Cab Ride to Airport

cabs

In order to get to the taxi rank, leave the baggage claim area on the lower floor and traverse the first lane. With the Tucson Airport Authority (TAA) VIP Taxi and Yellow Cab are contractually agreed to pick up incoming flight. In case there are no taxi cabs, please use the telephone at the taxi rank to have one sent to you immediately.

TAA agreements with the TAA fix initial taxis at $5.50 and $2.25 per miles with a floor rate of $12.00. For up to three travelers or regular luggage there are no extra fees. VIP Taxis and Yellow Cab Contacts (click on the logos to go to the website):

Towns with the highest and low taxis

Athur Debowy is one of many frequent businessmen who finds other means of transport to prevent increasing taxis. "I' ll either contact a limousine company or hire a vehicle for my entrance to the town from the airport," says Debowy, an Highland Mills, N.Y. based architectural firm. "I pick a limousine if I'm not in town and a rented vehicle if I am.

" Taxi's may take up an ever larger portion of your budget for doing the business, but they are a necessary means of transport for many travellers. However, ticket prices differ from town to town and can be a good deal in some places. Honolulu, San Jose and San Francisco have some of the highest fare rates. Airfare in Detroit, Dallas and Pittsburgh is among the cheapest.

Costliest estimates for a single kilometer are $8. 01 in San Jose and $7. 78 in Honolulu and San Francisco. Honorulu has the highest rated five- and 10-mile tariffs - $24. 92 and $41.61. In Tulsa, the least costly estimate of a five-mile rate is $12. 55; the least cost of a 10-mile rate - $19. 97 - is in Detroit.

Taxibetrieb FareFinder estimates all tariffs on the basis of actual tariffs and a special algorithms - not only on the length of the journey. Chicago and Sacramento taxes have the highest starting fee - $4 - followed by Cincinnati taxes, which require $3.75. Honolulu's $3.20 is the most costly fee per miles.

In five towns - San Jose, Sacramento, Buffalo, San Diego and Rochester, N.Y. - $3 per miles. Cab fares "have risen steadily" and "can certainly meet the purse of enthusiastic businessmen," says Ippei Takahashi, founding director of Taxibetrieb FareFinder. The other transport charges are also on the rise, and "the comfort and speed of door-to-door taxis" remains "very much in the minds of corporate travellers," he says.

Taxis in large towns are regular and "set by the cooperation of many parties", among them taxis committees, construction engineering firms, cab operators and driver associations, says Takahashi. Tariffs "are usually linked to a person's level of wages and costs of subsistence, but other variables such as fuel costs, taxis available and inquired, and the accessibility of alternatives to transport are also involved," he says.

Taxis are generally higher in towns with higher lifestyles and fuel bills and in towns that are favorite tourism and commercial locations, he says. Perceptions of whether tariffs are costly or appropriate may differ from town to town. "When you ask a New Yorker whose cab trips are usually brief and regular, and whose livelihood is among the highest in the whole wide range, you would probably find that the cab fees are very reasonable," says Takahashi.

"But if you've asked someone in Boston or Los Angeles who often makes long journeys from downtown to suburbs - and that in busy times - you might be hearing more commotion. "Takahashi says he wants "everyone to keep in minds that running a cab is a difficult task," one of the most hazardous in the state.

" He says that the driver "works very long working days and at the same time fights against the ever increasing running cost. Woodlands, Texas based Mickey David, a regular traveller, says he sees taxi rates going up and refers to gas price rises, toll charges and charges to assure and licence them. Taxi trips from airport to downtown are "expensive", but with a $50 fee to be paid to parking a Manhattan automobile, "taxi trips are competitive," says David, a healthcare professional.

Murray Cook of Roanoke, Va., a regular traveller on official trips, expressed his anger at the inconsistencies in tariffs from town to town. Cook, chairman of a corporation for the administration of sporting facilities, says that he will pay 15 to 18 dollars for a 10-mile taxi ride from San Juan airport in Puerto Rico to the inner cities, but about twice as much for a ride the same length in San Antonio.

However, the increasing costs of cab journeys did not deter him. "You' ll also be able to stay away from the trouble of going to the big city, and have the opportunity to write and call. I often choose my best cabs when schedules, pressure of schedule and pace are crucial. "He says that when the market is fierce, the tariffs are "usually reasonable".

He says that many large towns have brought taxi cabs "at a competitive disadvantage" because the local authorities have set up much less expensive means of transport from the airport to the city centre. Increasing taxi charges have not prompted him to reduce his use of cabs in urban areas, Griffith says. "However, the ever more efficiently operating transport system and urban railways are significantly cutting the incidence of taxi use for airport trams," he says.