Cabbies angry over increased charges to pick up at Birmingham airport
Mar 3 2009 by Edward Chadwick, Birmingham Post
The latest in a series of rows between taxi drivers and their trade chiefs could result in visitors being stranded at Birmingham International Airport.
Cabbies have baulked at a £540 payment to operate from the terminal and claim terms of a new contract negotiated by the Birmingham and Solihull Taxi Association will leave them out of pocket.
A five-year deal struck by leaders of the association for the right to run the lucrative airport patch will see the barrier fee paid by drivers every time they enter the rank rise from 75 pence to £2.10.
Most of the 400 Hackney carriage drivers who are currently licensed to work ranks claim they will not shell out and have grown so frustrated with BASTA that they have begun legal proceedings to call an extraordinary general meeting.
The fall-out follows a disagreement last year over a £200 one-off levy for the right to use ranks at Birmingham’s NEC.
Paul King, a driver in the city for 36 years, claimed: “The association are acting like bully boys but we will not stand for it. They have gone to negotiate the contract with the airport and sold us completely down the river.
“Because the new barrier fee is so high, it means we will be making a loss on some very short trips to nearby hotels but we can’t pick and choose what fares we take. There are about 400 drivers who work the airport and there are only six or seven who have accepted the new terms and paid up.”
The 57-year-old, from Castle Bromwich, claimed that drivers had been sent threatening letters telling them that unless they have paid at least £200 of the fee by today, they will be banned from the airport.
There are fears that it could leave a dearth of taxis for people arriving in the city by air.
“Cabbies are not happy with the way the association is being run and we are calling the EGM with the intention of changing that,” he said.”
BASTA chairman Irfan Ahmed refused to speak to the Birmingham Mail when a reporter visited its taxi hub at Star City.
“I don’t want to answer any questions, you need to speak to the airport,” he said.
But an airport spokesman said that rates were set by BASTA and they had been told that 250 drivers had signed up.
“The rates paid by individual drivers are determined by their membership body, BASTA, and the airport company is not party to the pricing structure process set out by them,” said the spokesman.
