Nevada’s Taxicab Authority overcharges the state’s taxi passengers tens of millions of dollars each year and routinely oversteps its regulatory boundaries, a state audit reported.
Results of a Nevada internal audit of the Taxicab Authority, which regulates Southern Nevada’s taxi industry, were provided in January and suggest the state dissolve the authority and turn its regulatory duties over to the Nevada Transportation Authority and Clark County.
The audit says the Taxicab Authority in 2015 took in $11 in funding revenue, against only $6.1 million in costs, and charges “excessive” credit card fees and a 20 cents-per-mile fuel surcharge.
The additional fees annually generate tens of millions of dollars in excessive costs for passengers, even as fuel costs continue to fall during a global oil glut.
The 20 cents-per-mile fuel charge generates about $27 million each year, despite fuel costs dropping and there being very little evidence supporting its need, the audit reported.
The audit also says the $3 fee charged for processing credit card payments “exceeds all operational costs in the industry” and generates “unsupported revenue” of between about $14 million and more than $20 million each year.
About a fourth of all taxi fares in Southern Nevada are paid by credit card, which are processed inside the cabs on electronic devices, and the $3 fee accounts for about 17 percent of the fare for a 5-mile cab ride, the state audit says.
Clark County’s 16 cab companies took in a record $425 million last year, which rose by more than 4 percent from 2014.
