Uber, Lyft say they did well during CES — they just won’t say how well

Ask the ride-hailing companies how they did during CES and they'll say they did well. They just won't say how well.

Ask the taxi companies how they did and they'll say it was tough, but it's encouraging to them that drivers who sought greener pastures as ride-hailing drivers are coming back to the fold.

And ask the customers how they felt and you'll get mixed responses: Some were ecstatic that Uber and Lyft were available at CES and others were lamenting how badly they were price-gouged.

The mixed bag of transportation experiences for the 170,000-plus CES delegates in town last week, the first big head-to-head test between the taxi companies and transportation network companies, sounds like it ended in a draw.

"We did really, really well," said Lyft's Las Vegas General Manager Yacob Girma. "On Thursday, we had four times the normal average number of rides for a Thursday."

But the company wouldn't disclose how many rides Lyft provides on an average Thursday.

"We don't share that for competitive reasons," Girma said.

It was similarly vague at Uber.

"It was extremely successful for us," said Taylor Patterson, a spokeswoman for Uber. "We saw a lot of demand and a lot of enthusiasm."

Uber officials said they are "still analyzing the numbers," but that the number of rides was up 40 percent over the previous week.

How many did they have the previous week? No response.

But Patterson did say the average wait time for a customer was under four minutes and that 20 percent of Uber's Las Vegas trips either started or ended at either McCarran International Airport or the Las Vegas Convention Center.

McCarran, at least, had some numbers to share but it's impossible to project what they mean compared to ride-hailing service over the entire city.

In the three days leading up to CES, there were 37,081 passenger pickups by taxis at McCarran and 6,242 pickups for Uber and Lyft combined. Those include pickups at both Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.

On the four days of CES, there were 47,751 taxi pickups and 7,488 ride-hailing pickups.

On Sunday, the day after CES ended, there were 11,817 pickups by taxis and 1,481 by ride-hailing. There are no statistics for airport drop-offs.

Taxi pickups were 6 percent, 9 percent and 14 percent ahead of the first three days of CES last year, but 21 percent below the final day of the convention. The day-after total was 68 percent ahead of last year. Airport officials theorize that the disparity in numbers between the last day and the day after the end were attributable to the show running Tuesday through Friday in 2015 and Wednesday through Saturday this year.

This was the first CES ride-hailing companies were allowed to operate at McCarran. Representatives of the Consumer Technology Association pressed for the legalization of ride-hailing companies in Nevada and generally, CES attendees were happy they were there.

Although the numbers were good at McCarran, Brent Bell, president of Bell Transportation, which operates two Southern Nevada taxi companies said overall CES numbers were "a little below flat" for cab companies.

The reason, he said, was that cab companies couldn't persuade many of their drivers to work extra shifts on their days off and drive cabs the company had medallions for.

Bell said he believed many drivers who didn't work their days off instead worked as independently contracted drivers for Uber or Lyft. Because of the prospect of drivers making more money during so-called "surge pricing" periods.

When demand for rides is high, Uber and Lyft can inflate their prices in an effort to increase the demand for drivers.

Uber and Lyft won't say how high pricing got during CES or how long it lasted, but customers complained bitterly about surge pricing on social media. Customers said Uber pricing reached as high as 6.2 times the normal price, a 620 percent price markup. Lyft has pledged not to raise prices more than twice the published amount.

According to Yahoo, one attendee posted to his private Facebook page that Uber charged him $83.50 for a 1.5-mile trip. He ended up taking a cab on the return and with a 20 percent tip and all taxes included, that same trip cost just $15.

Bell said the silver lining for the taxi companies is that many of his drivers are expected to come back to the company full time because the ride-hailing opportunity wasn't as good as they thought it would be, a pattern that has played out in several cities.

"They tried working with Uber and Lyft because they saw an opportunity to make more money with surge pricing," Bell said. "But what they're finding is that because Uber and Lyft lowered their rates before the holidays, they didn't make as much, if they get into an accident, there's no workers' comp, there's no vacation time, no 401(k) and when they get their (IRS) 1099 forms and realize they have to pay taxes on their income, they're in for a surprise."

Bell also credited the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for organizing pickups and drop-offs away from the cab lines at the Convention Center and McCarran for keeping cab lines moving. Long wait times were a source of criticism in previous years.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find @RickVelotta on Twitter.