DETERMINATION OF THE APPROPRIATE NUMBER OF TAXICABS TO SERVE AN AIRPORT

Airport managers constantly receive complaints from airline passengers about the suspected overcharging, poor service, and uncleanliness of taxicabs that serve the airport. Unfortunately, many airport officials find it politically and practically difficult to adequately supervise the airport curb services being offered by taxicab companies and individuals. In addition, airport taxicab groundside access has been increasingly aggravated in many U.S. cities by the relatively recent deregulation of taxicab firms and their operations. Many of these problems are directly related to the total number of taxicabs permitted to serve the airport. In the short run the demand for airport taxicab service is relatively fixed, and thus allowing too many cabs encourages overcharging and deteriorating vehicles as operators find it difficult to maintain financial viability. On the other hand, permitting too few vehicles results in excessively attractive taxicab incomes and passenger inconvenience through long delays on busy holidays and peak travel periods. In the analysis that follows, actual operation statistics and data from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport complex are used. It is demonstrated how a typical airport taxicab system can be simulated to provide a reasonable and practically defensible answer to the question of how many taxicabs are needed to serve the airport. The approach used involves a specially designed computer program entitled TAXISIM to simulate the capabilities of various cab fleet sizes to handle present and future taxicab demands. The optimal number of cabs is then balanced with an economic business analysis of the cab fleet's earning potential, given past operational performance. Taken as a unit, this approach yields a simplistic method for determining an adequate size of taxicab fleet that can accommodate expected airport passenger demand and make a reasonable return on invested time and capital while paying the airport a fair concession fee. Results of this approach are easily transferable to other airports and even to cities in which a fixed number of taxicab permits is the preferred mode of operation.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1985/1025/1025-003.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=DETERMINATION+OF+THE+APPROPRIATE+NUMBER+OF+TAXICABS+TO+SERVE+AN+AIRPORT&author=R.+Mundy&author=C.+Langley&author=L.+Stulberg&publication_year=1985
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309039150
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Airport Landside Operations.
• Authors:
  • Mundy, Ray A
  • Langley Jr, C John
  • Stulberg, Lauri
• Conference:
  • 64th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1985-1-14 to 1985-1-17
• Publication Date: 1985

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 14-22
• Monograph Title: Airport operations
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1025
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airports; Fleet management; Optimization; Simulation; Taxicabs; Travel demand
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fleets
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Economics; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Society; Terminals and Facilities; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00457185
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309039150
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 27 2004 10:01PM