[icrackaces]

(New to forum)

This looks like a great community to find out more information on some things I am in need of, so hope this is an o.k thread.

I am in Orlando Florida and have driven a Taxi here for 2 years and its actually very good, with all the theme parks and tourism, as well as quite safe since you mostly drive tourists. As opposed to most 'inner city' Taxi driving jobs. So my curiosity is about Taxi Driving job and opportunities in Las Vegas.

How exactly does the Taxi business work, anyone with knowledge of it please, barriers of entry, are they weekly/daily or shift schedules, do they get hourly or just tips (or half the meter) now I have called around but seem to get mixed ideas and would like to hear from people who live there.

A little about me, I play poker and drive. The main reason Orlando taxi driving isn't working, is because its too far from the poker games which makes it very time consuming to get too and from, especially after usually long 12 hour+ days. Las Vegas offers both poker and driving and plenty of both. Along with good/important networking possibilities over time so thats a little about me, why etc in case one wondered. So just wanted to get some insight from locals on how to go about getting into the field there, as well as some personal information/experiences.

Glad I found this forum seems like a great place to get legitimate answers from locals before making a big leap and possibly soon.


Thank you all

[oeccscclhjhn]

I worked for one company, so other companies will have different procedures, shifts, etc. Where I worked, I started out by showing up when they told me, and waited to see if there's a shift, then they hand you the sheet, keys, and the sheet tells you your shift times. You get paid a percentage of what you bring in. Get a lot of rides that shift, you get more money. For me, tips were always good. I got a gas card and it's on your account to it's taken into account when you get your check. After a while I got my own schedule, and being low man on the totem pole, it's whatever is left. So the drivers with seniority got the route of their choice with the better vehicles.

I worked pre-u ber, so I started out with a lot of restricted shift / cabs - so you can't pick up at the airport or the strip. If you pick up in the suburbs and drop at the strip, you cannot pick up there, so you're empty getting to your next ride, though if I got hailed, I picked them up anyway and never got in trouble. Now that there's u ber and l ift, I don't know if they even still have restricted cabs.

A few times I had to drive back to the bay and hose down the back seat to get the chunks out when a rider loses their cookies.

When it's busy it's the most fun in the world.

[NLVgal]

Hopefully EA and our other former drivers will chime in.

[EA]

It's been a couple years since I drove cab and it was before Uber. I have no idea how they run things now.

[Jukesgrrl]

There have been tons of informative threads on C-D Las Vegas about taxi driving. I see you haven't been on C-D long, so perhaps you don't know how to do the search function.

Go to the top right of this page and click on the word Search. Then click the line on the box that says "Advanced Search."
Put in "taxi driving" in the box on the left that says "Key Words." Then move your cursor over to the right column of the page and use the drop down menu to highlight "Las Vegas," to restrict your search to this city only. You'll get a three-page list of threads that related specifically to taxi driving. Some of them, of course, will be be for and by users of taxis. But quite a few discuss various aspects of taxi driving. Some of them were even topics started by a poster whose handle is Vegas Cabbie.

[69Charger]

Maybe just being an Uber driver would work out better than a taxi driver

[icrackaces]

appreciate the feedback, or for the little bit that I seemed to get above...

I thought the good thing about a 'forum' was that one can interact/communicate with others to answer particular questions etc. Not just try and fish through old threads that other people wrote about other things of which much is dated so, I just assumed a new thread would be more useful, but I can see some here are LOL, a little weird and instead of answering questions just act like im asking something wrong.


oeccscclhjhn/NLVgal thank you very much for the kind responses. As for the rest of you, I was hoping to be able to interact with you all somewhat in the know and currently. And the reason im not looking to Uber is because im not bringing a car across the country. Im bringing money, my ability (mind body and soul) and a driver license etc...

Also why Uber doesnt work for me, or at least not right away is I have lots to learn there. Literally, like even the roads, short cuts etc. The benefit of working around others in the business is you do learn the tricks, shortcuts etc from the drivers/coworkers when in a company. As an Uber driver you're independent and largely on your own. So for a legitimate new person to Las Vegas (roads wise etc) it's a huge learning curve, which I think would be crunched faster by being able to network with others in the business there.

Just worked a real long day and came back to this thread hoping for more, and am a bit disappointed if I had to be honest... So if im coming off a bit ornery, sorry just was hoping to find some more informative posts. Not ones implying I should just search and dredge up old threads. And I did, but honestly I was hoping to be able to communicate with someone, or someones, not just search and read old threads although that was somewhat helpful, although not really.

Leavingin 2 weeks so no rush but really was hoping to get some useful info from you locals.

And in all seriousness I feel like I should create a dupe name 'flygirl' or something and for some reason think i'd likely have gotten some more quality responses. Maybe the 'flygirl' handle as opposed to 'icrackaces' would have been the optimal play here. I'll remember that next time...

anyway thanks to the ones who seemingly tried to help me out especially you oeccscclhjhn and please dont be shy and help me out here if you have some knowledge of this all and think it can be of use.

thanks

[EA]

The other taxi threads are extremely in depth, informative, and comprehensive. More so than we could replicate here.

[Sqibbcakes]

Cab companies are hurting for drivers right now. There are about 3530 medallions owned by the companies, so there's a lot of blown shifts. In LV cabs are very regulated, and to get hired you must jump through several hoops. Everything is straight commission which varies from 38-50%. Basic shifts are 10-12 hours, and of course the companies want you to work as much as possible.Along with all transportation companies corruption is rampant. If you have any specific questions fire away.

[EA]

You can't have an attitude like that and expect to get social interaction.