aberdeen and Dundee.

Particularly as in Edinburgh PHVs have traditionally had taximeters fitted (unlike in Glasgow) which would facilitate mixed fleets.

But in Glasgow, if a huge chunk of the black cab fleet does disappear with LEZ, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of HCs replated as PHs, and to that extent the 800-strong current HC circuit might start using PHVs as well.

Nothing's set in stone

This is almost a week old now, and contains a shedload of blather.

The numbers are pretty meaningless, because they're just the totals working for the different circuits (HC and PH), and thus only indirectly relevant to the number of vehicles servicing the airport. The vast majority of their fleets will be in the city or elsewhere, rather than out at the airport.

And if they do manage to recruit cars that are more dedicated to working the airport, then they don't really need the current numbers deemed below to be servicing the airport, assuming the extra cars they manage to recruit don't work so much in the city, or just work the airport

More on the new arrangement in the next post.


Warnings of 'carnage' at Edinburgh Airport as private hire firm needs to double drivers 'to stand still'

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/ ... ll-4086480

The private hire firm which will be the sole operator for taxis and black cabs has 400 drivers, half the number currently servicing Edinburgh Airport.



Black cab drivers have warned of ‘carnage’ at Edinburgh Airport ahead of changes that will see a private hire firm take over as sole operator of taxi services for the first time.

After a joint bid by black cab companies City Cabs and Central Radio Taxis was rejected, private hire firm Capital Cars will provide both the black cab and private hire operation at Edinburgh Airport from April 14. According to figures seen by the Evening News the contract is estimated to be worth £15.7m in 2023 and up to £100 million over five years.

The move from two operators to one sole provider has sparked warnings from the union of a lack of available black cabs and accessibility fears for those with disabilities. Now cabbies have warned it will result in a significant shortage of all vehicles at the airport. Bosses from City Cabs, which has served the airport for 13 years have branded the change a commercial decision that will result in a ‘reduced offering’.

Steven McDermott, vice chairman of City Cabs, said: “In order to provide an unparalleled level of service to passengers arriving at Edinburgh airport, City Cabs placed a joint bid with Central Radio Taxis, which would have provided over 900 taxis, along with a solid financial offering. This, combined with a separate private hire operation would have seen over 1300 vehicles at the airport giving passengers a clear choice.

“City Cabs were notified that the total income provided by Capital Cars for sole access was substantially greater than our combined offerings. Since City Cabs have been successfully serving passengers there for more than 13 years, we are disappointed with the commercial decision that EAL has made. While the private hire operator halted their service during the lockdown period due to a shortfall in passenger numbers, our drivers remained, sometimes for extremely long periods of time, to ensure that any passengers that did arrive were transported home safely.

“City Cabs will continue to service our loyal customers, passengers with disabilities, and any that are unhappy with the newly reduced offering, by collecting them from the designated pre-booked area which can be booked on the phone or through our smartphone app.”



Airport chiefs said the change would ensure "a steady supply of vehicles for passengers” and they were confident that Capital Cars could fulfil the contract to provide enough private hire and black cabs. They dismissed claims of a shortage of vehicles as ‘speculation’.

The total number of vehicles currently serving the airport is 800. Capital Cars has 400 drivers currently registered according to its website and has launched a recruitment drive that aims to double that and hire another 400 to 500 drivers to service the rank.

Black cab drivers told the Evening News scores have ‘snubbed’ attempts to recruit them due to a number of concerns about the affect of the contract on passengers and the commission drivers will have to pay to the company for every hire. It’s claimed only a handful so far have signed up.

With two weeks until the changes come into force, one cab driver warned there’s ‘not a hope in hell’ they can make up the predicted shortfall in vehicles.

He said: "They are charging 17.5 per cent commission on all fares, it’s extortionate. That isn’t going to win over black cab drivers. Their own drivers took strike action months ago over their charges but it seems they have not learned from that. Even if a couple of hundred more drivers are recruited in the next couple of weeks there will still be a few hundred vehicles short. Tonnes of black cab drivers have snubbed their offer. There isn’t a hope in hell they can more than double their drivers in time – and they need to do that just to stand still. With 800 vehicles from two providers under the current contract you still get queues at busy times. It’s going to be total carnage. Passengers will end up paying more on fares, an extra booking fee and journey times will be longer because they don't have bus lane access.”

Under draft plans due to go to public consultation this year Edinburgh’s Public Transport Action Plan proposes extending the bus lane restrictions hours to 7am to 7pm. It’s claimed the changes will create bottlenecks as all taxis will have to be pre-booked at a terminal at the rank. Passengers will be charged a booking fee of 80p.

Capital Cars and Edinburgh Airport were contacted for comment.

So this is a page Capital Cars have set up in order to recruit new drivers for the contract, and puts some meat on the bones of the blather in the latest article above.

But, whether or not it's a success, it's certainly an interesting concept. It looks like a kind of Uber-style setup just for the airport rank, and will be commission-based, and the runs will be arranged via an app.

It'll be open to any car, HC or PH, circuit cars or independents

And no separate HC and PH 'ranks' as there are at the moment - it'll all just be one big queue, and looks like first-come, first-served, unless punters specify a particular requirement, such as a WAV, eight-seater or EV.

Therefore very similar to Uber in many ways, and of course to that extent the sticking point might be whether HC circuits and the PH operators will allow their cars to take work from a rival operation

https://capitalcars-edinburghairport.go ... vrr6dUn61k

...but this looks like you can also work for the HC circuits or the new app-only providers, but not the traditional private hire providers??

But any other significant UK airport with an arrangement anything like this?

Does that airport really need more than 400 cars servicing it?

I think Gatwick has about 300 and they service three times the number of passengers as Edinburgh.

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IDFIMH

Well indeed, Sussex.

It's like saying a 1,000-car office has won the local Tesco Extra freephone contract, so Tesco Extra has 1,000 cars servicing it

Well, it does, kind of, but...

But the numbers bandied about by the offices are useful for their own propaganda purposes. I mean, check out this from the article above:


Yet Capital Cars are saying their combined HC/PH 'rank' will accommodate 15 cars

Of course, there's no doubt some correlation between the number of cars an office has on its books and the number of cars available to service the airport, but the numbers per se are largely meaningless.

Anyway, if they can't get enough cars to sign up, wouldn't be surprised if they come up with some looser arrangement that would apply if big queues of passengers form, like letting any car pick up and just charge them some kind of cash PAYG fee.

(Which is maybe a bit like Heathrow, but with PHVs allowed access on an equal basis??)

Where to start with all this? But looks like at least one late flight arriving around midnight on Sunday through to Monday morning. And lots of people who don't normally take taxis suddenly decide they want one - trams and other public transport have stopped working.

Then they moan about how long they have to wait. No doubt they expect half the Edinburgh trade to get out of bed and rush to the airport to do one job off a late and delayed flight, or whatever

And the new system certainly sounds quite shambolic, but who would have expected that?

Although I daresay it functions a bit better when the airport and flights etc are working more normally.


Edinburgh couple fume at having to wait an hour for their taxi at airport

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/ed ... t-28018052

Ian and Kirstyn said their quest to get a taxi at Edinburgh Airport 'was not an enjoyable experience to say the least' with Ian calling on Capital cars to better communicate with travellers.

An Edinburgh man has branded the Capital cars taxi rank at Edinburgh Airport ‘a shambles’ after he battled for just under an hour to secure a cab.

Ian, 31, and Kirstyn Williamson, 34, had been down south at a wedding and flew back to the capital from London late on Sunday October 29 after their flight was delayed.

Beleaguered after a long day travelling, the couple were desperate to get back home to their beds but to their horror they were met with a chaotic taxi queue at the official rank.

Ian says that the experience of getting a taxi is confusing and that there are no clear signs directing you as to the best practice for booking a cab.

The pair stood in a queue for a considerable amount of time and Ian says that whenever they asked for advice or updates their requests were met with derision by those working the taxi rank.

After a wait of just under an hour, Ian and Kirstyn finally got their taxi, which they described as expensive, but the couple claimed that there was a queue of around 200 people by the time they left the airport.

“We landed back in Edinburgh from Stansted at around 12.25am on Monday. Our flight was around 45 minutes late taking off and we'd had a long day of travelling so we were pretty tired as it was and just wanted to get home,” Ian said.

“We had about a 10-minute wait to get off the plane, but as it was a domestic flight it was straight through the terminal building and we headed for the main taxi rank as that would be the quickest option for getting back. We live close to the tram line so usually if flying into Edinburgh we'd get the tram home, or someone would pick us up, but as it was late at night neither of those options were available to us.

“We weren't aware that the situation regarding taxis had changed so I went to the left where the black cabs would have sat previously and my wife went to the right and joined the queue that was forming for the private hires. It soon became apparent that taxis would only appear when ordered at the screens but this isn't advertised at all and a lot of people were in the same boat as us - unaware and very frustrated at the wait that we realised we'd be facing.

“There was one person ordering taxis for everyone and three people calling out names when the taxis arrived. There are three screens which can be used to order by the looks of things so I’m not sure why more of them weren't being used as the queue was only getting bigger and people were obviously getting more annoyed!

“There were people asking if taxis could be picked up anywhere else and the staff were pretty unhelpful/rude with their responses although I understand they were under a lot of pressure. We both tried to order separate taxis via different operators while we were in the queue, but demand was ‘higher than anticipated’ and we weren't able to get one, so we had no choice but to wait in the queue.

“We could see some black cabs leaving the drop off zone, but we didn't want to take the risk of moving over there and there not being any available, leaving us to rejoin the back of the queue. We got to the front of the queue around 1.10am and were told it would be an eight minute wait for a taxi

“Once your taxi has been ordered, you go into the ‘waiting area’ which is just everyone who has ordered a taxi waiting around for their name to be called as their taxi arrives - basically a bunch of people getting more and more annoyed, including myself! The whole time we were in the queue it was only getting bigger and when our taxi arrived at 1.22am, 57 minutes after we got off the flight, the queue was the biggest it had been and I reckon there was easily at least 200 people waiting on taxis.

“Don't get me started on the price of the taxis as that's a joke as well! There needs to be a better way of getting folk to their destination in the early hours.

“I'm aware Capital has bought out exclusive use of the airport taxi rank but it is an absolute shambles and not an enjoyable experience in the slightest.”

A spokesperson for Capital Cars said: “Our system shows that we were experiencing a high volume of bookings at around 12.30am on Monday. Unfortunately we cannot control delays and when they happen we are sometimes left with added pressure on our services.

“We do apologise for the couple having to wait in the queue. From the time their booking was processed a taxi arrived within ten minutes.”

Talk about spin and selective presentation of facts

Presumably if it took several hours to process their booking then that wouldn't matter, as long as the car arrived a few minutes thereafter

As I mentioned in another thread we live in an entitled world where people expect even at the busiest times there to be an unlimited supply of whatever they need including taxis or PH. And if it isn't available well they like to shout about the lack of availability to anyone who will listen

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

So hard to click on the Uber and other apps, if they couldn't be arsed to wait at the taxi rank.

But maybe they did, and weren't too keen on the prices they got back.

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IDFIMH