"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

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

The cabbie was heading north on Race Street in Denver's Capitol Hill area as the officer was traveling east on East 17th Avenue, according to 9News. Police say the cabbie ran a stop sign. The officer, who was riding a motorcycle, laid the bike down and slid into the rear of the cab.

The cab driver then turned around in the middle of the street and hit a car and a tree before coming to a stop, police said.

Witnesses said the cabbie tried to flee the scene but was apprehended by other police officers, 9News reported.

The off-duty officer's injuries were not immediately known, but an investigator for the Denver Police Department said the victim appeared to have internal injuries.

Police said the cab driver is likely to be charged with careless driving resulting in bodily injury.

Neither the name of the cabbie nor the victim were released.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9943445

Taxis tell you a lot about a country, and more about the social status of the taxi-driving class. In France taxis are clean, small and entrepreneurial. Taxi drivers in France do not think they are at the bottom rung of the social ladder.

Alas, American taxis tell us that the drivers would rather be doing something else. The cars are dirty, seats are broken and the drivers are often mannerless immigrants with no sense of service.

It was not always like this.

When New York taxis were driven by the Jewish working class, men who read the New York Post and lived in the Bronx, you got a serving of philosophy, or at least humor, with each ride. Similarly, in Washington D.C., taxis were spotless and driven by older African American men, who appeared to love their work, knew the geography of the city and took pride in it.

Finally, Washington taxis have meters. But because the hack bureau of the city government has no teeth, the taxis are as dirty as ever, the drivers talk incessantly on cell phones in the languages of Africa and the Middle East and treat their passengers as inconvenient necessities.

Things are not much better in other American cities.

In Atlanta, I was taken all the way around the Beltway to reach an address near the airport. The driver did not know the way, would not listen to me and refused to call his dispatcher for guidance.

In Houston, I had an experience nearly as bad when the driver, newly arrived from Nigeria, took me about 25 miles out of my way because he could not understand what I was saying to him.

Taxis in Los Angeles are more fun. Here the driver is more likely to turn to you and say, "I am not actually a taxi driver. I am in the movie business." In the City of Angels, I have been offered two scripts and a demonstration tape by drivers who thought I could advance their careers. When I asked friends in L.A. why I had been singled out for this treatment, they replied, "You wore a suit. Nobody but movie financiers wear them here. And you were probably staying at The Beverly Hills Hotel." I was.

In Chicago, a driver waved a bunch of bills at me and said, "We have the best police money can buy."

In the Third World, taxi drivers offer services beyond transportation. In Singapore, I arrived to give a speech just before a monsoon broke. I was greeted at the airport by a lovely, young ethnic Chinese woman who asked if I was Mr. King. I said I was. She said, "I have a car waiting for you," and escorted me to a Rolls Royce. I thought things were looking up.

As we headed out of the airport, she began to tell me about the program for the following day. She said there would be a tour of the port, an inspection of crane technology and meetings with maritime officials. When I pointed out that I was in Singapore to give a speech on energy, not port operation and technology, she started screaming at the driver, "Wrong Mr. King! Wrong Mr. King!" Just as the monsoon broke, and rain came down in a way that you do not see outside Asia, she tossed me and my bag out of the Rolls. Taxis evaporated.

The sequence of events that ended in the pair's arrest started before midnight when they attempted to carjack a man in the Hollywood area, said Lt. Jeff Pailet of the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Station.

"They tried to steal his car," he said. "But it wouldn't start, so they got mad and beat up the victim." The victim was later treated at the scene, Pailet said.

The pair then fled, and minutes later got a ride from a taxi driver to West Sunset Boulevard and Holloway Drive, said a lieutenant at the sheriff's West Hollywood Station.

Upon reaching the destination, the driver asked for his fare, "a small amount no more than five or six dollar," but the two refused to pay, leading the driver to pick up his cell phone and call police, the lieutenant said.

The pair then took the driver's cell phone and fled the vehicle, she said. The driver, as well as other witnesses, told deputies what had happened and provided a description of the thieves, she added.

Soon after, the two allegedly found an unattended taxi cab with the keys left inside the vehicle at the Renaissance Hotel at 1755 N. Highland Ave., Pailet said.

The pair then took off in the cab, prompting authorities to issue a "crime broadcast," Pailet said.

Two police officers from the Hollywood Station saw the taxi and began following the vehicle, but the driver — the man — refused to yield, triggering a chase, he said.

Approximately two minutes later, at around 12:40 a.m., the man lost control of the cab, which jumped a curb and slammed into a "coffee shop-type business" near West 3rd Street and South Crescent Heights Boulevard, Pailet said.

The vehicle came to rest inside the building, according to camera crews at the scene.

"Had the business been open, people would have definitely gotten hurt, but luckily it wasn't," Pailet said.

The pair was treated at the scene for minor injuries and then taken into custody, he said. Their names were not immediately released.

The cab driver whose phone was stolen positively identified the suspects at the scene of their arrest, the sheriff's lieutenant said, adding that his cell phone was recovered and returned to him.

 http://cbs2.com/local/Taxi.Carjack.Bandit.2.776516.html

Lt. Jeff Pailet says the trouble started shortly before midnight Monday when a man and woman beat up a driver in Hollywood during a failed carjacking, then got into a cab but later fled with the driver's cell phone.

Pailet says the pair then stole an unattended taxi that had its keys inside and led police on a two-minute chase that ended with the taxi ramming into a closed coffee shop.

Surprisingly, nobody was seriously hurt.

http://www.montereyherald.com/national/ci_9958622?nclick_check=1

One, with gas prices up the demand for hybrids is up too leaving taxi fleet owners scrambling to find hybrids to buy. Two, taxi owners and drivers say there's a serious question about safety.

On question one, the Mayor has just announced the city has gotten Ford, GM, and Nissan to commit to supplying roughly 300 hybrids a month for taxi buyers which is more than the 210 needed to replenish the fleet. What's interesting about this is who's missing. Toyota. Toyota makes America's most popular hybrids and has refused to commit any vehicles to the taxi program. No Priuses. No Camrys. No Highlanders. Instead the city's cab fleet will be replenished with Ford Escapes (there are 800 of these already in service), Nissan Altimas (a few dozen currently running), and mainly Chevy Malibus (a grand total of 6 are currently in the fleet). And that brings us to question two. 

The taxi fleet owners say these cars aren't really proven safe or reliable for taxi use. All three vehicles are substantially lighter and smaller than the current gas-hogging taxi of choice, the Ford Crown Victoria. But check with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and you find all three are as safe or safer than the Crown Vic both overall and for rear seat passengers. The taxi industry points out that the testing does not include the plexiglass barriers, though, which have been the cause of injuries in the past in vehicles with limited rear leg room.

The industry wants the city to hold off for one more year as auto manufacturers ramp up hybrid production and Ford, in particular, readies a new cab-only vehicle for the US market.

The bottom line is (unless the Mayor changes his mind): Hailing a taxi in New York will get progressively greener over the next few months but could get progressively less safe as well.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/16900091/detail.html

Asked whether the new program was a good thing, Rostami was quick to say yes. He said that he's been ticketed for stopping in illegal spots a number of times, all while simply trying to let a passenger out safely. The new rules would make life easier on both him and his passengers.

Rostami gave one story in particular of getting ticketed right near City Hall while helping a blind passenger out of his vehicle. He explained the situation to the officer and was told to go ahead, only to later find the ticket mailed to his house.

As he turned to re-enter the Council chambers, Rostami summed up the day's events. "This is great," he exclaimed.

http://blogdowntown.com/2008/07/3469-after-hailataxis-approval-a-cabbie-breathes

Yes, she was being sarcastic. Like others, she thought this was something the city should have done a long time ago.

The new rules allow taxis to stop for or drop off customers in red zones and curb lanes that the city has designated as anti-gridlock zones — as in, no parking there during rush hour. Cabs are also now allowed to double-park to pick up or drop off a client. The one place they're not allowed to go is bus stops — something that has been a sticking point between the city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the last few months.

And the effect of this? Will Los Angeles be as cab-friendly as New York, where it's a bit of a time-honored tradition to get honking drunk, stumble out to the curb at 3 a.m., raise your arm and flag a cab for a safe and subway-free ride home?

But serious differences remain between the cab culture in America's two largest cities. New York has more than 13,000 cabs. Los Angeles has about 2,300. A typical cabby in New York can get about 50 fares a day; in L.A. it's about 20. Fewer than half the residents of Manhattan own cars — meaning they're transit dependent. Car ownership rates are far higher in L.A. And because there are more cabs and more customers in New York, fares are lower.

For example, a five-mile cab ride in New York costs about $12 to $14, plus surcharges. A similar ride in L.A. is about $20, and that doesn't count the 10% fare increase that goes into effect later in the summer.

William J. Rouse, the general manager of Administrative Services Co-Op, a company that runs five local taxi services, said the big advantage of the test program is that it will encourage taxi drivers to pick up more short-trippers. At present, most cabs wait at designated pickup zones — usually hotels. If they get a short ride, they're stuck driving back to a hotel with little hope of getting a fare, and then they must go to the back of the line.

"The old rules that applied to taxis were the same ones that applied to private vehicles," Rouse said, pointing to the fact that those rules pretty much prevent taxis from doing what taxis do best — pick up people looking for a ride.

I asked Edward Torossian, a cab driver in L.A., how the program would affect him.

"We don't want to stop" and block traffic, Torossian said. "We just need to stop so we can pick up someone and go."

The program will begin soon and continue for six months so the city can evaluate whether taxis picking up fares cause massive regional gridlock or perhaps help people get along. If it works, officials say, it may be applied to the rest of the nation's second-largest city.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-roadsage17-2008jul17,0,4342617.column

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Taxi and Limousine (TLC) Commission Chairman Matthew W. Daus announced that Nissan North America, Inc. (NISA.BE) has committed to the availability of up to 200 Nissan Altima hybrids per month, General Motors (NYSE: GM) has committed to the availability of 50 Chevrolet Malibu hybrids per month, and The Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) has committed to the availability of 50 Ford Escape hybrids per month, and is seeking to guarantee more.

This exceeds the 210 vehicles per month that TLC estimates are needed to meet new fuel efficiency standards imposed by the City and are above and beyond those already available on the retail market.

"There are already over 1,300 hybrid taxis on the streets of New York," said TLC Chairman Daus. "They save drivers around $6,500 per year and have been passing inspections 85% of the time, as compared to the average 54% for other prevalent taxicab vehicles. Switching to a hybrid makes more sense for drivers' wallets, and for our environment."

The TLC voted unanimously last December to approve new regulations requiring that, beginning October 1, 2008, all taxicabs coming into service, with the exception of accessible taxicabs, must achieve an EPA city mileage rating of 25 miles per gallon (mpg).

This regulation also provides that, as of October 2009, all new taxicab vehicles must achieve a minimum city driving rating of 30 mpg. Due to the combined regulations, by 2012 the taxi fleet will be all-hybrid, or a mix of hybrid and other clean vehicle types that produce similar mpg.

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/16420