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One way to end longhauling...

Discussion in 'Getting There & Getting Around' started by Steve in RI., Mar 25, 2013.

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  1. Steve in RI.

    Steve in RI. Low-Roller

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    On my recent trip a few weeks ago, I wasn't paying attention, and was long hauled from the airport even though I know about the scam! The late hour, and leaving from terminal 3 threw me off. The fare from the airport to Ballys came to 25.40, and I gave the guy 26 dollars and told him that was all he was getting because he long hauled us!

    Upon landing back at JFK, I noticed signs on the cabs saying there is a flat rate to midtown. Why can't Las Vegas cabs do something similar and charge something like 12 dollars for the south strip, 17 dollars mid strip, 20 dollars north strip, and 30 dollars Downtown? That would eliminate the tunnel concerns, and the anxiety over watching the meter run while you are sitting in traffic.
     
  2. UTE

    UTE Plastics

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    Many cities have gone the flat rate route. It does reduce the long haul complaints as well as gives the cabbies incentive to get you to your destination fast and efficiently.

    I was long-hauled once too and learned from it. Now I specifically say, "Take Paradise," and the cabbie complies. A few times I've had them say that Paradise is bad due to construction (etc.) and I give them the leeway to get me around it.

    Bill
     
  3. C0usineddie

    C0usineddie VIP Whale

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    What would happen is the new flat rate to mgm would be $15 instead of the $12 it is now.

    If I have already thought it up, you know they have.

    Then about once per year or so it would go up by $1, just like everything else. Now its $16, now it$18 and so on.
     
  4. VegasBJ

    VegasBJ VIP Whale

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    Do any of you ever notice that when you get in the cab, and the first question the cabbie asks (besides maybe where are you from?) is "Do you come here often?"

    That is to determine if you know your way around or not, and if they are able to long haul you.

    Your response should always be, "Yeah, I come here once a month", and then tell them how you want to be routed....................
     
  5. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    A cabbie never asks me that.

    The last cabbie asked me if I wanted to get there quicker and I said "no, the cheapest route" please.

    As to the suggestion here, I believe its been discussed before, but it would take pressure from the hotels to get cabs to offer a flat rate, and they seem to have no interest in doing so.
     
  6. NickyDim

    NickyDim Hockey is life

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    I don't think the cabbies would ever be in favor. Don't they have a timer charge along with a distance charge? If it's costing them more time because of construction or traffic they want compensation, where as they're screwed with a flat rate.
     
  7. mike_m235

    mike_m235 Tourist

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    I got long hauled on my last trip by my limo. This wasn't really an issue, because I wasn't paying for it. So I had the opportunity to ask the driver about it since clearly he had no vested interest in taking me one route or another.

    I was going to Monte Carlo, so I asked why we took the tunnel. Just curious, really...didn't care. He said the construction around the MC and NYNY made the highway faster. I have no reason to doubt him.
     
  8. Joe Strummer

    Joe Strummer VIP Whale

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    I agree w/ VegasBJ --
    .
    I've been asked many times something along
    the lines of ...."This your first time to Vegas ?"
    .
    I have taken cabs from JFK ( NYC ) to Grand Central Railroad Terminal -
    Payed the flat fee....which was nice.
    Those cabbies HAUL ASS !
    However, there is NO flat fee -- the other way around.
    If I was to take a cab from GC Terminal to JFK ---
    it might end up costing a fortune.
    Now, why is that ?
     
  9. Auggie

    Auggie Dovahkiin

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    Hmm... were you long hauled?

    TaxiFareFinder.com estimates the standard fare from McCarran to Bally's to be a little over $21 and when you add the $3.00-3.50 more that most people report cabs costing extra from Terminal 3... it sounds more like you might have just hit a couple of lights along the way.

    If they did a flat rate from the airport...

    The first problem is that the prices you are suggesting here are the absolute bare bones minimums for cabfare to these parts of The Strip and Downtown. The reality is if they had flat rates there would be a fair bit of padding on there to account for traffic and delays, if the cab companies had any say (which since its their business they would likely have about 99% of the say) you'd probably end up with something like $25 to anywhere on "The Strip" from the airport and $40 to Downtown.

    Then when you compare the flat rates you are suggesting to what you see in other cities it points out the second big problem, or more like the lack of one: when you are talking about a flat rate from JFK, you aren't mentioning that the flat rate is in the $50+ to $60+ range... versus your proposed as low as $12 in Las Vegas.

    At issue here would be: in most cities when you get "long hauled" it will often add $30-40+ to the cab fare, which in some cities will usually increase the fare by 75-100% or more... in Las Vegas a "long haul" usually ends up costing about $2-4 more, often only about 10-15% being added on to the final cab fare.

    Thats why the county really only pays this issue some token lip service every 1-2 years: its such an irrelevant non-issue that its practically a waste of county time and resources to explore any options to "fix" it... in the end probably just looking at it like: if somebody is such a penny pinching cheapskate that they are going to whine and complain that a cab ride cost them $5 more, just how much money are they bringing in to the city?

    So to keep the cheap people happy and get the city some good travel press for a few hours one day a year, usually in January since its the slowest time of the year for anything Las Vegas, they'll have their inspectors out there at the tunnel and will issue warnings to a few cab drivers and then publish the results a week or two later so it looks like they are taking the issue seriously and doing something about it.

    In other words: don't expect there to ever be a "fix" for this "problem"
     
  10. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    The problem with flat rates, as others have eluded to, is what do you set the rate at so its fair/better for riders without screwing over cabbies when there are construction detours or traffic delays.

    Many cities do flat rates, but most of the ones I have seen that do it, the airport is a fair ways out from the city, with a lot of highway driving in between. That makes metering somewhat impractical, as the highway drive is better on fuel, wear and tear, and takes less time than a typical cab meter would roll to.

    The strip is actually VERY CLOSE to the airport, though.
     
  11. engicedave

    engicedave VIP Whale

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    Here's an idea, finish the monorail to the airport!

    But the cabbie union seems to be fighting that at every turn, so I think they'll fight this at every turn.

    That said, I think a lot of times, these threads scare newbies about taxi service and assume that "tunneling" is always wrong or bad, and IMO, as someone who's rented a car and driven the area many many times, sometimes it's a LOT FASTER to use I-15.
    For those not familiar, the tunnel takes you out of the terminal, and loops you south, under the airport runway (the "tunnel" is actually the airport runways above) and you then turn back up north up I-15....so you loop south and around to then head north up the strip/strip area.
    Sometimes traffic on the strip is deadlocked and Koval isn't much better, so the next alternative, depending on hotel, is to loop under the airport, hop I-15 up to Flamingo, Spring Mtn. or Sahara.

    The tunnel is not always bad.
     
  12. VegasDave

    VegasDave Addicted

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    the closer proximity should make the flat rate easier to determine because there are less unknown variables to take into account in between. the cab companies having 99% say in the matter would not be correct as they are already regulated, as is the case in all other major cities, on the rules. they could definitely go on strike though if they don't like the new rules.

    I have been long hauled and I just mention something to the affect of "so you took the tunnel, I understand what happened." a lot of times when I arrive, the first thing I think about is not about how my cab is going to scam me so I get distracted and it seems to happen most times. once I mention that I know what they did, usually I get a defensive attitude that turns into "pay what you want", which I always give them a fair base price if they took the right way and no tip based on their attempt to scam.

    flat rates would help everyone, I would even tip better if my flat rate was reasonable and I could sit back and relax and not worry.
     
  13. fire46149

    fire46149 Tourist

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    I got Long haulded my last trip. Been to Vegas many times and this has never happened. I never knew where the tunnel was LOL. So I took the cabs number and called the cab company reported to them the Cab number and they refunded my full fair by money order.

    I'd recommend this to anyone long haulded
     
  14. Auggie

    Auggie Dovahkiin

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    Actually, it would be the total opposite: the closer the proximity the worse it will be for the passengers for a flat rate.

    In the case of Las Vegas:

    From the airport to most hotels on The Strip the typical distance is 1-2 miles.

    In a typical city, the distance from the airport to the main city center is about 20-25 miles.

    Using the Las Vegas taxi rates of $2.60 per mile:
    If in a typical city the taxi has to take a detour to get around construction or an accident and it adds 2 miles to the trip... or they get stuck behind a few red lights and/or traffic is moving very slow: when stuff like that happens it would typically add $5-6 on to the fare.

    To the bottom line what that means is $5.50 (avg cost of 2 more miles or a slow ride) divided by $58.50 ($2.60 per mile times an average of 22.5 miles)
    $5.50/$58.50 = 9.4% increase in fare over what it "should" be just based on mileage

    Now we look at Las Vegas with the same scenario:
    That works out to $5.50 (avg cost of 2 more miles or a slow ride) divided by $3.90 ($2.60 per miles times an average of 1.5 miles)
    $5.50/$3.90 = 141% increase to the fare over what it "should" be just based on mileage

    A 10% or even 20% possible fluctuation in fare is pretty easy to accommodate and build in as a padding to the flat rate fare: if they figure 15% is the normal fluctuation and might occur one in every 10 trips then they would set their flat rate at 1.5% over what is expected to be the standard average rate.

    But a range of possibly 120-150% is pretty big and if they go with the same 1 in 10 trips theory then in order to set a flat rate they would have to take the average to the destination and then tack on 12-15% more.

    And they have to average the distances traveled to not just one hotel, but all in the area.

    As an example: if they were to say "South Strip Costs: $_____" they aren't going to set the fare at what it costs to get to MGM Grand... if they were gong to pick a south strip hotel to be the center point of the south strip it'd probably be Luxor, which costs about $2 more in cab fare to get to than MGM Grand.

    The Las Vegas taxi site says the trip from airport to MGM Grand should be $14... but if the rate you have to pay is now Luxor's fare plus 17.50%, then you are now looking at a fare of about $19... a 36% increase over what it is now.
     
  15. Kickin

    Kickin Flea

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    Why? Why? Why?

    LOL don't bother asking any rational questions of why Vegas doesn't follow decades old models from other heavily visited cities when it comes to transit options. It's the most ass-backwards place like it that I can think of. Think about it...the main area is all along one street and after all these years they still don't have a fast and efficient way to navigate it. Just know going in whether you're taking limos, cabs, buses, or the ridiculously useless monorail that you should just suck up the lack of efficiency and forget about it. Get drunk instead.
     
  16. Username

    Username VIP Whale

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    Cabbie: Where you going.......

    Me: Bally's......been here many times and the more it cost me the less you get in a tip...

    Cabbie: Gotcha......

    All Long Hauling Problems solved.......
     
  17. mike_m235

    mike_m235 Tourist

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    There is almost no time when the highway isn't faster to get to a place like Mirage than taking surface streets. Personally I prefer to save the time and pay the money.
     
  18. Reston

    Reston VIP Whale

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    As someone who has driven a fair amount in Vegas over the years, I can tell you that you have been very lucky! Also, there often is a significant difference between taking the highway and being tunneled.
     
  19. Reston

    Reston VIP Whale

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    But speed isn't the issue. It's being taken a longer way without your consent.
     
  20. nostresshere

    nostresshere Mr. Anti Debit Card

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    Here we go again. Same'o... same'o.

    1 - There are times when taking the tunnel is not bad. It might be less time due to little traffic. And, way less stop and go. I actually prefer when going to places like Mirage. Almost zero stops between airport and hotel, which is great after flying all day.

    2 - If you do not want the tunnel, say so. If they do it, then once you arrive, just begin to call the taxi authority after taking picture of his ID card. He will be glad to take a reduced fare. Been there, done that.

    3 - The old "First time to Vegas or Come here often" question happens to us almost every time. We have family coming for first trip soon. One of my tips is -"Yep, just here a few months ago, or Yea, way too often"
     
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