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Prepaid taxi and Uber booking kiosks at Melbourne Airport are causing chaos with many drivers refusing to accept passengers who have already paid their fare.
The kiosks are part of the new combined taxi and Uber rank at the Qantas domestic zone, giving the rideshare operator prime position outside terminal one and reaping Melbourne Airport $5.64 on each Uber fare and $5.15 for taxis.
The Uber fee includes $1.10 in “operating costs associated with the recently launched airport pick-up experience”.
Prepay was installed as a trial six months ago with passengers exiting terminal one and walking past multiple payment machines to reach the Uber and taxi rank.
There are no signs indicating that passengers don’t need to use prepaid, and there has been widespread confusion among travellers attempting to use the kiosks.
Over the busy Easter long weekend, The Age saw multiple taxi drivers refusing to accept passengers who had prepaid fares, leaving them stranded unless they agreed to pay again.
Karen Senter and David Macenulty were visiting Australia from New York and attempted to use the prepaid machines several times before eventually giving up and hailing a taxi from the rank instead.
“It was very confusing and stupid,” Macenulty said. “It wouldn’t let me do it.”
Senter said they had tried to make a booking using the kiosk and couldn’t “and apparently we don’t need to”.
Ron and Andrea Lewis, who travelled to Melbourne from Adelaide, were equally frustrated by the arrangement.
“This is absolutely rubbish,” Andrea said after using the kiosk to prepay and then being told by an Uber attendant that the rideshare giant had no record of their booking.
“There’s no receipt, okay, there’s no nothing,” Ron Lewis said. “So they’ve got our money, but we don’t know where we are.”
The positioning of the new rank means that at busy times, a bank-up of Uber cars can stop taxis from accessing their rank.
A spokesman for Melbourne Airport said taxis and Ubers were given equal priority across different terminal exits, and the changes were driven by feedback from passengers and drivers, and a desire to improve the airport experience for travellers.
“Passengers wanted mode choice closer to their arrival terminal, and drivers wanted to reduce the distance some of their passengers needed to walk,” he said.
Melbourne Airport, Uber and 13Cabs would not provide information about the number of complaints received about the prepaid kiosks and pick-up areas, but an airport spokesman said feedback had been “overwhelmingly positive”.
A spokeswoman for 13Cabs said there had been instances where prepaid bookings had not been accepted, resulting in frustration for passengers. She added that the prepayment scheme was aimed at exploring how bookings could improve price certainty and reduce disputes.
“During this period, several issues have been identified, including instances where prepaid bookings were not accepted as intended, resulting in frustration for passengers and delays at the rank,” she said. “This is not the experience we expect or accept.”
The company said taxi drivers were required to accept valid prepaid fares, refusal was not acceptable, and they were exploring changes that would directly dispatch drivers in the holding bay, to passengers, in the same way as an app-based job, so drivers could not pick and choose fares.
“This system is a first for Australia, so we expected some early challenges, but we are taking steps to address them and ensure passengers receive the service they deserve,” the spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for Uber said the rideshare giant was proud of its ongoing “partnership” with Melbourne Airport.
“We work closely with Melbourne Airport to optimise our pick-up zones for high volumes and will continue to collaborate through ongoing developments to ensure Uber remains a reliable, convenient option for all travellers,” she said.
Taxi and Uber travel will continue to be relied on to transfer passengers to and from the airport, with construction of the much-anticipated rail line delayed by at least four years to 2033.
In comparison to Melbourne Airport fees, Uber passengers are charged a $3 at Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, and $4.86 at Brisbane. Uber does not disclose the fee charged at Sydney Airport.
Taxi passengers are charged a fee of $4.20 at Canberra Airport, $4 at Perth, $2 at Adelaide, $4.10 at Sydney, and $4.86 at Brisbane.
In Sydney, the state government has instituted a capped $60 flat free from Sydney Airport to the CBD, designed to eradicate rip-offs, and passengers also have the option of catching the train to or from the airport.
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