British Airports Authority
BAA also deployed the taxi system at the new built Terminal 5 in 2008. Recently, BAA has renewed and expanded the taxi dispatching system at London Heathrow Airport.
Automatic vehicle identification (AVI)
Taxi transport is an important way of travelling from and to London’s Heathrow Airport. To regulate the terminal traffic on the landside, BAA is using Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) technology. The taxi lanes are equipped with Nedap’s TRANSIT long-range identification readers, which identify the taxi and its driver by reading Nedap’s Booster vehicle identification tag.
TRANSIT is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the 2.45 GHz band. It allows identification of transponders or tags at a distance of up to 10 meters in demanding situations and even at high speeding passage. Nedap’s Booster is an in-vehicle device that exists of a unique vehicle identification number which can be combined with a driver’s personal identification card.
Intelligent taxi dispatching
The Heathrow implementation provides an intelligent taxi dispatching procedure, which is able to reduce waiting times at the rank and allows a smooth, timely flow of taxis across all terminals. This solution meets the high requirements of BAA for a reliable, secure and convenient control of taxi traffic. The taxi dispatch system has been expanded this year and, after being in operation for more than ten years, the first installed readers and transponders have been renewed.
