When the National Association of Broadcasters brings its annual convention to Las Vegas next week, there won’t be any additional taxicabs to accommodate the more than 100,000 conventioneers expected to be in town.
The Nevada Taxicab Authority on Monday deadlocked on two taxi allocation votes, defeating an industry request for additional cabs during what is expected to be third-largest convention in Las Vegas in 2012.
The five-person board, which lost a member who left for another commitment before the final votes were cast, deadlocked at 2-2 on a compromise proposal that would have added a maximum of 96 more cabs to the streets during some of the four-day NAB event that begins April 16 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Cab company owners had a request that could have added a maximum of 192 additional cabs during the show. The Taxicab Authority staff, citing the board’s allowance of six new cabs per company over a six-month period, recommended against any special allocation for the NAB show.
Board members also were influenced by more than 100 cab drivers who attended the meeting and waved signs that said, “No more cabs.”
The meeting was conducted in the theater at Cashman Center because the Taxicab Authority received word that a large contingent of drivers was expected to attend. Eight armed Taxicab Authority police officers with metal-detecting wands scanned people attending the meeting as they entered, delaying its start by a half hour.
Once the crowd was seated, Taxicab Authority Chairwoman Ileana Drobkin took more than an hour of public comment from about 40 drivers, most whom pleaded with the board not to grant any special cab allocations. Some drivers also brought up another nagging industry problem — the illegal long-hauling of customers — and blamed the board for it because they said the additional cabs on the streets make it difficult for drivers to make a living so they are forced to resort to cheating their passengers.
It was the second straight authority meeting at which a large contingent of drivers attended and may have influenced an allocation decision. In February, a rowdy crowd of around 300 drivers disrupted the board’s meeting, but got what they wanted — no special allocations for the NCAA basketball tournament.
The crowd at Monday’s meeting was much better behaved, possibly because prior to the start of the meeting, Taxicab Authority Chief Investigator Ruben Aquino warned those in attendance that his officers would issue one warning, then eject disrupters from the meeting. Several signs addressing the disruption of public meetings were posted at the hall.
Taxicab Authority Administrator Charles Harvey said the wanding of people attending the meeting was because of an abundance of caution after hearing reports that some were considering disrupting the meeting.
Harvey said there was no extra cost to the state agency for conducting its meeting at Cashman Center because it has a good relationship with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which counts on the taxi industry to provide good service during major conventions.
Aquino said the eight officers who provided security were volunteer authority police officers who would get compensatory time off because the agency’s budget doesn’t have funds allocated for overtime pay.
Generally, cab company management and drivers are split on allocation considerations because the owners see having additional cabs as potential increased revenue, while drivers, represented through two unions, decry additional cabs because it splits their share among more people.
In the Monday meeting and the February meeting, there was a noticeable split among the owners with two cab companies — Yellow-Checker-Star and Western — taking the stance that the permanent cab allocations approved by the board in August were enough to accommodate the additional people in town. Under that order, each of the county’s 16 companies was allowed to add a single cab to their fleets at the beginning of each month, from September through February.
The Industrial Technical Professional Employees union appealed approval of the permanent allocations to the Nevada Transportation Authority, which is scheduled to meet April 19.
In another matter Monday, the Taxicab Authority board agreed to keep consideration of allowing cab companies to add a fuel surcharge on future agendas as the price of unleaded gasoline teeters near a threshold price the board set as a benchmark.
An April 2011 order said that a surcharge may be considered if the price of gasoline hits $4.45 on a Department of Energy West Coast price monitor. The price of gasoline in Southern Nevada is about 30 cents less than the Energy Department’s West Coast average, but in late March, the monitor average hit $4.32.
The board agreed to keep watch on the price. While both companies and drivers would benefit from the imposition of a fuel surcharge, it would cost $12,000 for the Taxicab Authority to change the meters in all of the approximately 3,000 cabs operating in Clark County — money the state agency doesn’t have.