Some taxi drivers have started a hunger strike demanding the ‘short-fare’ system is re-established at Melbourne Airport.
Cabbies are angry at Melbourne Airport’s scratching of a "short-fare queue" for drivers returning from taking passengers on short trips. The drivers were previously allowed to skip the taxi’s holding yard and go directly to the taxi rank at terminals.
One driver said he recently waited in a taxi queue for two hours to take his passengers to the Holiday Inn at the airport and the fare only came to $4.80.
He said the short-term queue would have allowed him to return to the airport and jump the longer queue, but he was sent to the back of the line.
Airport chief executive Chris Woodruff says less than two per cent of all pick-ups are classified as short fares, but more than 12 per cent of drivers claimed they had been on a short trip, Yahoo news reported.
Airport management is planning to implement a licence plate recognition system in September to ensure the queue is not being jumped.
Nazar Yousif has been a taxi driver in Melbourne for 12 years and is one of five drivers who have begun an indefinite hunger strike.
"We are hunger striking today, trying to put more pressure (on)," he said.
"This is starting to become very ugly and showing the feeling of big corporate behaviour (Melbourne Airport) towards taxi drivers."
Yousif says it is not viable for drivers to wait hours for a small fare of $10 or $15.
"You wait there, not only waiting, your car is running. That's a cost for us," he said.
The hunger strike comes after drivers again blockaded the airport yesterday.
Taxi Driver Forum spokesman Ali Abou-eid said had warned Melbourne Airport in April about ending its short-fare queue system.
Image: heraldsun.com.au