Taxi fares keep pace with nation’s highest

Las Vegas will remain a frontrunner in the unpopular race for the nation's steepest cab fares.

Beginning Oct. 1, passengers will be charged $3.30 for the initial cost of hiring a cab, or drop fee, a dime increase from the current rate.

The cost per hour for the time spent traveling slower than 8-12 mph, known as the wait-time charge, will rise to $28 from $22.

Even before the increases approved last month, those fees were higher than similar charges in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

"We don't have the highest cab fares in the country, but among the major cities we're towards the top," said Kelly Kuzik, management analyst for the Nevada Taxicab Authority.

Las Vegas cab company owners argued that rates hadn't kept pace with inflation. The wait-time charge hasn't changed in five years.

Accounting for inflation, Kuzik said, the increases are fair. But they were less than the owners of the valley's 16 cab companies and union officials had wanted.

"The drivers would love to see it higher," said Theatla "Ruthie" Jones, of the Industrial, Technical, and Professional Employees Union that represents some 2,000 taxicab drivers in the Las Vegas Valley.

It's about time the board did more to help the city's taxicab drivers, Jones said. Las Vegas' rising cost of living affects cab drivers too, she said.

"You got to think of the drivers out there taking care of the public," she said.

Cab company owners contacted by the Review-Journal declined to comment for this article.

Drivers complain they don't make as much money in Las Vegas as they would elsewhere because of the close proximity of the city's prime destinations. McCarran International Airport is a four-mile trip to the Strip, and most of the hotels are located within a short drive, Jones noted.

The result is drivers don't have many chances to score a big fare, she said.

The average cab fare is $11.50, according to the Taxicab Authority.

"Their portion of the (cab fare) ... is not very much," Jones said. "It's a short little ride and they still have to get the gas; they still have to sit in traffic and sometimes they don't get tipped."

But tourist Matt Hoth, who was visiting Las Vegas last week from La Crosse, Wis., said that argument is flawed. Fares should be based on the distance traveled regardless of how short or long the trip is, he said.

"They are not going any farther, so the rates shouldn't be higher," he said last week, after paying $16 for a ride from the Strip to the Golden Nugget. "It doesn't make any sense

Bob Kleinheinz, of Madison, Wis., agreed.

"I'm sure they're getting tipped enough," he said on Friday, before ducking into a cab downtown for a tailgate party some seven miles away at Mandalay Bay. "It's the only way to get anywhere here in Rip City."

Deb James, of Monroe, Wis., who also relied on taxicabs to navigate the city last week, said Friday that she wasn't surprised by the looming increases because Las Vegas cabs have a large customer base with few options.

"There are millions of visitors here," she said.

Las Vegas' fares may be high and headed higher, but riders don't have to deal with extra fees, like Chicago's $1 charge for an additional passenger, or steeper fares at certain times of day, like Washington, D.C.'s rush-hour charge, Kuzik noted.

He also pointed out some smaller towns have much higher cab fares than Las Vegas. Unalaska, Alaska, located at the Dutch Harbor Port, has a per-hour wait fee of $63.60, according to Fred Stock Electronics, a California-based cab meter installation company. In Yuma, Ariz., the drop fee was $4 in 2004, according to the company.

In addition to approving the drop fee and wait-time increases at its Aug. 28 meeting, the Nevada Taxicab Authority also set the regular per-mile charge at $2.20. Though 20 cents higher than the current rate, customers will see no increase because a 20-cent-per-mile fuel surcharge was done away with. There is currently no additional fuel surcharge, but the authority can add the fee at anytime, Kuzik said.

The wait and drop-fee increases won't take effect until Oct. 1 to allow time to install new meter seals on the city's 2,700 cabs. New tamper-proof seals will keep the meters from being altered, Kuzik said.