High-tech taxi-dispatch system fails at JFK airport

If you were counting on a new taxi-dispatch system at Kennedy Airport to ease lines anytime soon, think again.

Technical glitches have already put the brakes on the project, at least until mid-December.

“We need it! Right now, everything is with a piece of paper,” frustrated driver Khuram Mahmud, 36, told The Post on Monday. “It would be more efficient. It’s not working right now.They say maybe in a few months. I hope so.”

The Port Authority started testing the electronic equipment — for two real-time taxi-line tracking systems — at the airport in September to make it easier for passengers to connect with cabbies.

The system requires each cabby who drives into the holding lot to attach an RFID tag to the windshield, according to a Taxi and Limousine Commission letter to the airport-advocacy group Global Gateway Alliance. The special tag and software in the cab then use Wi-Fi and radio signals to send data back and forth between the vehicle and dispatchers. It’s a high-tech way to communicate when cabs leave the airport with passengers — and when others are needed to pick people up.

Under the current system, dispatchers radio for more drivers, and the hacks are then given a slip of paper before picking up passengers. But the antiquated system is rife with corruption. In March, 16 dispatchers were arrested at JFK for taking cash from drivers to leapfrog to the front of the line to get fares.

Gateway Group, the California-based contractor behind the new system, launched a similar one at Newark Airport earlier this year to help with Super Bowl crowds. It also plans to start an electronic program at La Guardia after JFK.

But Gateway acknowledged to The Post it has struggled with the size of Kennedy, as well as the airport’s cellphone service and the city’s unique taxi system.

“There have been some technical issues with the start-up at JFK, and the agency is working with its partners to ensure they are corrected and the system is fully operational as soon as possible,” PA spokesman Ron Marsico said.

Dispatchers said that the testing was going smoothly last week when there were fewer passengers, but that the program couldn’t handle crowds of people over the weekend. They said the program was sending cabbies out without any order — making other drivers feel as if they were being skipped.

“It’s very bad at the terminal here because the dispatcher has a big line, and he has to scan every car” under the old system,” said Hussein Hamed, 41. “And, you know, it takes a lot of time.”

The program is being halted until at least early December, Gateway said.

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