Ridesharing drivers may face $3 charge to operate at Hollywood Burbank Airport
Hollywood Burbank Airport is considering charging ridesharing drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft $3 to drop off and pick up passengers.
Ridesharing company drivers may soon have to shell out more money whenever they drop off or pick up passengers at Hollywood Burbank Airport.
The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority voted 7-0 to approve a new agreement with transportation network companies such as Lyft, Uber or Wingz, which will bill those companies $3 whenever their drivers drop off passengers at the terminal.
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Sept. 9, 2016, 3:48 p.m.
For the record: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that ridesharing drivers would have to pay $3 to pick up or drop off passengers. The Hollywood Burbank Airport will bill ridesharing companies a $3 fee whenever their drivers drop off passengers.
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Commissioners Steve Madison and Zareh Sinanyan were absent.
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Since November 2015, Hollywood Burbank Airport has required ride-sharing drivers to pay $3 whenever they pick up travelers from a designated area in the parking structure and barred them from picking up customers from the airfield’s curbside. However, airport officials did allow drivers to make drop-offs at the curb without charge.
Under the new agreement, which lasts for three years, drivers are still required to pick up passengers in the parking structure and allow them to make drop-offs curbside. However, those ride-sharing companies will now be charged $3 whenever their drivers bring customers to the airport, said David Freedman, director of business, property and administrative services for the authority.
Lyft, Uber and Wingz are currently under the authority’s temporary agreement, and airport officials are now awaiting for the transportation network companies to sign off on the new deal so they can start enforcing it at the airfield, airport spokeswoman Lucy Burghdorf said.
Like all other airports around the country, Hollywood Burbank Airport has seen an increasing number of rider-sharing drivers picking up and dropping off passengers.
In June, Hollywood Burbank Airport saw a 74% increase in $3 transactions, which officials think is related to the rise in ride-sharing drivers pulling through the parking structure.
Freedman said the airport is expected to make about $775,000 annually solely through transportation network companies.
In addition to having drivers pay for making drop-offs, Freedman said the transportation network companies are required to create a geofence — a virtual barrier that the ride-sharing companies can program into their app that can track its users who are coming into or leaving a specific area — around the perimeter of the airport to make sure that their drivers are abiding by the rules and to prevent them from camping for customers within the airfield.
“This will allow for the monitoring of transactions, verification of payment of fees and to ensure overall compliance with the agreement,” he said. “No TNC driver may pass through the geofence unless dispatched by the TNC’s mobile app.”
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
