ORLANDO, Florida. – During the busiest times of the year, passengers seeking a ride at Orlando International Airport often wait longer than usual.

However, Uber drivers serving MCO said the wait time was unnecessarily long as their wait times – to get in and out of the airport's Transportation Network Companies (TNC) waiting areas – were often unnecessarily long, especially at night when so many flights arrived one after the other.

The two rideshare waiting areas at the airport, the North TNC area and the South TNC area, are the only locations within Uber's geo-mapping where drivers can join the Uber driver app queue to pick up passengers.

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News 6 first reported on the dangerous congestion in and around the north parking lot in December, as well as the underutilization of the south parking lot due to poor cell reception. When drivers can't get a cell signal, they can't use the driver app.

Uber driver and owner of Evolved Media, Scott Ellis, captured video of what he described as “absolute chaos” in the North TNC parking lot. He said he was concerned for his safety and the safety of other drivers trying to navigate the traffic jam.

Six months later, Ellis said the problem is just as bad, if not worse. He captured new video of an even longer traffic jam heading into the North TNC parking lot. His video showed MCO workers directing traffic throughout the parking lot.

“In some ways it has gotten even worse, with most nights being total chaos,” Ellis said.

News 6 interviewed Uber drivers sitting at a table in the TNC South parking lot playing dominoes. Several said they sat there for hours because of the weak cell signal. Every time they lost connection to their cell phone provider, their place in the Uber ride queue was reset.

What impact does this have on passengers looking for a ride?

“You have to wait,” said an Uber driver named Irvin. “You have to wait a long time because there is no way to get out of here. That's why we decided to park here. [in the South TNC lot] even though we have no signal, because it is easier to get out here. Over there [the North TNC lot] it's jammed.”

Ellis said an MCO passenger waited 50 minutes at the terminal before being picked up.

Nirav, another Uber driver waiting in the South TNC parking lot, showed News 6 his driver stats: no rides in three hours.

“It [his cell phone] shows 5G, but the signal is really bad out here,” Nirav said.

Despite the poor reception, Nirav prefers the South TNC waiting car park to the overcrowded North TNC waiting car park.

“Because it is full and there is always a problem, there is no parking,” said Nirav.

Several drivers, including Ellis, said they had to switch their cell phone provider to Verizon because it was the only one that provided a reasonably usable signal in the South TNC parking lot.

Angela Starke, MCO's senior vice president of public affairs & community relations, said the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) continues to work to improve coverage.

“GOAA staff, in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration, have been working with wireless carriers to improve coverage in the cell parking lots,” Starke said. “At the same time, our IT team successfully deployed a Wi-Fi infrastructure in January by strategically placing four Wi-Fi access points, effectively covering the TNC parking area to the south. These access points are interconnected, ensuring seamless Wi-Fi signal delivery. This improvement should help rideshare drivers with mobile apps and enable Wi-Fi calling.”

Irvin said he noticed the Wi-Fi repeaters, but the signal kept dropping out, resetting his place in the Uber pickup line.

“They installed WiFi that doesn't work, it goes on and off all the time,” Irvin said, pointing to the repeaters next to him on the South TNC site. “MCO's WiFi doesn't help. There are two bars [displayed on his cell phone] and look at that antenna there!”

Starke said there are agreements with two mobile operators to improve the signal.

“Currently, in coordination with the FAA, we have agreements in place with two of the three major wireless carriers to improve coverage in the cell parking lots,” Starke said. “This would be a combination of small cell towers and antennas in the south and north parking lots. The benefit is that this improvement in cell service should extend to TNC's south parking lot. However, this is not guaranteed. Once the project is complete, we will review this.”

Drivers said there used to be a third option to wait and queue for rides on MCO property in Uber's geomapping: a smaller parking lot near the North TNC parking lot. That parking lot is now closed.

“The TNCs were notified in March that the expansion parking lot on Bear Road would be closed (in preparation for construction of a hangar in that area),” Starke said. “Please note that this expansion parking lot was always intended to be temporary and we communicated this in December. The TNC parking lot near B-52 Memorial Park is still active. Orlando Police and our operations team are monitoring the TNC parking lots as travel volume has increased significantly post-MCO. Safety is always a priority.”

Uber spokesman Javi Correoso said Uber drivers are required to “follow their rules.”

“We were instructed by MCO in April not to allow trips from the third parking lot,” Correoso said. “We are giving drivers information on how many drivers are in the MCO queue and how long they are expected to wait so they can make the most of their time and come at quieter times.”

MCO charges Uber drivers $7 per airport pickup. Uber claimed the fee is the highest in the country of all airports served by Uber, but MCO pointed out that the fee is only charged for pickups, not drop-offs.

“In May alone, TNCs completed 271,542 pickup trips, with Uber taking the majority of those trips; in the same month, TNCs dropped off 310,185 trips,” Starke said. “If the $7 fee was split evenly between pickup and drop-off trips, GOAA would certainly collect more. Currently, the $7 fee is not the highest TNC fee in the country as airports in Florida are not allowed to charge a drop-off fee. With this high volume of traffic to/from the airport, we have had to increase our traffic monitoring staff to manage the impact of heavy traffic, especially along the curbs of Terminal A and B. The $7 pickup fee helps offset these costs as we make every effort to continue to provide choices to passengers at MCO. In addition, we are always looking for ways to collaborate with our airport partners and leverage technology that helps meet our passengers’ expectations.”

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