Aresep Investigates Airport Taxis
The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) has begun an investigation into the "marias" (taxi meters) of airport taxis, the orange taxis parked outside the airport, who provide the exclusive service by Taxi Unidos.

The airport taxis operate different from the regular taxis identified by their red vehicles, however, come under the of the Aresep, and the regulating authority.

One of the points of interest to the regulating authority are reports that the airport taxis are not using taximeters for the fares and are charging fares in dollars when in fact they are obligated to use a taxi meter and charge fares in colones, as stipulated in the latest tariff review of last November.

The investigation stems from a complaint lodged by a user who went to the Aresep when the airport taxi he hired did not use his traximeter.

Other complaints by customers is that sharp increase in the fares, which is some cases is more than 50%.

In one reported case, Pablo Sauma complained to the Aresep of the cost of his ride from the San José airport terminal to San Pedro Montes de Oca had gone from us$15 (¢7.811) to us$22 (¢11.456).

The complaint was not only for the rise in the cost of the service but also that the fare was charged in dollars and not in colones, as it should be.

The Aresep defends the rise in the fares, saying it approved the increased considering the costs of operations provided by Taxi Unidos.

However, the Aresep said it has begun a series of "operativos" - spot checks - to ensure that the airport taxis use the meters instead of a flat rate charge and will continue the operativos until the problem is solved.

The airport taxis come under "base de operación especial" (special operations" and contrary to the regular taxi service, were licenses are issued to individuals, the airport taxis are operated by a corporation.

According to Mario Bogantes, general manager for Taxi Unidos, all the airport taxi units have taxi meters.

Bogantes explained that  is the customer prepays fare before leaving the airport - Taxi Unidos has a stand at the west exit of the San José airport - a fare refund is given to a customer if the taxi meter marks a lower fare than that already paid.

Bogantes added that the fare by taxi meter usually is higher than the prepaid fare because of traffic congestion and defended the fare increase, saying that all their vehicles, minus 3, are all 2006 and 2007 models.

For her part, the vice-minister of Transportes, Viviana Martín, said that they are carrying out a legal study the operating conditions at the airport, since the law calls for all taxis to be individually owned.

The vice-minister added that a group of 25 taxis are requesting a similar airport taxi operation at the Daniel Oduber international airport in Liberia.