Uber’s arrival OK with some Las Vegas cabbies

Catch a ride with a Las Vegas cabdriver these days, and you might expect to hear a lament about the precarious future of the taxi racket now that Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing operators are entering the game.

Not so.

There’s no shortage of hand-wringing if you go looking for it — especially if your witnesses are offered up by their beleaguered company supervisors. But you’ll also find drivers who are looking forward not only to the pressure to improve service that increased competition will place upon traditional cab companies, but also to the possibility of freelancing for outfits such as Uber. While the Nevada Transportation Authority has been drafting regulations applicable to the new technology, the ride-share companies have been advertising for Las Vegas drivers.

There are reasons no New Orleans-style funeral processions are planned for Southern Nevada’s cab industry. It’s been highly lucrative for owners, but it won’t be long lamented by drivers and locals who for years have battled to get a fraction of the level of response that tourists receive.

On a recent night, I enjoyed a long ride with a taxi-driving veteran whom I’ll call Mike. Now in his 60s, he’s been in the business more than two decades, most of that time with a single company. He thinks it’s no coincidence that he and nearly two dozen of his fellow veteran drivers were sacked around Christmastime several years ago when the company experienced a slowdown and they refused to long-haul passengers to pad the trip sheet.

“They gave us no reason at all — none,” he recalls. “We had between 13 and 26 years of experience.”

But, he adds, it’s obvious from who was hired to replace them that they wanted immigrant drivers who were easier to control. For whatever the employee loyalty might have been years ago, he believes it’s certainly gone now.

“That’s the type of corruption that goes on,” Mike says. Beyond their gray hair and years of experience, they all had one thing in common. “We all refused to long-haul passengers. So the way I look at it, it cannot get worse than it is right now. That is a fact.”

One of several challenges the traditional cab companies faced in the last session of the Legislature was a pile of bad press related to long-hauling tourists from McCarran Airport to Strip resorts. And there were no shortage of tales about the lucrative payola that goes on between limo drivers and casino doormen. It didn’t help that favorite Strip limousine operator Charlie Horky was caught in the middle of a drug and prostitution racket facilitated through his company.

Cab company representatives worked hard to paint Uber as an outfit unfit for operating in a tourism economy, often accusing it of failing to conduct proper background checks on its drivers. That raised another cynical chortle from Mike.

“Do people really think all cab drivers have had their backgrounds checked?” he asks.

Then there are the protectionist laws on the books that have made it almost impossible for outside competition to enter the booming Las Vegas marketplace. A generation ago, the regulations and the political nature of the Taxicab Authority were an accepted part of doing business in well-connected Las Vegas.

But Uber brought its own big bankroll to the game with a new technology that made local taxi operators look absolutely antiquated. They hired smart lawyers, flooded the Legislature with lobbyists and campaign contributions, and turned the traditional companies on their heads in record time.

After getting a green light from a District Court in Southern Nevada, Uber was hit with an out-of-left-field decision from a Northern Nevada courtroom meant to block it. The malodor of old-school politics filled the air.

At the Legislature, where the cab companies had always maintained plenty of friendships, the day had changed. Ironically, the owners received about as much loyalty from legislators, he says, as they’ve been giving their drivers.

“Uber lobbied hard,” Mike says, pushing his sedan north on U.S. 95. “They had a ton of money, and they basically got what they wanted.”

What they got was a legal foothold in a big market.

Mike’s been around the cab business a long time, and cabdrivers aren’t known for their optimistic outlooks. But he believes the new law has changed the taxicab business forever in Southern Nevada and that traditional companies either will dramatically improve service or watch their net profits crater.

“Long-hauling will be over with,” he says. “The corruption will be over with. I wish this had happened 10 years ago. I’m still tempted to buy a car and go out and work.”

I’m not as convinced Uber will end the Las Vegas hustle, but it already has put some traditional cab companies on their fat wallets.

There’s at least one driver who isn’t shedding any tears.

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. Find him on Twitter: @jlnevadasmith