Drivers step closer to leasing taxis from Clark County cab companies

Nevada Taxicab Authority administrators got a little closer Friday to producing a final draft of regulations that would permit drivers to lease taxis from Clark County cab companies and operate on their own schedules.

The biggest question remaining is whether any drivers would do it.

The authority's administrative staff went through the five-page regulation in a one-hour workshop, fielding questions from about 25 people who attended.

Under the regulation, drivers would be able to negotiate leases with cab companies and schedule their own hours of operation, paying the cab company a flat fee for use of the vehicle. Drivers would still be bound by taxicab regulations, would have to charge the same metered cab rates and would have 12-hour-a-day driving limitations.

Drivers who lease cabs would have the advantage of setting their schedules, which some see as a competitive edge against ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft.

But the arrangement could also be viewed as a disadvantage because leasees would become independent contractors such as Uber and Lyft drivers and would no longer have company benefits such as health insurance, paid vacations and retirement plans.

"It's hard to say just yet whether anyone will take advantage of this," Taxicab Authority Administrator Ron Grogan said. "But we're putting the regulations together as required by the authorizing legislation."

Grogan said that a drivers' group that he met with has shown little interest in leasing vehicles.

Senate Bill 376, approved in the 2015 legislative session, allows cab leasing in Clark County, a practice that has long been used in Northern Nevada where cabs are under the regulation of the Nevada Transportation Authority.

Grogan said the authority would conduct one more workshop, probably in January, to put the finishing touches on the regulation, then submit it to the Legislative Counsel Bureau. Once those attorneys review the the regulations, they'll be returned to the authority for possible modifications before going to the five-member Taxicab Authority board for adoption. When the board would vote will depend on how much time the Legislative Counsel Bureau spends with it.

Among the details of the regulation:

• Cab companies that want to lease cabs to drivers must pay the authority $100 per leased cab and can have a maximum of half the company's fleet available for lease.

• A driver who leases a cab can't sublease it to another driver. However, multiple drivers can have a lease on one vehicle so that a group of drivers could share it.

• Companies and owners can negotiate the terms of each individual lease. That means that a company could lease a cab for more money during anticipated busy periods than anticipated slow periods. Grogan said he hopes the regulations can be enacted quickly because he thinks the authority could learn a lot in the busy first quarter of the year with multiple large conventions, the March NASCAR race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and several college basketball tournaments in town and in need of ground transportation services.

• Leased cabs would have a special medallion and drivers in leased cabs would be required to have a copy of the lease in the vehicle at all times.

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