Regulators get first glimpse of systems that would detect long-hauling

Nevada Transportation Authority regulators on Friday got their first look at GPS-based systems they could use to discourage the illegal long-hauling of taxi customers and help consumers better understand cab and limousine rates.

Three companies gave hourlong presentations on their systems to the three-member Transportation Authority, which regulates limousine and bus companies and taxis that operate outside Clark County. A fourth company is expected to make a presentation to the board next week.

Once the board has heard from each company, it would make a recommendation on what features would be desired in a system and help the state’s Purchasing Division determine whether it would go to a competitive bid process.

All of the systems demonstrated Friday are in use in other cities and have features that could help regulators spot long-hauling, the illegal practice of driving a customer a longer route than necessary for a higher fare.

Long-hauling has been a chronic problem in Las Vegas. A Legislative Counsel Bureau audit last year estimated that 22.5 percent of the 2,730 taxi rides from McCarran International Airport to resort properties were longer than necessary, resulting in riders paying $14.8 million more than they should have in 2012.

Four companies are pitching their real-time data systems:

— Creative Mobile Technologies, Long Island City, N.Y., which is contracted by the New York Taxicab and Limousine Commission and has units in 25,000 cabs in New York, Boston and Chicago.

— VeriFone Systems Holding, San Jose, Calif., which also has monitoring technology in some New York City cabs.

— Las Vegas-based Integrity Vehicle Solutions, which recently changed its name from Frias Transportation Infrastructure and produces RideIntegrity, a system currently used in 1,900 cabs in San Francisco and is involved in a pilot program with the Nevada Taxicab Authority on 300 cabs and limousines in Southern Nevada.

— Digital Dispatch Systems Wireless International, Vancouver, British Columbia. Transportation Authority officials determined the company had not received notice of Friday’s meeting and will get an opportunity to demonstrate its system next week.

VeriFone almost wasn’t allowed to make its presentation as board members and attorneys for the other companies spent more than an hour arguing whether the company had met a deadline to submit information about its system. The board eventually allowed the VeriFone presentation after determining that the seldom-used request to solicit information and qualifications was different from a competitive request for proposals.

But company officials treated the process as if they were in a competitive environment, explaining how their own systems were better than the others and pointing out the other company systems’ weaknesses.

While Las Vegas transportation regulators are interested in using the data system tools to track potential long-haulers, the systems are capable of doing much more. The Integrity system, for example, can display the location of every cab on the street on a map of the city, whether a cab is carrying a paying customer or is for hire and how fast it’s traveling. Regulators can focus on the route of any cab on the road and pull up information on the vehicle and its driver or play back an automation of a route a cab took.

In addition, passengers can download an app on their smart devices to track their own trips in real time and project the fare they’ll pay and compare it with what regulators project it should cost.

The Creative Mobile and VeriFone systems have components that enable cab customers to make credit-card payments for their rides — a customer-convenience feature that could help pay for the cost of the system.

All the systems include in-vehicle video screens that can be used to display advertising or flash public-service announcements.

Tracking systems and the data they produce also can help cab companies find customers who may have left property in the vehicle.

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