Additions to taxicab fleets are made permanent

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

Over the past year, Clark County's 16 taxicab companies were each allowed to add a total of 13 vehicles to their fleets on a temporary basis to accommodate a growing number of tourists and new residents in Southern Nevada.

On Tuesday, the Nevada Taxicab Authority voted unanimously to make those temporary additions permanent, meaning that 208 new taxis are officially allowed on Southern Nevada roads. By approving the plan, the board turned down requests from several companies to add even more cabs.

Cabdrivers, who bristle at suggestions that more taxis be added because they say the extra cars cut into each driver's income, applauded the move.

Under the plan that was approved, cab companies will be permitted to add four vehicles that are unrestricted in the time and area in which they can operate, six vehicles that have time restrictions for operation, two vehicles that have geographical restrictions and one vehicle per company exclusively serving disabled riders.

Currently, there are 2,015 "medallions," or permits for cabs. Since some of those are restricted by time and location of operation, the Taxicab Authority says there is the equivalency of 1,650 cabs in Southern Nevada.

But some companies sought more vehicles, with requests ranging from six to 10 new medallions per company.

The debate on adding more cabs comes at a time when ridership in Clark County is at an all-time high. A record monthly high number of trips of 2.33 million recorded in March was overshadowed by 2.38 million trips in May. The Taxicab Authority reported a record April total of 2.2 million and a record June of 2 million trips.

For the first half of 2005, ridership is up 3 percent to 13.1 million and average revenue per shift is up 2.6 percent to $255.44, thanks in part to rate increases.

But cab drivers point out that congestion on city streets has reduced the number of trips they can make per shift. The average number of trips per shift has fallen 2.8 percent to 23.27 over the past year.

Representatives of McCarran International Airport and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority have told the Taxicab Authority that they want more cabs available during peak times at their facilities. While taxi regulators have responded by relaxing geographic restrictions on some cabs during peak hours, drivers say they still get tangled in the congestion of airport and Las Vegas Convention Center cab lines.

Cab companies and drivers notoriously are on opposing sides on the debate over adding more cabs. In testimony Tuesday, several company executives said the record ridership statistics and trends justified additional medallions.

But several drivers wearing T-shirts proclaiming "More trips per shift" and "No more cabs," told the board that additional cabs on the roads would hurt their livelihoods.

Jay Nady, owner of A-Cab, a geographically restricted cab company that can only pick up riders west of Interstate 15, has a different problem -- more demand from steady customers than his company can handle. And Yellow-Checker-Star, the city's largest cab company group, has had problems hiring enough qualified drivers to man the vehicles it is authorized to have.

Nady suggested that by adding more cabs throughout the city that drivers would be forced by the congestion to look to off-Strip customers to serve.

Yellow-Checker-Star operations manager Bill Shranko, who won cheers from drivers because his company did not seek an additional allocation of cabs, said his company would probably be able to add more vehicles as more drivers are hired and the company catches up to its authorized allotment.

Taxicab Authority Chairman Richard Land said it would be helpful if companies that have an overallotment of medallions, like Yellow-Checker-Star, could sublease a portion of its allocation to companies like A-Cab, which have unfulfilled demand.

But Land was told that current taxicab regulations don't allow such subleases and that every company is entitled to an equal number of medallions when the board approves additional vehicles.