IMAGINE for a moment you are an overseas visitor landing for the first time on Australian soil at Avalon airport, something that will happen with regularity in the near future. After clearing immigration, customs and collecting your luggage, you walk out and tell a cab driver at the head of the rank you want to go to Lara. He refuses, it's not worth his time.

Or the reverse scenario, you ask to be taken to Anglesea and find yourself witnessing brawling, foul-mouthed drivers desperate for that extra dollar and having complete disregard for the spectacle they are creating and the impression they're making on visitors to this area.

Yet this seems to be a regular occurrence at Avalon Airport.

There have been reports of punch-ups, verbal abuse and pushing between drivers, and drivers and airport staff.

Victorian Taxi Directorate officials have confirmed to the Geelong Advertiser  they have received nine reports about driver behaviour at the airport in the past three years.

But airport manager Tim Anderson says more than 30 have been formally submitted.

One Geelong taxi driver, Dominic Villarosa, says he was hit by another driver in two separate incidents, while a father of two young children was refused a cab ride because he wanted to go to Bell Post Hill and the driver only wanted a Melbourne fare.

The fighting and abuse is deplorable enough but now drivers are touting for fares, walking up and down the queues of travellers intent on the most distant destination.

It is only a minority of drivers but touting for and cherry-picking jobs is against taxi industry rules.

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder warned yesterday the Victorian Taxi Directorate needed to stamp out rogue behaviour before there was a tragedy.

"If it's not stopped at Avalon, you will find people with private cars walking straight past the taxi drivers and into the airport lounge with blank placards indicating they can pick anyone up."

Tim Anderson has called for the Geelong Taxi Network to immediately and permanently place a full-time officer at the Avalon Airport taxi rank.

"These reports are an embarrassment to Geelong and this region. It is a disgraceful situation," he says.

It certainly is and it cannot and must not be allowed to continue.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2007/08/03/5859_opinion.html