The Crop Over season may have brought thousands of visitors through Grantley Adams International Airport but some airport taxi operators say they did not get their fair share of the business, with ride-hailing services such as Uber increasingly eating into their pockets.
President of the Airport Taxi Association Anthony Harewood said the problem was particularly acute because airport taxis pay thousands of dollars every month to operate under their franchise, yet some drivers can spend hours waiting in the official taxi line while passengers arriving in Barbados are collected by ride-hailing vehicles.
Harewood said the established airport system is designed to provide incoming passengers with a regulated service. After clearing the airport, passengers can approach a dispatcher, give their destination and receive a ticket showing the vehicle number, time, destination and authorised fare.
But he said that system was being bypassed by passengers who arrive already intending to use Uber.
“Some people are familiar with Uber. As soon as they land and take out their phone, Uber is bombarding them with pop-ups,” Harewood told the Sunday Sun.
He questioned why passengers would choose a ride-hailing service when taxis are immediately available outside the terminal.
“For the life of me, I don’t know why. You come out of the airport in a new country, you see a line of taxis there at your disposal and you still get online to call Uber?” he asked.
Harewood said the irony was that some of the Uber drivers are themselves airport taxi operators.
“They’re also signed up with Uber and they’re also signed up with PickUp Barbados,” he said.
That creates a situation where a driver can be sitting in the official airport taxi line while simultaneously receiving a ride request through an app.
“When they are in the line they get a call and they are able to pick up those passengers and move out the line,” Harewood explained.
The impact, he said, was particularly severe on drivers who rely solely on the airport queue.
“Sometimes guys would be in the line from 6 a.m. and only get their first job at around 2 p.m. because the Uber and other rideshares are taking quite a few of the jobs,” he said.
Harewood said some drivers even remain at the airport overnight because flights could arrive at virtually any hour.
“You have people that sleep on the line,” he said.
He described a scenario in which a driver could complete his last job around midnight and remain at the airport until another flight arrives several hours later.
“They do it because that’s where they work. That’s how they can probably get a little extra,” he said.
Harewood, however, believes the situation is becoming increasingly unfair to operators who have invested in being authorised airport taxis.
“The reality is that these apps are here and apparently, they’re here to stay,” he said.
His solution is to keep ride-hailing services away from the immediate airport taxi area.
“Why are they allowed to operate at the airport when there are taxis franchised to work at the airport already to provide transportation to incoming passengers?” Harewood asked.
“If you come to Barbados and you want an Uber, you decide that you want an Uber, you go where the Ubers are.”
He is proposing a 300-metre buffer zone around the authorised airport taxi area, which he said would prevent them from collecting passengers within that vicinity.
“Geo-fence them,” he said. “Have them stay 300 metres away from the airport. You cannot have Uber or none of the other ride share within the vicinity.”
Harewood acknowledged that some visitors chose Uber because they want to pay electronically, but he pointed out the airport taxi system could accommodate that.
“If you go to the dispatcher and you are going to pay by credit card or debit card or Apple Pay . . . whatever . . . you tell the dispatcher that I don’t have cash,” he said.
The dispatcher, he explained, could then assign a taxi equipped to process electronic payments.
Harewood said the taxi industry also has to take responsibility for making itself more competitive.
“The onus is on us, the taxi drivers, to make ourselves viable. It’s a business,” he said, adding he wants more airport taxis equipped to accept debit and credit cards, arguing this could reduce passengers’ dependence on apps.
The Airport Taxi Association has about 120 members, while Harewood said there are approximately 280 taxis at the airport in total.
“We pay the airport to operate . . . Thousands of dollars . . . monthly.”
For president of the Inflight Taxi Association Anthony Bunthorne, the problem is not confined to Crop Over or the airport.
He said he personally did not have a particularly strong Crop Over season, despite the influx of visitors.
He said ride-hailing has fundamentally changed the competitive landscape for traditional taxi operators.
“A lot of people came into the island for sure but Uber has cut into everything in terms of doing transport or taxi transport in Barbados, not just at the airport,” Bunthorne said.
He acknowledged that while some taxi operators have built private client bases and continue to secure work independently, those operators could not represent the entire industry.
Some drivers, he said, refuse to use any ride-sharing platform and depend entirely on the traditional airport dispatch system.
“They just depend on the working lane,” Bunthorne said.
