Part 4 of four
The First Run and the Last
A shuttle day has two edges. Almost everything that goes wrong with off airport parking happens at one of them, and both are askable about in a single telephone call.
The four questions
| What this part buys | Coverage at the hours when a driver is least able to improvise, which are also the hours that cost an operator the most to staff. |
|---|---|
| What makes it move | The airline schedule. A field with a heavy early bank needs vans running before it, and that first hour is expensive labor. |
| What to ask when you call | What time the first van leaves the lot and what time the last one collects, on the days you are actually traveling. |
| What cannot be promised about it | That a van will be there for a delayed arrival at one in the morning. Some operators do it and some do not, and this desk states which rather than assuming. |
The morning edge
The first bank of departures out of this field is early, and a driver aiming at it needs to be in a van before most people are awake.
Ask what time the first van leaves the lot. Then work backwards through your own morning honestly: parking, unloading, waiting for the van, the ride, and the walk at the other end. Most people who miss a flight because of parking got the last of those five wrong, and the van interval is the one they did not ask about.
The evening edge
Harder, because it is the one you cannot plan around.
Two questions, and ask both:
- What time does the last scheduled run collect?
- What happens if I land after it?
The second answer sorts operators into three groups: those who run on demand into the night, those who have a call number and a wait, and those where the honest answer is a taxi. All three are legitimate businesses. Only one of them is a good idea if your flight is the last one in.
Why the edges cost what they cost
Because staffing an hour that carries four passengers costs the same as staffing an hour that carries forty.
A lot that runs a full early schedule is paying for a driver, a van and fuel across a thin hour because the alternative is losing every customer with an early flight. That is a real cost and it lands in the price of everybody's space, including the people who fly at noon.
Understanding that makes an apparently odd price make sense, which is the whole point of this site being arranged the way it is.
What this desk does
Asks both questions of every operator it quotes, and prints both answers. Where an operator gives a vague answer, the quote gives the vague answer rather than tidying it, because a tidied answer at one in the morning is worse than no answer.
Practical
- Get both times in writing, for the days you are actually traveling.
- Weekend schedules differ from weekday ones at most operations. Ask about your day, not about a typical day.
- If you land late, plan for the answer you were given rather than the one you hoped for.