The owner of a south Essex taxi firm says his company was hit with £1,600 in fines at Southend Airport amidst an "admin nightmare".
Jamie Webb, who runs Hockley-based Eddies Cars, says drivers have repeatedly been caught out by the airport’s barrier-less drop-off zone, where motorists must remember to pay the £8 charge online after using the facility.
He claims the lack of an automatic payment system has resulted in missed payments and a series of £100 penalty notices, leaving the business facing what he describes as an “admin nightmare”.
Mr Webb said Eddies Cars regularly transports passengers to and from airports including Gatwick and Stansted, where parking charges can be automatically deducted from a prepaid online account.
He wants Southend Airport to adopt a similar system, arguing it would better support local taxi operators making hundreds of airport journeys each year.
A Southend Airport spokesperson accepted the new parking rules could cause problems and said the airport would investigate issues raised by local taxi firms.
“We have been fined a total of £1,600 in the last year,” Mr Webb said. “It is going to break the company.”
Mr Webb said many customers rely on the firm’s airport transfer service, particularly for early-morning flights before trains from Hockley begin running.
“We are going to end up having to say we are not going to Southend Airport, and if we do that we will lose out on a lot of money,” he added.
He believes a prepaid account, similar to the Dartford Crossing payment scheme, would eliminate the problem for both taxi firms and regular users.
The taxi boss also raised concerns about congestion around the airport, saying the growing number of destinations has increased demand while waiting space near the drop-off zone remains limited.
He claimed it is common to see vehicles parked in surrounding residential streets while drivers wait for passengers.
A spokesman for Southend Airport said the introduction of barrierless parking had been successful for most users but acknowledged concerns raised by local taxi companies.
The spokesman said: “The introduction of new car parking products at Southend Airport has gone well, with the vast majority of our customers finding the new barrierless systems easy and efficient to use.
“We do however accept that the changes in parking rules can create problems for some of our users, and indeed this issue has been raised at other forums to the airport.
“We have committed to investigating improvements to some of the issues raised by local taxi firms with our contracted operator Excel Parking Services.”
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