Cabbie claims cost-cutting to blame for long wait times at Melbourne Airport

A cost-cutting exercise at Melbourne Airport is seeing passengers wait for longer for a taxi, according to Lou the Cabbie.

The Morning program’s resident taxi expert told Tony Jones if there was more people directing taxis then there wouldn’t be a delay.

“Basically just a lack of manpower directing us taxis from one rank to another,” Lou said.

“We’ve got two boxes at the airport where they should be manned but to save some money rather than putting men in the boxes and have them walking around the ranks they just try and control it electronically or through the loudspeakers.”

“So do you find you’re spending more time in the holding bay?” Tony asked.

“Oh yes, especially now that they number of taxis has increased by 4600 to 8200 our wait times have increased by 30 per cent,” Lou replied.

Click PLAY below to hear the full details

Photo: AAP