"DIA to reduce holding area for waiting taxi drivers"

Friday, October 4, 2002

DIA to reduce holding area for waiting taxi drivers  
Cabbies upset; action will cut 200 available spots down to about 100  
By Will Ryan
The Denver (CO) Post


Taxi driver Abdelah Ismael sometimes has to wait in line for as long as
four hours behind as many as 200 other cabs to pick up a customer at
Denver International Airport, but he said it's well worth a potential
fare of $50 or more. 

Beginning next week, however, he may not be able to get into that line.

DIA will close down the overflow holding area for taxis on Tuesday,
which will reduce the number of available waiting spots to about 100. If
there is no room in the cab stand, which is five lanes wide by about 20
car lengths long, drivers will be required to leave DIA.

"If I want to wait four or five hours, I might be hurting me, not them,"
said Ismael, who has driven a taxi for three years and works at the
airport regularly.

DIA spokesman Chuck Cannon said the area will be reconfigured and
re-striped, which will reduce the available space for waiting cabs.

"We think we can better utilize the space," Cannon said.

About 125 cabs typically wait at the airport to pick up travelers. "We
hope this will take it down to around 100," Cannon said.

But cab drivers say there are significantly more taxis waiting during
peak travel hours, and they do not understand why DIA is making the
change.

"It does hold 200," said Sebhat Tecle, who has been driving his cab in
Denver for 2 years. "You can ask any driver." Tecle said he does not
usually work the airport, but will wait at the cabstand if he has taken
a customer to DIA from the city.

Ismael said that when the change is made, he is going to quit. He just
doesn't see how he will be able to make enough money with the new
restrictions in place.

"If they were going to build something there, we would understand,"
Ismael said. "But they are doing nothing."

Ross Alexander, president of Yellow Cab in Denver, said that DIA
originally presented the change to him as a security concern.

"They said it would be better if all the cabs are contained in one
area," Alexander said. "I didn't really understand the reasoning."

Cannon said that the holding lot is not a secure area and that security
issues did not play a role in the decision to eliminate it.

The last time cab drivers protested a policy change at DIA was Memorial
Day weekend 2001. Drivers were angry over the end of a practice that
allowed drivers who made short trips to airport hotels to return into a
shorter wait line rather than a longer queue.


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