Taxi users say service at
airport insufficient

Complaints over long waits have
persisted for several months

---

On May 1 a company that operates Oahu parking lots took over management of the taxi-dispatching service at Honolulu Airport.

It was the first time since the airport opened that the state turned over dispatching to a company not affiliated with a taxi operation, a move that drew criticism from some in the industry.

Four and a half months later, critics still are sounding off, but this time the complaints are coming mostly from airline passengers who have endured long curbside waits for cabs.

Many are tourists getting their first impressions of Hawaii.

Even though people have complained in the past about taxi service at the airport, the service has worsened since Ampco System Parking took over in May, some frequent users and others say.

"Even in Third World countries, taxis are waiting at the door, fighting to get you into their cabs. It's only in Hawaii you have this big problem," said Edward Brinkman, a Honolulu Realtor.

Evidence of the problem:

» A California client of Brinkman's flew to Honolulu late last month to attend a straight-from-the-airport meeting to wrap up negotiations on a business deal. The client missed the meeting because he had trouble getting a cab after his flight landed in the afternoon. He waited more than 20 minutes and eventually called Brinkman for a ride.

» Diamond Head-area resident Wyman Lai and his wife waited about an hour for a cab in late May after their delayed flight from Los Angeles landed about 1:30 a.m. Tired and anxious to get home, Lai ended up renting a car. When he left the taxi station, a large group of tourists from his flight were still waiting.

Lai said he did not understand why Ampco was unable to immediately accommodate the passengers given that the company was notified by Hawaiian Airlines of the need for a certain number of taxis several hours before the plane landed.

"It was really embarrassing for Hawaii," he said.

» Honolulu real estate executive Margaret Murchie waited 30 minutes for a cab after her plane landed around 9 p.m. one night last month. She said a long line of tourists waited behind her, tired after their five-hour flight. That is not the way a tourism-dependent state should treat visitors, Murchie said. "It's shocking. This taxi thing just drives me crazy."

» Doug Carlson, a public relations businessman, had a similar experience in the early afternoon of Aug. 8. Among the first to leave the baggage area, Carlson and his family waited about 25 minutes for a cab as a long line of travelers formed behind them. "There should be no excuse for this," Carlson said.

The company that runs the dispatching is not making excuses.

Steve Choo, regional manager for Ampco in Hawaii, acknowledged that a problem still exists, though he said the situation has improved since May.

"It's been tough," he said.

The state Department of Transportation, which oversees the airport, said complaints about long waits have been persistent since Ampco took over, prompting the agency to get involved in trying to resolve the problem.

It recently asked Ampco to assign more dispatchers outside the baggage areas to respond to taxi requests more quickly, and the state also has set aside more curb space for cabs to wait outside the international arrivals area, where many of the complaints have originated, according to Scott Ishikawa, a department spokesman.

"We are still trying to get the kinks out of the system," Ishikawa said. "I don't think any system initially starts out perfectly."

Since taking over dispatching, Ampco has implemented many changes to make its operation more efficient and is continuing to take steps to improve service, Choo said.

Ampco, for instance, just started using hand-held computers to gather trip data at the curbsides, and it plans to analyze the data to come up with better ways to use its personnel and resources, according to Choo.

"We're trying to be proactive," he said.

Longer waits are more likely when delayed flights land after midnight because fewer cabbies typically are available then to pick up passengers.

During periods of heavy vehicle traffic on the streets around the airport, lengthy waits also are more likely if flights arrive in bunches, creating a surge in demand for taxis. Most of the waiting taxis are parked at a staging lot not far from the airport but still must deal with traffic to get to the pickup stands.

To address the after-midnight need for taxis, Choo said his company has asked the airlines and the state to provide advance notice when delayed flights are scheduled to arrive, especially if the new arrival times fall after midnight. The more advance notice Ampco gets, the more time it has to arrange for cab service, he said.

But the airlines generally have refused to provide that information, claiming it is proprietary, according to Choo. He said the state also has not provided the information, though it has not said why.

Ishikawa, however, said the Transportation Department has a Web site with flight information updated regularly. Its overnight airport staff also would provide information on delayed arrivals if asked, he added.

For the peak street-traffic times at the airport, Ampco has made changes to try to respond more quickly, such as adding more dispatchers and stationing five cabs instead of three at the international arrivals area, Choo said.

The other waiting cabs, sometimes dozens of them, park in the staging lot and are summoned by radio dispatchers to one of seven pickup stations outside the baggage areas.

Because Honolulu's airport has probably one of the worst traffic-flow systems in the nation, with all private and commercial vehicles sharing the same lanes around the terminals, a surge of flights will create a logjam of passengers and cars, potentially adding to the wait times, Choo said.

When the system works smoothly, wait times typically are only a few minutes. The Star-Bulletin twice went to the airport last week to observe the dispatch operations, spending about three hours there, and the system seemed to be working well. The waits generally were no longer than several minutes.

But Edward MacNaughton, a Honolulu businessman who travels at least once a month, said his past experiences have already soured him on the new arrangement. The dispatching service has been so unreliable that he does not use it anymore, instead making his own pre-flight arrangements to have a specific taxi company pick him up upon arrival.

"The poor tourists have got to beg, borrow and steal to get out of that airport, MacNaughton said. "It's absolutely disgusting."

Under its agreement with the state, Ampco is operating the dispatching service on a month-to-month basis for up to a year. It averages about 1,000 trips per day and deals with close to 500 cabbies who are registered to operate at the airport.

The company pays the state based on the number of trips dispatched each month. In the four full months it has managed the operation, the state's monthly payment has ranged from a low of roughly $5,000 to more than $28,000.

By contrast, the previous vendor, Signature Cab Holdings, paid the state a flat rate of $37,000 a month.

One reason the state decided to consider a nontaxi company to manage the service was because of complaints about previous vendors favoring cabbies from their own companies. Even though the airport is open to all drivers who register and meet certain minimum requirements, including keeping their cars in good condition, some have complained that previous vendors favored their own drivers -- a charge the vendors denied.

By trying to address that problem, however, another has been created. Because Ampco does not have its own drivers, it can have trouble rousing enough cabbies, who are independent contractors, in the middle of the night.

"We're trying to cajole and talk to these independent contractors," Choo said.

When that Hawaiian Airlines flight arrived in late May at 1:30 a.m., Choo said the company tried calling a number of cab companies, some of which declined to send drivers. One company simply hung up on Ampco.

Since then, Ampco has learned which cabbies are willing to make late-night pickups, Choo said.

Ampco and the state expect the overall service to continue improving as the bugs are worked out of the system.

Said the state's Ishikawa, "There is a learning curve for everybody."