In Reply to: bluebird from airport posted by spartakle on Monday, 11. January 2010 at 03:38 Bali Time:
for airport and the others are not allowed to pick up here (officially anyway). That's my understanding. The fixed price on the board at the kiosk is a a liitle high compared with a normal taxi trip between the same points. However I have never had a problem with any driver from that group of airport taxis.
This prevents the potential for tourists unfamiliar with the prices and currency being taken advantage of by taxi drivers.
The drivers, of course, only get a percentage of each fare. I don't know the rate but somebody else may. Also they are not allowed to pick up when they have dropped off (officially) and have to run back to the airport empty. Other drivers from general fleets in the tourist area would be very quick to report them if they caught them doing this. They often spend a long time on standby and may well only get a fare to Tuban and then have to queue again for a job so in my opinion it is incorrect of those people who feel ripped off for paying maybe Rp20.000 more to get an airport taxi. That's an estimate of mine only but not far out I don't think.
Of course those who don't want to pay the extra are free to walk their baggage to the arrivals area and pick up transport from a driver dropping off. Maybe he will be driving a van and you can negiotiate a price. For the real budget travellers you can also walk out past the toll booths onto the airport road and there you are free to hail a Bluebird.
All in all I think it is a very good system that works well.