Eagle River Shuttle owner John Kersbergen is the middle of what he calls a long-standing dispute over airport passenger service. File Photo

A popular Eagle River shuttle service faces a challenge from a powerful Anchorage taxi group over passenger pickups at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

The Anchorage Taxicab Permit Owners Association claims that Eagle River Shuttle owner John Kersbergen is undercutting them at the airport due to his unique situation.

The 53-year-old former Eagle River resident is the only municipal taxi permit owner – out of 173 – who is also licensed to run a shuttle service. This means he has access to both taxi and shuttle lines at the airport.

Kersbergen acquired a taxi permit, he said, because there wasn't enough business in Chugiak-Eagle River to sustain a shuttle or cab company alone.

Eagle River Shuttle picks up locals headed for the airport in three shuttle vans. A separate yellow seven-passenger van picks up taxi fares.

"A driver can make money – drop somebody from Eagle River off at the airport, then get in the airport taxi line, which I couldn't do with the shuttle," he said.

But Kersbergen's ability to move between taxi and shuttle lines is being by questioned taxi permit owners. The taxi group has been relatively quiet since 2008, when it rallied successfully against citywide deregulation.

The association last month sent a letter to members condemning Eagle River Shuttle's use of a taxi van to serve shuttle customers.

"This involves the taxicab van using the shuttle space at the airport and often butting into the taxicab line to pickup shuttle service customers," states the letter, which also lists five other areas of concern for the group. "ATPOA is working with the dispatch companies to stop this practice, which is obviously unfair to taxicab chauffeurs."

Several officials with the taxi permit owners association did not return calls for further comment.

The issue is expected to come up at the July 26 meeting of the Anchorage Transportation Commission. Anchorage municipal code regulates taxi and shuttle service under Title 11.

Transportation inspector Brent Fraser was not available for comment.

Kersbergen's service is popular: He sent out letters about the meeting to 2,000 clients who have used his service more than once.

Eagle River resident Sheila Braeutigam says she relies on the shuttle.

Braeutigam works at the Military Family Readiness Center on Elmendorf Air Force Base. She travels often. She relies on Eagle River Shuttle, she said, for reasonable prices and reliable service.

"Flights leave at such ungodly hours out of Anchorage. He is always there," she said. "He comes picks us up at the door, helps us with baggage, and then we call and he's there to pick us up at the airport."

Kersbergen said he pays $800 per month to Alaska Yellow Dispatch, which connects him with customers.

He said he is concerned that the taxi association is pressuring his dispatch service to stop doing business with him.

Regina Doyle, officer manager for Alaska Yellow Dispatch, said the company has heard from taxicab operators that they would like to see a more defined separation between Kersbergen's shuttle and taxi airport pickups.

But Doyle added Alaska Yellow Dispatch has not "come to a consensus or agreed" with the association on anything related to the airport dispute.

Alaska Yellow Dispatch is not an association member.

At issue: the lucrative stretches of sidewalk at the airport's busy south terminal where taxis wait in lines for passengers who pay a fare based on how long the trip takes.

Shuttle drivers – who charge a flat rate, usually for pre-arranged pickups – generally fetch their clients from a separate area.

It's cheaper for, say, three Chugiak residents to pile into an Eagle River Shuttle van for a $45 trip home than pay for a cab ride.

Kersbergen said he's heard grumbling from taxi permit owners since 2002, when the former cab driver started his airport shuttle.

Now Kersbergen has his own taxi permit, which he bought for $150,000 last year and just started using a few months ago.

Kersbergen said he is doing nothing illegal. He does use the taxi line to pick up customers, he said, but that's with the blessing of the airport, and it's something he did long before obtaining the taxi permit.

The airport "doesn't have a problem" with Eagle River Shuttle, said Cary Webb, landside operations manager.

Webb said there was a prior complaint that Kersbergen's taxi was making pickups out of the cab line but that was cleared up.

"They saw the cab, assumed it was out of sequence because it was in the commercial lane where shuttles are generally at," he said. "He doesn't necessarily have to be in the cab lane because at that time he's operating as a shuttle representative."

Kersbergen said his airport pickups account for 90 percent of his business. If he the association forces him out, he would be out of business altogether.

"The cab owners, these guy are millionaires," Kersbergen said. "I own one permit, these permits are worth $150,000 each, some of them own 10, 20 ... it's got to the point now that these guys are involved."

This article published in The Alaska Star on Wednesday, June 30, 2010.