Post by Chips on May 22, 2008 9:38:09 GMT 9.5
In the thrall of the taxi-meeters
Jon Mortensen
May 22, 2008
HECKLER
IT'S my favourite night-time hang-out: the taxi queue at Sydney Airport. Not all that many years ago, you could get off a plane, step outside and get into a taxi. Now I wait with 750 of my closest friends, herded into holding pens awaiting deliverance.
The easiest system should be the international terminal: six taxi slots, one queue. But not last Tuesday night. At T1, the taxis are kept behind a barrier and are not allowed to approach the slots until every last vehicle has left the loading zone. Once the new taxis have arrived, the passengers are allocated a taxi. Turnaround time is about five minutes - not long, you might say, unless you happen to be 300th in the queue.
At T3, there are two queues and choice depends on what type of moderator is managing the process. There are three types: the number-cruncher, the pedant and the organiser.
The number-cruncher holds the cattle, sorry passengers, in the pen until 10 taxis are lined up - no matter how long it takes to find 10 taxis. Then passengers are doled out to each of the allocated slots; the number cruncher will direct odd-numbered taxi slots from queue one and even slots from queue two.
The pedant, on the other hand, seems to be employed in making sure all the taxis are parked neatly in their little boxes before unleashing the passengers. The pedant will take five from queue one and the remainder from queue two, but only after long discussions with drivers about positioning. If there are only eight taxis, there is no make-up for queue two. Therefore it moves slower than queue one.
The organiser lines the passengers up at each of the slots in advance of the taxis. As each gets in, the organiser is already sending the next set of passengers down to be ready for the fleet coming through. Just the way you think it should work, until the passenger for taxi four does the handbag/coat/briefcase/suit-bag routine that slows it all down. New taxis head for slot one rather than going to slots nine or 10. Thus, the latter slots have three or four people from queue two waiting fruitlessly through waves of taxis that never stop there.
So, don't line up in queue two, unless the moderator is left-handed, in which case, swap queues.
Jon Mortensen
May 22, 2008
HECKLER
IT'S my favourite night-time hang-out: the taxi queue at Sydney Airport. Not all that many years ago, you could get off a plane, step outside and get into a taxi. Now I wait with 750 of my closest friends, herded into holding pens awaiting deliverance.
The easiest system should be the international terminal: six taxi slots, one queue. But not last Tuesday night. At T1, the taxis are kept behind a barrier and are not allowed to approach the slots until every last vehicle has left the loading zone. Once the new taxis have arrived, the passengers are allocated a taxi. Turnaround time is about five minutes - not long, you might say, unless you happen to be 300th in the queue.
At T3, there are two queues and choice depends on what type of moderator is managing the process. There are three types: the number-cruncher, the pedant and the organiser.
The number-cruncher holds the cattle, sorry passengers, in the pen until 10 taxis are lined up - no matter how long it takes to find 10 taxis. Then passengers are doled out to each of the allocated slots; the number cruncher will direct odd-numbered taxi slots from queue one and even slots from queue two.
The pedant, on the other hand, seems to be employed in making sure all the taxis are parked neatly in their little boxes before unleashing the passengers. The pedant will take five from queue one and the remainder from queue two, but only after long discussions with drivers about positioning. If there are only eight taxis, there is no make-up for queue two. Therefore it moves slower than queue one.
The organiser lines the passengers up at each of the slots in advance of the taxis. As each gets in, the organiser is already sending the next set of passengers down to be ready for the fleet coming through. Just the way you think it should work, until the passenger for taxi four does the handbag/coat/briefcase/suit-bag routine that slows it all down. New taxis head for slot one rather than going to slots nine or 10. Thus, the latter slots have three or four people from queue two waiting fruitlessly through waves of taxis that never stop there.
So, don't line up in queue two, unless the moderator is left-handed, in which case, swap queues.