Matt Bruce

Are Our Airports Safer???

Airport Security: Are We Really Safer???

Written By: Matt Bruce

SARASOTA, FL., July 29, 2007 (NS) –

I have recently spent 5 weeks working part time for a local Airport Taxi Company where I was keeping both my ears and eyes open looking for anything in the way of security related issues…

I am also an Instructor or the Department Of Homeland Security’s Operation Highway Watch program and have been actively reporting incidents to them for investigation…

What I have found out about the Airports and Taxi business is just how easy it would be for anybody to climb into the drivers seat and do a dastardly deed that indeed does constitute a security risk…

First of all, to get a Taxi or Public Transportation Driver’s license only requires a small fee and a ‘very limited’ criminal background check. There are numerous drivers who are from other Countries either here legally or ‘illegally’ driving Taxi Cabs coming in and out of our Nations Airports…

In addition, I was never given a drug test for pre-employment which I myself found to be extremely ‘strange’, but then maybe there was a reason why…

I was made aware of several Drivers who ‘perhaps’ were still here working after their Green cards, Visas or Work Permits had expired. Was I able to confirm that? No, but the rumors were rampant amongst the Airport Drivers…

Also, I saw Drivers either taking pills or using drugs just to stay awake and work the ‘brutal’ hours they had to work to make a living. While I only worked 8 to 10 hours a shift for the 5 weeks I did this, there were ‘many’ Drivers working 18-20 hours per day 6 and 7 days a week…

In at least one instance, I believe I witnessed a Driver either buying or selling drugs after he came away with a small plastic bag of a white substance in it and climbed back into his Cab…

I have also seen Drivers drinking alcoholic beverages at the Airport which have included beer and small ‘shiny flasks’ that usually contain liquor in them…

How can this even be SAFE? Truck drivers, Airplane Pilots, Ships Captains, Railroad Crews and others are regulated in how long they can work by the FMCSA…

This even the Insurance Industry may not be aware of because in ‘some’ cases there are no active records of a Taxi Cab Driver who comes in to work, rent a car for the day or work a 50/50 split with his Company, then have to pay for the gas and return the Taxi full of gas for the next person to use…

Recently there was a fatal accident involving a Taxi Cab driver where the passenger riding in the Cab was killed. My first question after finding out firsthand about the daily average work hours of a Taxi Driver was “How Long Was The Driver On Duty?”…

Now here’s where a serious Homeland Security issue comes into play. Several times I actually drove my Taxi right up on the tarmac to the aircraft….

I was either picking up or dropping off passengers. With what I’ve previously explained, just how safe is this practice?

Keep in mind, nobody checked nor inspected either myself, the Taxi Cab or the passengers gaining inside access to the tarmac at the Airport…

This doesn’t even make sense to me, does it you???

The inner ‘culture’ of the Taxi Industry is actually a ‘lifestyle’ from what I could see with many Drivers actually eating and sleeping in their Cars waiting on their next fares…

Again I ask you, just how SAFE do you think this is???

So in closing, I would suggest the Taxi Cab Industry needs to be closer regulated and brought into line with the same rules and regulations that a Truck Driver has to follow…

Safety and security are an issue based on what I saw in doing my research to write this article…

Matt Bruce
Managing Editor
News Sarasota.com
Operation Highway Watch Instructor

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