Las Vegas Taxi Cab Companies - The arrival of ride-sharing services is forcing the Las Vegas taxi industry to clean up its exorbitant fees.
With the arrival of Uber and Lyft in Nevada last fall and a state audit that accused regulators of collecting $47 million annually in excessive fees from taxis, the powerful Las Vegas taxi industry and its regulators are in the hot seat, facing a Recommendation that the agency be split up and its duties transferred to another entity.
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Nevada lawmakers met this week to discuss the fate of the Nevada Taxi Authority, which regulates taxis in the Las Vegas area, and to get its board of directors' side of the story. Lawmakers are delaying any decision on whether to abolish the agency until a second audit, funded by the taxi company, is complete, but the meeting revealed how taxis are struggling to keep up with new technology and increased competition.
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"Transportation is changing. Technology is changing. The public now has a lot of options," said Bruce Breslow, director of the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, an umbrella organization for taxi regulators. "It's a tough industry. It's tough for the drivers now. It's tough for the old owners ... and it's going to get tougher."
Nevada opened the door in September to ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft, which have signed up about 19,000 drivers so far. Clark County, home to Las Vegas and most of Nevada's population, has about 10,000 taxi drivers, and state officials say companies find it harder to recruit drivers because of the competition.
The latest upheaval occurred a few weeks ago, when government critics attacked the taxi authority and recommended transferring its duties to the agency that regulates taxis throughout the rest of the country. Among other things, the scathing review criticizes the agency for introducing a credit card fee of $3 per transaction, on top of taxi fares that hover around $17 per unit on average in Las Vegas.
Nevada Sen. James Stallmeier echoed the sentiment, saying the Nevada Legislature approved the rule six years ago as a way to cover card processing when credit cards were perhaps less ubiquitous than they are now. According to the audit, taxis take away about 27 million dollars a year in commissions.
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But the fee seems increasingly outdated to a customer base accustomed to using their credit card account without fees to pay for Lyft or Uber fares. The taxi drivers themselves appeared at a Tuesday meeting with lawmakers to complain about the fees, saying they don't get a cut of that money and customers forget to tip the driver, assuming the fee is a tip.
Legislators also drew attention to another way that taxis are behind their completion. The Taxi Authority does not offer customers a way to rate their taxi driver online — a popular feature on the Uber and Lyft apps that encourages good service.
"It's like walking into a Bernie Miller compound where everyone is still working on four copies of the paper," Breslow said, referring to the 1970s TV show. "Modernization is a priority."
The taxi industry lost its battle in the Nevada Legislature last year to subject ride-hailing companies to the strictest regulations it faces, including limits on the number of taxis on the road at any one time.
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Taxicab control board members, who seemed a little shaken by Tuesday's audit, defended their board work and argued the authority as an independent agency to keep only with Clark County taxis. She highlights how its taxi supply management keeps the streets tidy when crowds of visitors come to Las Vegas for big events, such as big boxing matches.
"I think it works well the way it is," said Nevada Taxi Authority President Ilina Drobkin. "I'm very proud of what we did."
But change seems inevitable for Las Vegas cab drivers, who for decades have been able to make a comfortable living transporting millions of tourists a few kilometers from the airport to the strip. In the middle of Tuesday's hearings, Barslow dropped a stark reality check: In four or five years, there will be no taxi drivers - only self-driving taxis.
This article was written by Michelle Rindles of the Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publishing network.
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Photo credit: In this Feb. 9, 2016 photo, a taxi drives along Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas. The emergence of Uber and Lyft in Nevada last fall has thrown the powerful Las Vegas taxi industry and its regulators into upheaval, as the taxi industry's $3 per ride credit card processing fee and the lack of an online rating system suddenly appeared to be frowned upon. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Media and PR Delta Air Lines top travel TV ad spend so far in 2022 Taxi driver enters taxi pickup lane at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 2017. (Las Vegas Journal)
Taxis sit in the Nellis Cab Company parking lot Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Las Vegas. The number of passengers in taxis has decreased by 97% since the outbreak of the Corona virus. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bizutesfaye
Passengers arriving at McCarran International Airport take a taxi Thursday, May 7, 2020, in Las Vegas. The number of passengers in taxis has decreased by 97% since the outbreak of the Corona virus. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bizutesfaye
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The demand for taxis in Las Vegas has decreased since the resort corridor was closed due to the coronavirus.
Taxi drivers in the Las Vegas Valley fell 97 percent from February to April, according to the Taxi Authority.
In February, Southern Nevada recorded 1.1 million rides provided by 16 taxi companies in the region. That dropped to 28,736 in April when all major Las Vegas Strip resorts and non-essential businesses throughout the Valley were closed for the entire month.
The effects of the coronavirus could also be seen in March, with passenger numbers down 55 percent compared to February, down to 499,926 trips when the initial stay-at-home recommendations were announced on March 17.
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Ten of the 16 taxi brands offer service, while the other six have voluntarily and temporarily stopped their activities, according to the Taxi Authority. Seven of the 10 brands operate under the YCS & Newcab umbrella, while Desert Cab, Western Cab and Lucky Cab operate the other three.
"Despite the deep decline in monthly trips, taxi drivers continue to provide hundreds of essential rides for passengers who travel to grocery stores, pharmacies and medical appointments across the Valley every day," said Taxi Authority Director Scott Whitmore. "Taxi service remains available to older passengers and regular customers through ride-hailing apps and easy-to-use online booking platforms."
By comparison, the only trackable ridership figure for ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft comes from McCarran International Airport, because the Transportation Authority doesn't require them to file monthly reports.
McCarran's figures show that the decline in travel at the airport in April fell by 97 percent compared to a year earlier, from 361,001 trips in April 2019 to 10,363 last month.
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YCS & New Cab director Jonathan Schwartz said the industry has never seen anything like what the coronavirus pandemic has caused. Schwartz said he had to lay off most of the company's 1,800 drivers, with fewer than 50 on Valley roads on any given day.
"No one declares that their business income is almost zero," Schwartz said. "Unfortunately, we've had to relieve most of our drivers until there's some kind of business renewal. There's almost no traffic on the Strip and almost no traffic in and out of McCarran's."
The Taxi Authority has issued protocols and instructions for taxi operators, including the requirement to disinfect high-touch surfaces after each transport, thorough cleaning after each shift and wearing a face covering during passenger transport.
"As our city reopens as the world's premier tourist destination, it is our commitment that the Las Vegas taxi industry will be among the safest transportation options available," Whitmore said.
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With no real guidance on when casino properties can come back online and what restrictions will be in place early on, Schwartz said he is paying attention to what the resort corridor is doing to make sure its brands are ready to operate at the appropriate levels. when the time comes.
"It will be based on demand," Schwartz said. "We're slowly bringing people back as demand dictates. There's no way to know until we start seeing numbers. A lot of that is measured in part by casino bookings. We're watching it very, very closely. . Any information we can get we try to use for staffing needs."
It's hard to know what lasting impact the drop in visitors will have on the taxi industry, but with ridership already affected by the advent of ride-hailing services, it's likely to be a struggle, Schwartz said.
"It's a fight for everyone's survival," Schwartz said. "If business doesn't come back soon, we will all be in a fight for survival."
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