IT'S a sight that sickens even the most jaded taxi driver: A hotel doorman greeting tourists as they spill out of the casino, ready for a night on the town, and the doorman herds them right into … a limousine. And then the limo driver thanks the doorman by slipping him some cash.

"Ever since I've been driving, I've seen limo drivers kind of skanking around, talking to doormen, and every once in a while you'd see an exchange of money," says Randell Hynes, a taxi driver for Nellis Cab. "It was minimal enough that you really didn't worry about it. Nobody really said anything about it. The impact was seemingly benign." But over the six-plus years he's been behind the wheel, Hynes says he's watched the practice grow to become as common as fanny packs and novelty margarita glasses. "Taxi drivers would complain about it, but only among themselves."

Hynes had something to complain about, too: His salary. He says that in 2004, he took home $39,000. From October 2007 to March 2008, he says he's only made $11,000. Now he says his Centennial Hills home is in foreclosure. He's neck-high in credit card debt. He's flirting with bankruptcy. Hynes' fingers the bribe-based relationship between doormen and chauffeurs as the culprit responsible for his plummeting paycheck.

Feeling that his complaints to both the Taxicab Authority and the Nevada Transportation Authority were going nowhere, Hynes has taken his grievance to District Court. In May, he sued a bevy of Strip casinos — from Mandalay Bay to Harrah's to Circus Circus — and limo companies, accusing them of wrecking the livelihood of cabbies with their payola scheme. Until his complaint gets a court date, he's asking a judge to make state transportation officials crack down on fare-stealing chauffeurs, force hotel-casinos to put the clamp on greedy doormen, as well as compel them to reorganize their taxi stands to level the playing field. The court is set to hear his request for temporary crackdown July 21.

"It's gotten to the point where it's intolerable," says Hynes, who's been a cabbie since 2002. "I got tired of watching my next ride go into a limo and not be able to do anything about it."

According to Nevada Administrative Code, limousines are only supposed to offer charter service — that is, prearranged rides of at least an hour. They're not supposed to solicit cash rides on the spot. Nor can chauffeurs slip kickbacks to doormen in exchange for rides — called "unlawfully operating as a broker."

Nevada Transportation Authority Chairman Andrew MacKay won't comment on Hynes' lawsuit, but does say that limo drivers soliciting rides is an ongoing problem, if not a severe one. Since 2005, the authority's 11 agents have written more than 350 citations in Clark County to limo drivers for soliciting rides.

"When we observe the illegal activity, we write a citation, or if we hear a complaint, we immediately investigate," says MacKay. "The numbers speak for themselves. So, despite what Mr. Hynes says, we clearly are enforcing the code." As for the payola conspiracy alleged by Hynes, MacKay says the authority has issued next to no citations for the practice. Yet the authority has got enough of an earful about the practice from angry cabbies to send a warning letter to Strip casinos June 27. (In fact, it might be the most blunt endorsement of Hynes' beef. "The observed increase in unlawful conduct in and around passenger loading areas is at minimum facilitated — and often coordinated — by property staff," the letter says in part.)

Some limo company execs scoff at Hynes' lawsuit, chalking it up to sour grapes.

"Everyone knows that for many years, there's been a big jealousy among taxi drivers of limo drivers," explains Nick Salon, general manager of Limousines of Nevada. To his mind, it's not that doormen are diverting rides to limos for cash, it's that cabs are, well, totally gross and tourists know it. "The difference between limo drivers and taxi drivers is that taxicabs are filthy; they have all kinds of memorabilia in them. If you have a party of four and you're all dressed up, do you want to go in a dirty cab or in a nice limo with water and soda? A cab costs you $30, a limo costs you $35."

At the very least, though, Hynes has touched on a long-simmering tension between chauffeurs and cabbies, who are as much competitors as they are rival cliques. But Hynes is hardly some envious gadfly who happens to know how to toss around a few legal terms. Rather, he's clean-cut, level-headed, articulate and computer-savvy. And he's starting to parlay his lone-gunman lawsuit into a rallying cry for disgruntled cabbies. To that end, he's also launched a nonprofit cooperative dubbed United Taxicab Drivers (www.TheBlueU.com).

As for other targets of Hynes' lawsuit, they're mum. A spokesperson for Harrah's declined comment. Attorney Michael Feder of Lewis and Roca, who represents The Sahara and Wynn hotel-casinos in the complaint, did not return phone calls. But in an opposition filing, he derided Hynes' lawsuit as a "fanciful scheme of conspiracy … without factual or legal basis."

Other taxi drivers praise Hynes for having the guts and the brains to finally bring this issue to light. "I think what he's doing is wonderful," says one veteran cabbie who wished to remain anonymous. "He's gonna walk into that courtroom, and on the other side are going to be 27 lawyers. Somebody must be doing something wrong that they have to send that many lawyers to take care of one cab driver."

And if Hynes' tenacity and legal chops don't win the day, he feels he'll still have succeeded in shoring up some morale and team spirit in a local cabbie culture that, according to him, has turned transient, mercenary and cutthroat.

"I feel like I'm covering the gap," says Hynes. "I'm doing things the Taxicab Authority is supposed to be doing, things the transportation authority is supposed to be recommending, things the cab companies are supposed to be doing, and things the union should be addressing. All along, I feel like I'm doing everyone else's job, but it's because they haven't taken the time to address the issue. I feel like the gloves are off now."

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2008/07/17/news/local_news/iq_22747638.txt

Pacing around his shiny yellow taxi at Long Beach Airport, the 38-year-old father of five anxiously eyed the trickle of luggage-lugging travelers exiting the terminal.

He was still rattled by the 10-hour shift he put in a few days earlier, when he cleared just $30 after fuel and other expenses.

It was his worst day in seven years as a cabby.

"I was driving around, trying to get something," he said. "I couldn't get nothing, and I just burned gas."

Long Beach gas prices have jumped about 50% since last summer, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California, and have more than doubled since summer 2004.

The added cost eats into Zamora's profits.

He's barred from charging customers more because the city sets fixed taxi rates. Records show fares have increased just 22% since 2001. Half of that boost came last summer, and it only partially offset gas increases from the previous two years.

Hour by hour, Zamora, stocky, intense and often in motion, wrestles with potentially costly choices:

Should he burn precious, $4.50-a-gallon gas cruising for customers? Or should he burn valuable time at a hotel or airport cab stand hoping he'll catch a profitable fare?

"If I'm sitting around, I'm not making money," he said. "[But] I don't want to drive around [because] it's wasting money."

The decision wasn't always so critical. Before the recent run-up in gas prices, Zamora routinely cruised the waterfront Convention Center area and the office and loft district looking for flag-down customers.

These days, he's more likely to invest an hour or more creeping to the front of the line at cab stands, gambling for runs to LAX or Orange County. Those can bring in $50 or more and have become crucial to covering more than $100 in daily expenses — about half of which is for gas.

But waiting only seems to intensify Zamora's stress. He checks and rechecks the time on his cellphone and debates internally whether he should stay.

Often, the cab stand strategy doesn't pay off. The average Long Beach trip is about five miles and brings in a little more than $14.

After an hour spent for a fare like that, Zamora usually rolls along downtown's Pine Street or circles dining and entertainment venues.

"I have to risk it. I have to cruise around. I don't have a choice."

High fuel costs and a struggling economy are a double whammy, he said. Tourism, which accounts for several million visitors a year to the city, appears to be off.

Taxes collected on hotel stays are down slightly from last year, said Richard Bartlett, Long Beach's business services officer.

Zamora's children, 7 to 21, are all in school. He says his bills keep piling up.

"I don't know how I'm going to make it," he lamented this week, waiting at a cab stand outside a downtown hotel.

Unless something changes soon, he may have to sell the cab and try to find work as a warehouse manager or train for a new occupation

"There are no more good days," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cabbie21-2008jul21,0,7903307.story