I'm just going to come out and say it. The Ft Lauderdale International Airport Cell Phone Waiting Lot is a shame.

I have to opportunity to regularly  pick up passengers coming into Palm Beach PBI, Orlando MCO and Ft Lauderdale FLL

Both PBI and MCO cell phone waiting lots are very accommodating. They both have a convenience store/gas station/Duncan Donuts with clean restrooms, and they're large with ample parking. I've never had any problem finding a place to park.  PBI's CPWL even has a car wash.

By comparison, FLL's cell phone waiting lot is like Purgatory, except that Purgatory probably has enough room for all who enter,.... and restrooms.

Once you've found the FLL cell phone waiting lot, you will notice that there's no place to park. I didn't physically count the number of parking spaces, but I'm guess 40... 50 at the most. That sounds like a lot (no pun intended) but when you have multiple inbound flights with 100 passengers each arriving every hour, suddenly, 50 spaces seems woefully inadequate.

The postage stamp size of FLL's CPWL is it's first, but not worst design flaw. Once you've entered and discovered that all of the spaces are taken, you must exit the lot. The exit goes to one place only. It goes to the terminal where throngs of vehicles are jostling for their curbside positions to pick up their passengers, and then weaving back through the crowd toward the exit. Now, you also have those who wanted to patiently wait for their passengers thrown into the clusterflock. There is no other way to get back in the queue. You have now become part of the problem the CPWL should have been designed alleviate.

This situation makes the CPWL superfluous, if not almost absolutely useless. There's a 20 minute maximum waiting period. 20 minutes is about how long the average passenger to deplane, find his luggage, and exit the terminal curbside. This works out well if you arrive later than the flight, and if the flight is on time. Seems like, maybe, someone realized how poor this design was and, in a cheap attempt to mitigate the situation, they decided to offer free parking in the short term lot.... for the first 20 minutes. Seriously, people? Is the airport and City of Ft Lauderdale really that hard up for quarters?

Give up the first whole hour for free. That would fix 90% of your mistake. And, if losing out on that extra $800+/-? per day is the make it or break it point, then you should all commit Seppuku, and let someone with an IQ over 70 take over.

"You know, in certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords." ~ The Operative

Last of all, is the lack of facilities. Some of us drive quite a distance to and from Ft Lauderdale. I'm pretty sure that if I relieved myself behind bush, I would at the very least, be ticketed. Park a damned portable toilet close by. Hell, make it so it costs a quarter, and you'll more than make up for the financial demise of the $800 shortfall from offering a full hour of free parking.

If I was WaWa, I would invest in an acre near the FLL entrance and advertise free 1 hour airport parking. Heck. You guys could make upward to a whole $800 a day.

Here's what I do: I've given up on Ft Lauderdale's Cell Phone Waiting Lot. I find a safe looking convenience store/gas station with a clean restroom, and try to be inconspicuous until my passengers call to say they're curbside with the baggage. 

Bonus tip: Ask them which door number they're standing in front of as well.