As a taxi driver, you will no doubt take on a variety of work whether it be from a taxi rank at your local railway station picking up people who have just got off the train and need a lift home, taking a couple to a birthday party and then collecting them when it has finished, picking up someone from a city centre nightclub who is a little worse the wear for drink and dropping them back home or an airport transfer.

Let’s have a look at some of the pros and cons of airport transfers to see if this is something that you would like to get more involved in.

As you know, an airport transfer could be where you are in a taxi rank at the airport waiting to pick up passengers who have just returned from holiday. It could also be where you pick up a family from their home and take them to the airport and then pick them up when they return from their holiday and take them home from the airport.

Positive aspects of airport transfers

There are several, some of which we mention below in no particular order: –

• More profitable – if you pick up holidaymakers from home and take them to one of the many airports in the UK then it is quite possible that part of your journey could involve using a motorway. This sort of journey may be more profitable than one where your journey involves a lot of city centre driving as it could be more fuel efficient as you are probably not going to have too many stop starts.
• Tips – holidaymakers tend to be more generous when it comes to giving you a tip than someone who you are picking up from a party.
• Drunk passengers – you are unlikely to be faced with picking up a family who have just flown back into the UK where some of them are worse the wear for drink whereas if you pick someone up from a party he or she may have had one too many to drink. If that person is sick in your taxi then that could put you out of business for a day or two until the mess is cleared up.
• A number of airport transfers involve picking someone up from home say at 3am and dropping them off at the airport around 2 hours before their flight takes off. A benefit is that the roads are likely to be quieter at that time of day.

Negative aspects of airport transfers

• Hanging around – you could end up waiting quite some time at the airport to pick your passengers up who are returning from holiday especially if the flight is delayed.
• Larger vehicle – you may feel that you need a six person vehicle with a lot of luggage space that is, potentially, more costly to buy and run.
• Diversions on motorways – one or more junctions could be closed on the motorway whilst repair work is done through the night. If you have not planned ahead having found out about the junction closures then this could result in you being late in getting to the airport to drop off your passengers who may miss their flight.
• Seasonal – more airport transfers take place during the simmer holiday than at any other time of the year.

As a taxi driver, you can see there are pros and cons of airport transfers so you must decide if you wish to do more of these sorts of jobs or not.