CAB RAGE: Brisbane taxi drivers revolt after
accusations of police brutality at the Brisbane Airport.
STANDING UP: There were delays for incoming
passengers as Brisbane taxi drivers went on strike
outside Brisbane Airport.
ACCUSATIONS of police violence and anger over unfair traffic infringements have caused hundreds of cab drivers to strike from servicing the Brisbane airport from 8pm Sunday night.
Hundreds of passengers looking to go home were left stranded when drivers from Yellow Cabs and Black and White Cabs refused to work.
The mob of frustrated taxi drivers complained police were moving them on from the ``taxi call forward area'' off Moreton Drive and booking them when they parked against yellow lines while waiting for a spot in the line.
"We don't have a taxi feeder here and we're all suffering here ... cops come down here because we're parking on the yellow line and they're giving us tickets straight away - one guy got a $2100 fine," one taxi driver said.
"And this bloke was in the line waiting to get in the feeder and the policeman asked him to move on and when he said he was waiting the cop got out and grabbed him by the neck and he broke his chain.
"We don't want to keep doing laps because we have to pay for that petrol."
Bank worker Mark Middleton said he was waiting for 40 minutes for a taxi and only saw about five taxis pick people up.
"No one has let us know what is going on," he said.
"I've had to call a friend to come and get me."
Brisbane Airport transport services manager Fiona McKenna urged the drivers to move on and said she would meet with them on Monday.
"We'll talk to them when they're settled down," she said.
"It's traffic infringements and at the end of the day they're the ones disobeying the law."
There was an accident mid-week involving four taxis and a car when cab drivers tried to quickly depart as police approached.
A new taxi parking facility is being built by the Brisbane Airport Corporation, but is not expected to be completed until July.
