Recommendations for North American 
Airport Ground Transportation Standards

Adopted September, 2005

These standards have been developed by members of the Airport Ground Transportation Association and were adopted at their Fall, 2005 conference in Toronto, Ontario as recommendations of Industry Best Practices.

TAXICAB SERVICES:

• A reasonable age for airport taxicabs is between 3 to 7 years model years old.
• Taxi drivers should be required to adopt some form of uniform dress code – either by company or as a general minimum standard for the industry.
• The minimum age for a commercial taxi driver should be 21 to 25 years old - depending upon local insurance requirements.
• The minimum driving experience required for an airport commercial taxi operator should be 1 to 3 years within the community.
• Airport, taxi drivers, taxi firms, and the community benefit from either an exclusive taxi concession at the airport or some mechanism to limit the number of taxicabs that service the airport at any one time.
• The taxi company, the taxi vehicle owner, and the taxi operator should be held responsible for the actions of the taxi operator.
• The minimum level of insurance individual taxi vehicles should be required to carry at an airport is 100/300/100.

ON-DEMAND SHARED RIDE SERVICES:

• A reasonable age for airport shuttle vans, limousines, and small buses is between 3 and 7 years model years old.
• These commercial vehicle drivers should be required to adopt some form of uniform dress code – either by company or as a general minimum standard for the industry.
• The minimum age for a commercial driver should be 21 to 25 years old - depending upon local insurance requirements.
• The minimum driving experience required for an airport commercial operator should be 1 to 3 years within the community. 
• Airport, shared ride service drivers, shared ride service firms, and the community benefit from either an exclusive concession at the airport or some mechanism to limit the number of shared ride service ehicles that service the airport at any one time.
• Many of these services should be provided by exclusive or as few as possible operators. Excessive competition is harmful to the success of these firms, the airport and the airline traveling public. Too much competition may dilute the service’s effectiveness and quality.
• Companies should be responsible for any violations of their operators.
• These services, when controlled by a concession, should be permitted to stage at the airport curb.
• These services, along with taxicabs, when controlled by a concession, should be permitted to have counters inside the terminal when space permits.
• The minimum levels of insurance of these services should be between 1 and 11/2 million.

You can click here to download a *pdf version of these standards, suitable for printing and distribution.