Nevada regulators seek data on taxi supply

Monday, April 24, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

Convention cabs

The Nevada Taxicab Authority has approved additional temporary medallions for cabs to operate during upcoming conventions and special events.

During the Networld+Interop high-tech convention May 8-12, expected to draw 75,000 people to Las Vegas, the area's 13 cab companies each were authorized to operate an additional four cabs daily between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m.

For the Laughlin River Run, Lucky Cab, Desert Cab and Deluxe Cab, which serve the southern part of Clark County, will be allowed to operate four additional cabs 24 hours from April 26-30.

The Nevada Taxicab Authority is asking local cab companies to provide it with a monthly accounting of "blown shifts" -- time frames when they don't have a cab on the streets when they're certified to do so.

Representatives of Clark County's 13 cab companies verbally committed at last week's Taxicab Authority meeting to provide the information. Most of them, administrator Bob Anselmo said, already offer the data in monthly reports to the authority.

But board member Steve Sisolak said he was concerned that not every company is using the same criteria for calculating blown shifts. In a recent report, for example, Yellow-Checker-Star Cab Co., the area's largest company, reported two blown shifts in a month while ANLV Cab Co., one of the smallest operations, reported 600.

Blown-shift information is important to cab drivers and the Professional Drivers Association has been pressing for monthly reports since the beginning of the year.

Statistics have shown that when the Taxicab Authority grants medallions for additional cabs for each company, revenues increase for the cab company, but revenue per trip declines, meaning drivers make less money. The reason why: Companies must hire additional drivers to drive the extra cabs and the entire revenue pool is divided among more people.

The agency says its primary mission is to provide cab service for the public. In doing that, the Taxicab Authority tries to strike a balance by using statistics to determine thresholds for adding new cabs while not hurting drivers.

The Professional Drivers Association, meanwhile, wants the agency to monitor blown shifts closer so that cab companies don't seek vehicle allocations when they don't need them.

"It is obvious that the drivers' main concern is to assure that only those additional cabs that are truly necessary should be added," said Daryl Poelman, president of the PDA. "And any failure to not take into consideration all facts concerning the accurate necessity of additional allocations may serve only to reduce wages to drivers."

Commissioners have been reluctant to require blown shift information on taxi activity reports because they don't want to micromanage the cab companies.

As for the vast difference in blown shift numbers on the companies, authority staff members said they would provide a form that would clarify what information they want each month.

In other action, the board voted to make temporary medallions issued March 1, 1999, permanent. With the action, there are now 1,468 taxis certified for Clark County streets. The board also tabled action on changing the formula guidelines for determining how many medallions should be allocated.