Uber, Lyft applications show fees for typical rides

Customers who hail a ride on Uber or Lyft from Mandalay Bay to the Fremont Street Experience can expect to pay about $24 based on rates the companies submitted in their applications to the Nevada Transportation Authority.

Both companies submitted applications for licensure late Friday and the Transportation Authority reviewed them and made Uber's application available for public inspection Monday. For now, Lyft's application is considered confidential since the company told the Transportation Authority it considers information in its application to be proprietary.

Transportation Authority officials said a hearing officer would be assigned to the matter to determine what information in the application is proprietary and what can be made public.

The agency has never kept an entire application confidential and regulations require that rates be made public. It's expected that additional details of Lyft's application will be made public within a few days.

The three-member authority board is expected to consider approval of licenses at a Sept. 11 meeting.

San Francisco-based Uber submitted its application under a subsidiary, Rasier LLC.

The company plans to post its rates on its local website, but in its application, it listed a base fare of $2.40, a $1 "safe rides" fee, plus $1.85 a mile and 30 cents a minute.

The minimum Uber fare would be $5 and the company would charge a customer $5 for canceling a ride five minutes after a request is accepted.

The application also spells out Uber's plans for dynamic pricing, a tactic critics refer to as "surge pricing." It's a supply-and-demand model designed to encourage more drivers to the streets when ride demand is high.

"The dynamic pricing model is implemented on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis and the model increases the factor automatically pursuant to an algorithm," the Uber application says. "Alternatively, as supply and demand approach equilibrium, the factor is decreased until it returns to the (original) fare. Riders are notified in the application before they request a ride that dynamic pricing is in effect.

Based on a Google Maps estimate of the distance and best route from Mandalay Bay to the Fremont Street Experience — 8.1 miles, taking 17 minutes — a customer would pay the $2.40 base fare, $14.98 for mileage, $5.10 for time, plus the $1 safe ride fee. It doesn't include a 3 percent tax that will be implemented on transportation network companies and taxis on Aug. 28.

By comparison, taxi rates in Clark County are $3.45 for the initial charge and $2.68 a mile with "wait time" of $32.40 an hour. That's the rate charged when taxis are motionless or driving at less than 12 mph.

Using a taxi, the same Mandalay Bay-to-Fremont Street Experience trip would cost $25.16, not counting wait time, a tip or the 3 percent tax. Tipping drivers is discouraged by Uber.

Uber has applied for the maximum number of drivers, more than 7,000 and has delivered its $500,000 application fee. By comparison, there are just more than 3,000 taxicabs in Clark County's fleet.

The Transportation Authority initially suggested a $500,000 fee, but a later version of regulations knocked the fee down to $300,000 plus $50 per driver. The version finally approved by the Legislative Commission last week kept the initial $500,000 application fee, but no per-driver fee.

While Lyft's application has been labeled confidential for now, that company, also based in San Francisco, would have virtually the same rates.

The only rate difference is that it will charge a $1.55 safe ride fee instead of $1, a company spokeswoman said. It, too, will have a $5 minimum ride charge and a cancellation fee.

Lyft also practices dynamic pricing, calling it "Prime Time." The company caps Prime Time rates at three times the standard rate. State regulation, however, prohibit transportation network companies from charging more than double the standard rate during emergencies. Lyft also offers the ability to tip a driver, built into the Lyft phone app.

The company, which is still recruiting drivers, hasn't disclosed how many cars it expects to license and has applied under the Transportation Authority's emergency regulations provisions, which enables it to wait until it begins operations to pay its licensing fee.

Uber and Lyft are expected to begin operations as soon as licensing is approved.

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