How about info for someone who might be interested in becoming a cabbie in LV?

Typically you'll work a 12 hour shift in Vegas cab. Some guys work 10, depending on day of week. Many cabbies do 60+ hrs a week routinely. I mentioned on twitter the other day about a fellow driver I talked to who told me he worked 360 shifts last year. It's insane. He wins the Ironman award every year. My question to him was, "Why did you puss out the other five days?"

I've had a few other service jobs in my days through HS and college. Nothing interesting, however. I spent some time in retail mgmt as well. I sorta fell into cab driving when I was in between jobs and I just enjoyed it. That was ten years ago.

As for the future, this gig isn't going to last much longer and I have other aspirations. Facilitated in part by "The Ticket" story I've come to realize that I have a supreme interest in the law and have been looking into becoming a paralegal. I believe this is something that I would be very good at. What I lack in education I make up for by being capable. If anyone around here might be able to point me in the right direction for something like that I would be obliged.

Oh man you were one off from the magical 100. Lol. Approaching 200 now...

The best jack shacks for locals are not in Vegas, but Henderson. Heard it here first.

Things that have to do with actually visiting here I tend to not know a lot about lol. Like check out times and rental cars are not my forte. I believe there is a place on Tropicana in between Swenson and Paradise, right across the street from Thomas & Mack. If they're still open, at one time they had a wide selection of exotic cars for rent. There are certainly better resources out there than me for that question I would hope.

...It's weird how you right past 100 times a month and still not recall if it's still there or not.

I wouldn't say I'm super anti Uber. I would say I am super pro logic and common sense. And it just so happens that Uber fails many thresholds in that regard. And it just so happens that this is something I know a heck of lot about. I stated on twitter more than once that Uber was a pet project for me. If @LVCabChronicles was it's own person, it would be against Uber. So I kinda treat it that way. Plus, they're such an easy target so it makes for fun shooting.


In some ways AnonMouse, in some ways. In other ways however, it was a significant downgrade. You see a picture of a naked girl and you're fixated on the breasts right now. Zoom out and maybe then you'll notice the outtie instead of an innie that's in between her legs. I'm willing to concede that Uber has nice boobs, it's up to you to realize that there are problems however. And when I say problems I mean prohibitive, Johnson down below, problems.


I get it man. Cabs are not a perfect system. And I could go into great detail explaining why the problems you describe persist and why they're a difficult solve. For now, just know that there are explanations.

For ex, and w/o getting into it too much, sometimes it's as simple as you call for a cab, dispatch puts your call out over the air and I just happen to be empty and just around the block from you. When you called, dispatch told you it might be a half an hour and I got there in five minutes. There are 100 different factors that determine how long it takes to get a cab in any one situation.

To your point, the Uber platform seemed to solve this problem altogether. The key word there is seem. Heck, I'll even concede that it's a vast improvement. However my prediction is coming true that this problem is manifesting itself in new ways now. I said long ago that it was only a matter of time before Uber drivers got the experience and learned the nuances of our business and began to make sound decisions in operating said business. This is only exacerbated by the fact that Uber drivers are driving their own cars so it's more personal to them and they don't view themselves as a public service as much. Sure, you request an Uber, it says he'll be there in 20 minutes. Fantastic. Until the driver finds something better to do and cancels your ride or convinces you to cancel your ride and then you get to start all over again with a new estimate. This can and does happen multiple times for lots of individuals. So naturally your original 20min estimate is totally worthless and you would have been better off not knowing of it at all in the first place. And now the big thing is canceling rides after the surge hits and the real neat trick drivers have figured out is that they can actually collude and get the surge up at their whim. It's OPEC for cabs.

These and many similar issues are happening constantly. I would urge you to check out the feed of @nextapprentice1 on twitter. He is a former Uber driver who does nothing but archive Uber complaints now and it's a cacophony of scathing testimonials that mimic your own of cabs here. Cabs & Uber have the same problems because we are the same thing. Any attempts to draw a bright line between us is futile.


Already well on it's way dude and avail for download is RideGenie which is operating in Vegas now. As every cab in town already has GPS and data in it for the CC machines it was a natural fit to incorporate that into an app as Uber is doing. On that note, recently in LA they passed an ordinance that REQUIRES cab companies to implement an Uber type app request system for all of their cabs within a few months. ...Nothing that Uber has done is proprietary and it's only a matter of time before cab companies adopt the best of their system for themselves. (A not so subtle acknowledgement that some improvements have been made in the means of dispatch, arguably Uber's only innovation) Particularity considering that Uber has already lifted the heavy weights in the way of changing consumer behavior and getting people used to requesting a ride via this method. (I would recon a cab co probably had the idea first but it never went anywhere because they couldn't get anyone to download and use the app/service, something I'm sure will plague RideGenie as well)


You say Vegas needs Uber but what you really mean is that Vegas needs safe and reliable transportation, preferably from a driver who doesn't have BO. And that's something we've been working on for decades now. It's not an easy solution to keep all sides appeased, as Uber is learning here now.

One thing that is never discussed here is the amount of time that it's reasonable to have to wait for cab in the first place. I'd say if you could get a cab in the amount of time it takes you to get a pizza, that is reasonable. If we can agree on that then I would tell you that about 90% of rides in vegas are executed within that amount of time. People are very narcissistic when it comes to "their cab" and take it very personally when it hasn't arrived by the time they set out in their head that it should have arrived. I mean, we're trying to service a city of 2,000,000 people along with 200,000 visitors all at the same time...sorry if we didn't get there as fast you thought we should have.

People act like it somehow behooves us to not pick up every single person possible. Of course it does. If it were up to us, we would execute every single call. Hell, if we log more radio calls that just gives the owners all that much more power to go to the board and say "we need more medallions, look at how many radio calls we're doing!" I sit in the cab and hear dispatch put all the calls out and I hear drivers pick them up. Constantly. During the week, drivers will be fighting over calls on the radio, and lined up all the way to the streets on every strip stand. There are 40% more cabs on the road in Vegas than there was when I started, my trips per shift have decreased in accordance with that, and yet I'm to believe that there is this large section of the market that can't get cab service??? Uh, no. Just no. Fri & Sat night or during a major convention is the only time anyone should have a problem getting a cab in the outskirts in Vegas. And those aren't even entire days but peak times in those days. This, is the case for any cab market anywhere. If you have a cab for every person when it's busy, what are all those cab drivers doing when it's slow? They're on welfare, that's what.


You're entitled to your opinion of course. And I'm glad you see how it's dumb for tourists here, that's an important part of this conversation. Give the cab company apps some time to work the kinks out I would say. If you and ALL people (even handicapped ones) can get a timely and price guaranteed ride via your phone app from a professional, vetted, indemnified and insured driver and car, then I would say then that is a win for everybody.

In closing, I believe Orwell's "Animal Farm" is a near perfect analogy for the Cab Co's vs Uber storyline. The Cab Co's are the oppressive Farmer Jones and Uber are the Pigs. So sure, Uber has nice boobs and "four legs good, two legs bad" sure sounds nice enough. But I'm here to tell you my friend, the pigs are already walking.

Was that from Terminal 1? If so that's a ridiculous move. No excuse for that whatsoever. A total eff you. If however you originated from Term 3 then I would point out that that is not a longhaul but rather, just the way out of there, as I described in a previous post. If i'm you in that situation I'm giving him $5 less than the meter at the rides end.

If you have an actual rebuttal I would love to hear it.

I think I've proven myself willing to acknowledge the facts regarding the cab industry here. I am biased, sure, but if I honestly thought the TA was a powerful entity in any meaningful sense I would have no qualms about saying so here. In what way are they powerful? In what capacity and to what extent do they wield this power?

And before you go down the "TA blocked Uber" and "TA won't let in any competition" road I will point out just as a freebie that those are red herrings for you. Those are losing arguments, but you'll probably proceed with them anyway...

If it's a refund you seek, and you seem to know the cab number and company I would suggest you contact the company directly. The complaint might serve to see that the driver is cited but easiest way to get your funds back is call Western. Get in touch with Marc Alcantar, tell him I told you to contact him regarding this issue.

Western is one of the smaller companies in town. It would be easy to avoid them (plus their cars are notoriously the worst kept in town) but the long haul problem is hardly exclusive to them and it's a farce to think you will completely avoid it with another outfit. (though some are better than others)

I'll highlight this because it contradicts an oft repeated assertion that when you file a complaint against a cabbie in vegas nothing ever comes of it. That is absolutely false. In fact it's not just policy-it's law that TA investigate every complaint they receive. So much so, and to your point, drivers are keen to avoid that hassle whenever they can, even and especially if it means eating some of the fare.

Tales of construction or road closures are almost always BS. I'll say 95% of the time. In tune with the used car salesmen theme, as a general rule you probably shouldn't believe anything a cab driver tells you.

That said, it's only common sense to think that occasionally a road we may need to use has construction or traffic on it. I always hate it when this comes up when I'm driving because I know how it sounds when I speak of traffic up ahead. But on the other hand, if I don't bring it up, and we get stuck in a snarl, you'll be immediately be thinking that I did that on purpose (as if getting stuck in traffic benefits me) so I can charge you more or that I am in some way a horrible cabbie for not knowing about it in the first place. It's impossible for me to win with public perception in this scenario. This is a perfect example about how somebody who is trying to do things the right way, like myself, is hampered by the bad behavior of everyone else.

I would agree with what the other guy said that the Strip is the obvious answer. That's I believe the most traveled road in this country and we add 100,000 pedestrians to the mix and you have a tough situation for people who are unfamiliar with their car, unfamiliar with the roads and unfamiliar with the conditions. Especially on the weekends. You have to remember that not just drivers are distracted on the strip (inattentive driving is THE #1 cause of accidents) but the pedestrians are distracted as well. It's a volatile mix.

The rest of Vegas is pretty easy, however. The entire town is a grid; all major thoroughfares run straight N/S or E/W. The N/S divider is US 95 and the E/W divider is the Strip. Got an address 9000 W Flamingo? Take the Strip north to Flamingo and go West until you reach 9000. GOing to Green Door inside the commercial center at 950 E. Sahara? Take the Strip North to Sahara and head east until you hit 950. There are two major highways that cut through town I-15 and US 95 in addition to a loop that runs around the city 215. Right on reds are legal everywhere unless otherwise marked. U-turns are legal everywhere unless otherwise marked. This is especially useful when needing to make a left out of a private drive, instead make a right and then make a U-turn when you can.

Good luck and keep all four fenders on it.

Thanks a lot man. At this point I'm just trying keep up with these questions. I do have a new stripper story that I mentioned on twitter a while back. I think I'll save it for the blog because it needs to be done proper. The short of it is I picked up this dancer at the back door of Rhino, I asked her where to go and she said, "Take me to your house". Ok. It was an obvious but horrible joke. Minutes later as we drove past Pussycats (a notoriously very shady seldom visited strip club in chinatown) she gets the crazy idea to go inside there and check it out and convinces me to park the cab and go inside with her to check it out. Keep the meter running, she says. Ok fine, next thing I knew, in my negations trying to gain our admittance sans cover charge, the manager of the club comes out and the next thing I knew we're getting a grand tour of this joint by the mgr himself. There was not one customer in there, and a bunch of ugly strippers, naked, sitting around with nothing to do. It was super awkward. The mgr saw me as the solution to getting all cabbies to drop customers off at his club and saw my new stripper friend as the hottest girl to potentially ever work there. He was totally kissing our ass. All this ten minutes after I met this girl. After leaving tried very hard to get me to go into a local pub and have a drink with her....but I'll save that for when I tell you for real

As for the Courtesan, that's a good question. You're proving your longtime fandom there lol. No, I have never met her personally nor have I ever tried to. Nor has she me. I know for her privacy is always #1. That's why she stopped twitter. Our entire "relationship" if you will existed on twitter. I guess I stumbled onto her feed a while back and she always seemed to be amused when I tweeted her. We definitely had a kinship through similar hours of work and similar stories of stupid people. We both have a love for vegas and telling a good yard, so there were a lot of similarities. And I think a mutual respect from our shared success in blogging and twitter and what not, if you want to call it that.

A few DM exchanges was the closest I ever got to her. At my urging, and in the interest of her privacy, she allowed me to float the rumor that I was actually @VegasCourtesan as well and that all of the twitter chats were actually me talking to myself. That was genius, I thought. In hindsight, I should have ran with that more. It pleased me greatly when people asked me, "are you really the courtesan?". "Where did you get all the pictures?" ... Then even better than that I think I had the idea for... The Cabbie & Courtesan Show! The podcast, it would have killed, I have no doubt whatsoever. (once and for all dispelling the myth that we were the same person!! lol) I officially asked her if she was interested in doing it once and she thought it was awesome but declined. I knew she would. I wasn't even sure if I could do it honestly. It'd be an interesting sell to the wife. lol Then, a little while later, I tried to rally a bunch of people to tweet her to ask her to do it. I knew that wasn't going to work, but I just wanted her to see that i wasn't the only one who thought it was a good idea. But that was the end of that. I havent talked to her for a longtime. That's the courtesan story.

Mandalay Bay is quite literally the shortest longhaul you can get from the airport. The tunnel is only $2-3 more. If you look at the two available routes on a map either way you're basically just drawing a box around the airfield. Up until a few years ago, TA didn't even consider tunnel to MB a longhaul at all. Luxor yes, MB no. But that's not the case anymore. $2 extra hardly qualifies for a record.

Well let's start by saying that that behavior is unacceptable and you shouldn't have had to deal with that. Per our society customs, your $2 tip on a $6 tab was more than sufficient.

Now, why the beef then? Well it's what we would call a short ride, well under $10*. It is worthy of a cab sure, it's way too far to demand people walk there. But as far as the cab ride lottery pool goes, this ride is a bust from our end. Particularly if you had to wait a long time for it. The longer you wait the worse the beat this gets. It could be salvaged however, by a nice tip that compensates for that bad beat (hey i used a poker term). Your tip, while sufficient, was not enough to overcome that loss.

The best comparison I can make is if you go to a busy diner and sit in a booth by yourself, order a danish and a bottomless cup of coffee and sit there for 3 hours reading your paper and leaving the waitress $2 extra on the $6 tab. Sure you did what you're obligated to do, and of course you have no responsibility to the waitress or the restaurant, but I think most would agree that you'd be a heel to do that. You, through your well intended patronage, in effect, obstructed her earning potential. You are the customer the waitress remembers for the wrong reason every time you visit, you are the customer that doesn't get my number when you ask me for it, even when I leave you in Chinatown.

Lastly, that actually isn't a bad neighborhood there.

*I agree with what the other guy said, that you should never give a cabbie less than $10, regardless of how small the meter is. That of course is just a suggestion. Also, you asked for $2 back, but there's always a special place in my heart for $7 tab asks for $1 back, guy. He's my favorite. It's like, really? Maybe I'm just jaded.

Yeah, what he said.

My info would not to do it.

the difference is it's not standard to sit in a diner for 3 hours and if you do and don't tip extremely well (and i mean like a 20 in this case) you're a dick. you caused the entire situation. i used to play cards with a few friends in a diner when it was empty during the day and our bill might be 15 bucks and we'd leave her a 50 when we were there for 3-4 hours.

the 6 dollar cab ride is different. sure he may want to just give a 10 and that's probably what I would do but he didn't cause the situation of the cabby waiting a while at all.
let's say someone decided to take a cab from vegas to la. they agree on a price and he pays. the cabbie is now gonna drive back to vegas. now it's his lucky day and before he heads back someone says hey I need to go to vegas. so he charges the guy the same rate he got going back to vegas.

do you think instead he's gonna saw "aww gee i had to go back there anyway and that was factored into the price of the first ride so i'll just take you back for free"? **** no.

so while i'd likely just give the guy a 10 it has nothing to do with his wait. if he's waiting that means i'm waiting also and likely pissed off as it is.i mean what's next if he has a longer commute to work or hit traffic getting there I tip him extra?

considering so many cabs in vegas long haul, bring people to massage clubs they know are gonna rip them off and are miserable confrontational pricks when they get a sufficient tip that's less than they wanted tipping extra is probably a mistake anyway.

and btw is there any job more worthless and annoying than the taxi stand guy during non prime hours standing there with his hand out like I can't communicate or open my own door?

When I was in Vegas last November, I took a cab from the airport to Vdara. After arriving, I went to pay by a credit/debit card, and when I told the driver that's what I wanted to do, the fare went up a few dollars. When I questioned it, the cabbie told me that the additional fare was a "fee" associated with card use and there was nothing he could do about it.

Was his explanation true? I pay cabs with my credit card in cities all over the US, and I've never run into this before.

If the explanation was false, what should I have done? I actually just decided to pay cash.

Great thread Funk.

My wife and I will be travelling to Vegas next month with our twin boys - they are 21 months old. Do you know if the Nevada car seat law extends to other vehicles? (shuttle buses, etc). We weren't planning on bringing their seats, but it appears we might have to.

You are so wrong about Uber/Lyft. Never once in hundreds and hundreds of rides has a lyft driver cancelled. I paid $4 today for a lyft ride that cost $15 in a cab on the way back. Cab drivers are wayyyyyyy worse at accommodating/not sucking than lyft/uber. In fact, you lose your job if you suck enough as a lyft/uber driver.

You have a biased opinion that is fundamentally incorrect.

Thanks for addressing me questions!

I do have to agree with j20s though, I have never had an uber driver cancel on me.

In regards to the above you are saying that drivers get annoyed when they get stuck with the short / cheap fares correct? Can you explain to me why a driver would turn down a ride then? Here is the scenario:

I got in a cab once I believe either from the airport or one of the strip hotels (forget the specifics this was a few years ago) to go to my house in the SW, ~ 15 min away. The driver tells me no he will not take me there angrily and then makes me get out. Why would this be the case? My house is not very far away, it would be a good fare for him, and he could probably pick up another ride from dispatch nearby. This kind of scenario seems to go against your previous points...

because cab drivers are scum urchins with no morality?

seriously i wish uber would run them into the ****ing ground. greedy scum. it only took 1 longhaul and another attempted longhaul out of 4 cabrides for me to hate them.

i cannot wait until my next vegas trip and try some new advice i found here on 2+2 (as i was disgustedly paying them before) and get longhauled and then upon my arrival at my hotel, to get out of the cab and get my suitcase from trunk, pay the cabbie $0 and say "**** you"

You must have a lot of friends.

They don't like short trips because they might have waited in a cab line for a long time and were hoping for a bigger fare. Also, many cab drivers are sub-intellectual scumbag *******s who are completely incapable of seeing the big picture.

As for yours, I definitely would have gotten out of the cab, but not before taking down his name and number and reporting the POS.