Once a week or so, a limo driver named Ahmed Nizam shows up near baggage claim carousel No. 15 at Dulles International Airport, the spot where weary overseas travelers pour out. Dressed in a tie, white shirt and dark slacks, Nizam carries a sign showing someone’s last name.
It’s a ploy.
As passengers wheel their suitcases toward the taxi lines, Nizam makes his play. He asks them if they want a ride, an enticement that violates Dulles’s rules and Virginia law.
“It’s very risky,” he later said. “There are undercover cops.”
Unnoticed by most travelers, a little war plays out daily in the arrivals area at Dulles, home to more than 23 million passengers a year.
On one front, the “hustlers”: limo drivers who pretend to pick up passengers who supposedly had made reservations but are discreetly soliciting fares from fliers on the spot, without authorization.
On the other front, the undercovers: a squad of Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police officers who pose as passengers wearing three-piece suits, toting luggage and speaking foreign languages.
Police say they want to protect passengers from getting ripped off or riding with limo drivers who aren’t properly insured. They also aim to block illegal competition that could hurt two groups: the large number of limo drivers with prearranged reservations to pick up passengers (which is legal); and the Washington Flyer taxi service, a collection of three independent cab companies that holds the airport’s contract to collect travelers.
At airports in some countries, solicitors are customary, legal and, at worst, in-your-face. But at most if not all commercial U.S. airports, the hustlers — as they are frequently labeled by authorities and fellow limo drivers — are prohibited by airport regulations and local or state laws. (In Canada, hustlers are known as “scoopers.”)
In the Washington region, hustlers thrive at Dulles, where international travelers — who might be unaware of stringent American airport taxi culture — are dumped out in one location as easy pickings. The hustling escalates during the summer tourist season.
A legitimate fare from Dulles to Washington should run $60 to $65, but limo drivers, whose sleek Lincoln Town Cars magnify the impression of upscale transport, charge as much as $100, if not more — and sometimes ask unsuspecting tourists to cover their parking lot fees.
Most hustlers are immigrants who say they’re just trying to piece together a decent existence. Many times, they have a reserved pickup and don’t need to solicit. But they still skirt the law, even if it means risking their livelihoods and facing the opprobrium of fellow immigrants who play by the book.
Drivers say that even in convention-heavy Washington, it’s difficult to make a living: Before the recession, they could accumulate enough daily fares for annual incomes that reached $60,000. Now, many drivers — who are often stuck with monthly finance payments for their Town Cars — say they make $30,000 to $40,000.
Cost-conscious travelers are axing black-car services from their budgets, opting for Washington Flyer cabs or for more economy with blue Super Shuttle vans.
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