Las Vegas cab company opposes pilot program to stop long-hauling

Taxicab Authority Police stop taxis at a long haul checkpoint near the entrance to the airport tunnel exiting McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on Friday, June 8, 2012.

Long Haul Checkpoint

Taxicab Authority Police Senior Investigator I. Williams stop taxi driver Tesfaye Beshah at a long haul checkpoint near the entrance to the airport tunnel exiting McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on Friday, June 8, 2012. Beshah got a ticket for long hauling. Launch slideshow »

With the Nevada Taxicab Authority a day away from considering parameters of a pilot program for a GPS-based computer system designed to thwart taxi long-hauling, a battle is brewing between rival cab companies over whether the proposed pilot program is legal.

Marc Gordon, a lawyer who represents the Yellow-Checker-Star taxi company, filed an opposition brief late Friday saying the company would oppose and sue to stop the implementation of the program because the company believes the developers of the RideIntegrity system failed to follow statutes requiring a competitive request for proposal.

RideIntegrity is a multimillion-dollar system developed by Frias Transportation Infrastructure, a company affiliated with Frias Transportation Management, which with five taxi companies and 1,000 vehicles is the largest operator of cabs in Southern Nevada. Yellow-Checker-Star, also known as YCS, has three cab companies and is the second largest cab operator.

Gordon filed the 16-page document with the Taxicab Authority by email Friday afternoon. “The position of my client is that the testing of RideIntegrity in the manner proposed is improper and contrary to (Nevada Revised Statutes),” Gordon said in a cover email. “The hurried fashion in which the ‘testing parameters’ were presented is shortsighted and unacceptable. Should the (Taxicab Authority) and staff dismiss our valid grounds for opposition and proceed with testing in violation of NRS, my client will appeal as appropriate and seek injunctive relief.”

Neal Tomlinson, a lawyer representing Frias, responded in an email to Gordon that the company would file its formal response today, but he said because competitive bidding is required in purchases or contracts, the statute doesn’t apply to the pilot program, which Frias is paying for.

Gordon responded by disagreeing and said YCS would have no objection to RideIntegrity being tested just on Frias’ vehicles.

The arguments are expected to be aired before the Taxicab Authority when it conducts its February meeting on Tuesday.

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