Will Uber ever work at McCarran? Company, Clark County are at a standoff

Will Uber customers ever be able to get a ride to or from McCarran International Airport?

Right now, it seems hopeless as both the company and the Clark County Commission have dug in their heels over the issue of whether a list of drivers must be provided to the county.

Uber says a list of drivers is proprietary information, but it goes much beyond that. The company fears that if a list of drivers is turned over to the county and it becomes a public document that Clark County's taxi companies could use it to pressure, discipline or even fire cab drivers who moonlight as a Uber drivers.

While some cab companies have said they could care less if their drivers make a little extra money on the side driving for Uber, others have said they would fire them if they were caught doing so.

Frias Transportation Management, the largest taxi group of companies in Southern Nevada, is among those who don't want their drivers receiving checks from Uber.

Company officials believe they have some justification for knowing what their drivers are doing in their free time and it's rooted in safety. While the primary reason may be preventing their own employees from sleeping with the enemy, they point out that public safety is at risk if a cab driver puts in 12 hours on the job and then adds a few more with Uber within one 24-hour period. The length of time behind the wheel is a safety standard adhered to nationwide by drivers of buses, trucks, trains and planes in addition to taxis.

On the side, a national organization with its own political agenda has chimed in that regulators and law enforcement agencies have a greater chance of identifying and catching people posing as Uber drivers with a history of kidnapping, robbing and raping passengers if they know who the real drivers are.

Dave Sutton, a spokesman for the adversarial "Who's Driving You?" public awareness campaign sponsored by the national Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association, said the licensing and identification of ride-hailing drivers is an important consumer protection to catch people posing as legitimate drivers.

So where do things stand now?

The Clark County Commission revised a previously approved ordinance that would have required Uber to supply a list of drivers so it could check whether individuals had acquired their $25-a-year business licenses. A Legislative Counsel Bureau interpretation of the state law approved in May indicated that counties and municipalities couldn't require that of ride-hailing companies. Some contend that counties and municipalities can't even require those companies to acquire a business license, but county officials believe otherwise.

But it's of little matter to them, since airports are given the ability to license and identify drivers who pick up and drop off passengers. Since McCarran International Airport is operated by the county, commissioners are fine with airport officials doing that. If that happens, the county could gain access to a driver list that way.

And that's why Uber isn't serving McCarran today.

Uber officials have indicated they would continue to negotiate with the airport, but it seems the lines have been drawn and it's a question of who caves first, Uber or the county.

On Wednesday, Uber had yet to reply to a Review-Journal inquiry of whether it is required to or voluntarily supplies driver lists to any other entity among the hundreds of cities it operates.

The pressure is likely to ratchet up on the issue as the International Consumer Electronics Show draws near. The organization that manages the show, the Consumer Technology Association, has been supportive of Uber in the past and has written several letters on behalf of the company that scold local officials for not working out the details that would enable Uber to operate at McCarran. Las Vegas tourism leaders don't want the city to be viewed as a roadblock to innovation when its largest convention with thousands of techies roll into town.

In the meantime, it's a stalemate.

But there is one possible alternative option for Uber customers: sign up for ride-hailing rival Lyft, which has been successfully operating at McCarran since late October without any problems, according to airport officials.

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