WELP. This didn’t take long to descend into utter chaos.
Af
ter Adelaide Airport announced that they were lifting their ban on ridesharing services like UberX from operating in the pick-up ranks at the airport, taxi drivers in the city have thrown a monumental shitfit by boycotting the facility entirely today.
The protest action began at 7am and shows no signs of letting up anytime today, with cab ranks at the airport deserted. Further still, the boycott action has caused Uber to shut down their newly opened UberX pick-up bay, mere hours after it opened, due to the taxi blockade and what the company reports as “threats” directed towards their drivers. According to Uber, the rank will remain closed until they can guarantee the safety of their drivers.
Incensed passengers arriving at Adelaide have been confronted with single taxis arriving at a frequency of about one every ten minutes, with reports stating some people waiting as long as 45 minutes for a cab.
Please be aware that due to protest action by taxi drivers at Adelaide Airport there are limited taxi services from the airport. 1/3
— Adelaide Airport (@AdelaideAirport) August 11, 2017
and rental cars. We are also working with @DPTI_SA and private bus operators to arrange extra buses to the city. 3/3
— Adelaide Airport (@AdelaideAirport) August 11, 2017
The blockade is also affecting public pick-up options for people driving their own cars to the airport to collect passengers. The only remaining viable option for passengers arriving at the airport is a bus service that transports people to the Adelaide CBD. Airport authorities have confirmed they have reached an agreement with bus operators to put on extra connecting bus services – which run free of charge to passengers – while the taxi blockade remains in place.
Taxi Council SA president Jim Triantafyllou did not fully back the method of protest, noting that the public does indeed have a long memory for these things, but it was also important that cab drivers had their say.
There are some drivers that want to not work and there are other drivers that do want to work. Of course the problem with that is that those who do want to work find it difficult to get in and it takes longer of course to get those cars in.
There’s more and more vehicles not working and they’re entitled to have their say. We have to see how many cars we can get though here to service the public.
Inconveniencing the public is not a good thing to do and the public do remember. But we hope the public is understanding, what we’re saying to the public is they should be using legal vehicles, legal drivers. That is where our fight has been now for over a year.
‘Course that wilfully ignores the fact that UberX is no longer illegal in South Australia, thanks to legislation passed by the State Government back in March.
It’s not known if the taxi blockade will continue into the weekend.
Adelaide Airport confirmed that the protest does not affect taxis and Ubers from getting to the airport and dropping departing passengers off; the protest only affects arriving passengers leaving the airport.
