Hartsfield-Jackson International is looking for a company to manage shuttle traffic and dispatch taxis at the airport, a contract that has garnered much attention because of the possibilities for a conflict of interest.
Right now, the company that handles ground transportation curbside management is A-National Limousine, a limo operator that also has run shuttles between the airport and the city of Atlanta.
That, according to a 2012 airport study by a consulting firm, led "to a perception of, if not a real, conflict of interest."
The airport is rebidding the contract as the current contract nears expiration.
The curbside management company oversees commercial ground transportation operators, including taxis, limousines, shared ride shuttles, hotel shuttles, off-airport parking shuttles, charter buses and the airport’s terminal-to-terminal shuttle service. One concern is that a company could favor its own shuttles or vehicles over others when managing traffic at the curbside and handling customers.
“Typically, if a third-party contractor is used to manage curbs or dispatching/starter operations, they are not also offering transportation services in the form of service providers,” according to consulting firm Ricondo & Associates, which conducted the study for the airport. A limo coalition raised similar concerns.
Yet the city’s new solicitation for the contract does not bar ground transportation providers at the airport from winning the curbside management contract.
Hartsfield-Jackson spokeswoman Elise Durham said in an e-mail that “the process will be transparent and without bias.”
Airport ground transportation director Tracy Harrison acknowledged there are no specific restrictions to keep ground transportation operators from competing for the contract. “We will keep the integrity of the procurement process,” Harrison said.
Back in 2012, Hartsfield-Jackson began reviewing the operations after its ground transportation manager was put on leave amid an investigation, then resigned.
Ground transportation operators had also raised concerns about contracts at Hartsfield-Jackson held by A-National Limousine, whose CEO Darrell Anderson is a longtime family friend of then-Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
After the airport study's findings highlighted the potential conflict of interest, Felicia Moore, who was then a city council member and is now city council president, proposed a resolution to cancel the curbside management contract held by A-National.
But a council committee voted to reject the resolution, in part because council members were advised they don’t have grounds to cancel the contract. They were told by an attorney for the city that city code does not bar so-called “organizational” conflicts of interest between two companies.
