A temporary solution has been agreed to the taxi problem in Marketgait and a trade leader has urged all drivers to follow the new guidance.
The council’s taxi liaison group discussed the fallout from the police crackdown on cabbies stopping to pick up and drop off customers on the inner ring road, which is an urban clearway.
A particular problem had arisen outside the G Casino, and as a result Dundee Taxi Association boycotted the thoroughfare over the Easter weekend.
Chairman Graeme Stephen said the action hit drivers in the pocket as well as forcing customers to make their way to points off Marketgait to find taxis.
He hoped the meeting of the liaison group involving council, police and trade representatives would find a way forward.
Mr Stephen said the meeting had been constructive a temporary solution had emerged which he hoped would succeed until a permanent solution could be put in place.
“What has been agreed is that a taxi rank will be set up round the corner from the casino in Hawkhill and cabs will be able to wait there from 11pm to 6am,” he said. “The rank will be next to the zig-zag markings, it will be big enough for several cars and it will tail round into Brown Street.
“There will be a pole erected at the rank and there will be a sign at the casino with an arrow directing customers to it just 50 yards away.
“We think this is a good idea and it should be in place by this weekend. The more permanent solution being looked at is creating a bay into the pavement outside the casino where a couple of taxis would sit and that bay would be fed by taxis in the new rank round the corner in Hawkhill.
“There might even be a taxi marshal to control this area.
“On the other side of Marketgait where the nightclubs are, there are plans to reverse the direction of traffic on South Ward Road so that taxis could queue there and then get straight on to Marketgait which they can’t do at present.
“This would happen after Dundee House is finished and South Ward Road is reopened.”
Mr Stephen appealed to taxi drivers to make the arrangement work.
“I urge them not to stop to pick up or drop off passengers in Marketgait but to use the new rank round the corner in Hawkhill,” he said.