Cab fares going up as result of increased gas prices

Las Vegas Sun File

Taxis wait at “the pit” for fares at McCarran International Airport. At any time, there are about 2,000 cabs on Las Vegas streets.

Cab rides will be getting more expensive next month after the Nevada Taxicab Authority on Tuesday approved a 20-cent-per-mile fuel surcharge to compensate companies and drivers stung by the rising cost of gasoline.

Regulators will begin resetting meters on 3,000 cabs in operation in Clark County on April 26 and expect to complete the transition within five days.

The surcharge will add about $1 to the average taxi trip. Cab companies currently charge a $3.30 “drop” fee to hire a cab, $2.40 per mile, a special $1.80 fee if the trip includes a pickup or drop at McCarran International Airport and a waiting time fee of $30 an hour whenever a cab is stuck in traffic (assessed whenever the cab moves at less than 12 mph).

The five-person board, which just added a new member, former State Sen. Dennis Nolan, was unanimous in the decision but debated whether it would be better to add a per-mile or per-trip surcharge.

The decision also was complicated by the Taxicab Authority not having funds in its budget to undertake the meter transition, which costs the agency about $14,000 in overtime pay to complete every time there is a rate change.

The meter transition costs will be billed to the 16 taxi companies operating in Clark County on a per-vehicle basis.

The fuel surcharge is the third in four years. In 2007, the board approved a 20-cents-per-mile surcharge. When gas prices eased, the board opted to leave the surcharge in place and deem it a rate increase to avoid the expense of altering the cab meters.

In 2008, the board approved a 25-cents-per-mile fuel surcharge.

Representatives of the taxi companies told the board that they have seen the cost of fuel increase 25 percent in the last six months.

The action approved by the board establishes a price of $3.25 per gallon as a base and $4.45 a gallon as a ceiling. That means that the surcharge would be in effect as long as the price of gasoline doesn’t fall below $3.25 a gallon for 30 straight days. Another surcharge could be considered if the price of gasoline rises above $4.45 a gallon.

The Taxicab Authority will use pricing statistics from the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Energy Department, which also is used by the Nevada Transportation Department.

In other business, the Taxicab Authority forwarded the names of three candidates for its administrator position to the state director of the Business and Industry Department, after public interviews of nine candidates.

The three finalists to be forwarded to the department are David G. Day, a managing partner of AMW Construction Supply, Phoenix, and a former managing partner of DCS Construction Supply in Las Vegas; Charles D. Harvey, the stimulus director for the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office; and Jose G. Troncoso, who worked as the vice president of security and surveillance at Primm Valley Resorts until July 2010, and a former U.S. marshal in Las Vegas and chief of police with the North Las Vegas Police Department.

The final selection will be made by director of the Business & Industry Department, Terry Johnson.

The board interviewed eight men and one woman for the position, which opened last fall when administrator Gordon Walker resigned.

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