Uber still in focus at Nevada Taxicab Authority meeting

Even though Uber has no license to operate in Clark County or the rest of the state, the San Francisco-based transportation network ride-sharing company had a key role in two matters before the Nevada Taxicab Authority on Monday.

The authority board unanimously approved creation of a new taxi medallion category in its annual capacity review. It also planned a special meeting to consider the use of a smartphone app to dispatch cabs to customers.

Serving customers outside the traditional tourism corridor and with an easy-to-use smartphone app have been two staples in Uber’s bid to gain a foothold in Southern Nevada.

Under a plan proposed by Southern Nevada’s taxi industry, each of the 16 cab companies serving Clark County will receive 10 new geographically restricted medallions to better serve residents of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson.

Those new medallions would permit pickups only north of Charleston Boulevard, west of Rainbow Boulevard, south of Warm Springs Road and east of Eastern Avenue.

Drivers would be allowed to drop passengers off within the tourism corridor but not pick up passengers there after the drop.

The new geographic zone effectively prevents those taxis from pickups on the Strip, Mandalay Bay and Sands Expo convention centers and McCarran International Airport.

The board approved the new medallions temporarily and will review their use in six months to determine if more or fewer medallions would be appropriate.

Cab companies are expected to stage cabs for the new medallions at outlying casino properties so that they’ll be able to respond to residences more quickly.

The industry also plans to implement a single centralized dispatch system — the first time that industry has agreed to collaborate — to assure that the cab closest to the customer’s location is dispatched, regardless of what company it is.

That’s the element of the plan that is targeted directly at Uber, which used a smartphone application to dispatch drivers to people who requested rides on the app.

Uber, which has been deemed illegal by the state’s transportation regulators and a District Court decision in Washoe County, has been out of business in Nevada since Nov. 26 after an Oct. 24 startup.

But the company doesn’t show any signs of throwing in the towel in Nevada. The company has begun advertising for a Las Vegas general manager on its website.

Nellis Cab owner Ray Chenoweth, who has been in the Las Vegas cab industry for more than 50 years, made a rare appearance at Monday’s meeting.

“In my 50-plus years in the Vegas taxi industry, I have faced many hurdles, but none to equal Uber,” he told the commission. “Gypsy cabs are nothing new and they always come to the surface when the market is underserved or underallocated. I say that because my radio dispatch system supervisor informs me that we fail to serve as much as 25 to 30 percent of phone requests.”

Board members liked the idea, but authority staff cautioned that it may take a while for new medallion plates to be manufactured because designing and providing new medallions were not budgeted.

Besides the 10 new temporary geographically restricted medallions per company, the board authorized each company to get five new medallions that can be used anytime — two immediately and one per month for the next three months.

They also agreed to allow five weekend medallions per company, usable from noon Thursdays to 2 p.m. Mondays. The board also agreed to allow pickups at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, which is excluded from existing geographically restricted medallions. A similar exemption is in place for the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The board also changed a restriction that companies must have vehicles capable of accommodating two wheelchair-bound passengers at once because a company that supplied vehicles like that no longer make them and companies rarely received calls for such a request.

The board opted not to rule on a request to permit the use of smartphone apps to request rides pending additional information.

The authority staff had not been provided information about new versions of Ride Integrity’s Ride Genie app for taxis. Eight Southern Nevada limousine companies have been using Ride Genie since August.

The biggest problem the taxi version of Ride Genie is facing is providing an estimated cost for a ride since taxis use meters to calculate a fare.

The board plans a special meeting in mid-January to consider the use of apps in taxis.