Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Ride-hailing companies Uber, Lyft get permits to operate in Nevada

Ride-Sharing Las Vegas

Jeff Chiu / AP

In this Jan. 4, 2013, file photo, Lyft passenger Christina Shatzen gets into a car driven by Nancy Tcheou in San Francisco. Ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft are preparing to enter the Las Vegas market.

Updated Monday, Sept. 14, 2015 | 2:27 p.m.

The Nevada Transportation Authority today approved ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft to operate in Nevada, although local regulatory hurdles still loom and no launch dates have been announced.

Clark County has indicated that it would be illegal for Uber and Lyft to operate without a business license but has yet to create a new licensing category for ride-hailing companies.

Lyft is in talks with the county and still hopes to be on the road this week, spokeswoman Chelsea Wilson said. She said the company has 1,000 drivers ready to go.

Uber plans to launch “as soon as possible,” spokeswoman Eva Behrend said.

The county plans to introduce an ordinance Tuesday to provide a legal framework for licensing ride-hailing companies, but it could take several weeks to complete the process.

There is debate, however, about whether the county can create a separate business license category for ride-hailing companies.

According to an opinion issued by lawyers from Nevada’s Legislative Counsel Bureau, a municipality cannot prohibit ride-hailing companies from obtaining a business license if they have met all the prerequisites that generally apply to other businesses.

Under Lyft’s application, approved after nearly four hours of deliberation this morning, the company can operate 2,500 cars in Nevada for a state fee of $150,000. Uber can operate an unlimited fleet for $500,000 fee.

The panel approved Lyft’s application with two conditions — that Lyft work to address minor concerns the Department of Insurance has about its insurance policy and provide alternative language for a portion of its terms-of-use policy.

Uber’s application was approved with the condition that it address four minor issues.

During today’s meeting, representatives from Lyft and Uber outlined their operations.

Ride-hailing companies have faced criticism for opting to run Social Security-based background checks on drivers rather than FBI fingerprint checks, which protects against fraud. Transportation Authority Commissioner Keith Sakelhide questioned the efficacy of the checks, but both companies defended their safety procedures.

Kelly Kay, Lyft’s vice president of compliance and payment, said the company is “pretty discriminating” in choosing drivers, with only one in five applicants making it through the selection process.

Sakelhide urged both companies to adopt pre-employment drug screening and to test drivers anytime the company reviews a complaint of impaired driving.

At one point during today’s meeting, when a representative from Uber said safety was the company’s top priority, Sakelhide replied: “I’d like to see a little bit more to back up that statement.”

A lawyer for the Livery Operators Association, which represents taxi companies and has sought tougher regulations for ride-hailing companies, asked the authority to further review the applications and strengthen safeguards.

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