Don't allow yourself to be taken in circles and jerked around. Always ask the driver for an approximate price of how much it will cost to get to your destination. This rule is true in Las Vegas, and anywhere in the world you take a taxi; Ask "approximately how much will it cost?" before you get into the taxi. Cab drivers who are crooks hate this. If the cabbie won't give you a satisfactory answer, don't get in the cab and demand another taxi. If you tell the driver to go any way they want, and do not check how much it will cost, you just gave the cabbie permission to long-haul you, and you may end up paying $20 more than if you ask the driver in advance. If you want the cheapest way, do not say, "just go the fastest way." To most drivers that means "Take the freeway, even if it costs $10 more." If you want a cheap fare, then you say, "please take me the cheapest way."

Nevada State Law mandates that taxi drivers take you the most direct way unless you agree to another way. Given the fact that 90% of taxi rides in Las Vegas are in the middle of the worst traffic in Las Vegas, it is often best to take a route that is not the most direct route, and may cost $2 to $3 more than the most direct route. However, some drivers will try to get $5 to $10 more out of each ride. Once again, just get an approximate amount before the ride begins, and realize that it might be a little more if there is an accident or something that bottlenecks the best way to go.

The cost of taking a taxi from one place to another in Las Vegas can vary by as much as $10.00, depending on traffic. Just because a road is clear and good one hour, does not mean it is the next hour. Rush hour, accidents, construction, thousands of employees getting off work at the same time, and other variables, can turn a good way to go most of the time, into a nightmare. Just because a cabbie takes you one way and it is good, does not mean that is still good two hours later or tomorrow. If five or ten bucks one way or another matters to you, then Don't take a taxi! Take a city bus or a shuttle or walk.

Always let the driver know that you are writing down the number of the taxi you are riding in. This is something you should always do in any town. This helps keep the driver honest. Good drivers that do what they are supposed to the way they are supposed to will not mind you keeping track of their taxi number. Who knows, you might even send a letter of commendation to the taxi company. Many cell phones and wallets get lost in cabs, and people have to find the taxi company that has their item. Writing down the number of the taxi makes the search much easier. 

Legally, a Las Vegas taxi cab driver is supposed to take you the most direct way, unless asked to do otherwise. However, some times the most direct way can actually cost more, if traffic is heavy, or there is an accident, or the street is narrowed to one lane because of the mass amounts of construction. If you have a way you think is the best, ask the driver if he is going to take you that way. If not, ask why. If there is a ten-car pile-up on the freeway, or the rodeo just got over, or there are 150,000 people at the Las Vegas Convention Center, or it is rush hour, or the road is down to one lane for construction, those facts might be important in determining if you get to your destination in 30 minutes or 10 minutes. 

Unlike Chicago or Los Angeles or New York, the freeway is not always the best way. Sometimes, the roads that go directly behind the casinos are the best way to go. Sometimes, going down the strip is the best. At other times, those ways are awful. Getting to a freeway can cost as much as just getting to your destination. Many times I have been accused of trying to rack up a high fare by not taking the freeway, and then the customers were amazed that I got them back to their hotel just as fast for $10 less than what they paid going on the freeway. 

Some of the cab companies in Las Vegas put a lot of pressure on their drivers to long-haul customers and steal rides from other cabbies and drive fast. Of course, every cab company will say that their drivers are instructed to follow the law at all times, but some of them punish drivers for not booking as much as other drivers, even though they know good and well the other drivers are booking more by long-hauling customers and stealing rides from other cabbies and driving fast. Understand that when a Las Vegas cabbie gets mad about not being able to long-haul a customer, they are probably worried that they are not booking as much as their co-workers, and the company they are employed by will not let them drive a good cab tomorrow, or they might not be allowed to work when business is good.

Getting long-hauled by a taxi driver in Las Vegas usually means you end up paying less than $10 more than the best possible fare under the best circumstances, and you get to your destination safely either faster or as fast as going a shorter way. To keep that in perspective, lets compare how bad that is compared to other ways you might get ripped off while visiting Las Vegas. Getting long-hauled by a cabbie in Las Vegas is not as bad as:

    - getting ripped off by an Internet booking website that charges you $50 more for a hotel room than if you would have called the hotel direct.

    - getting ripped off by a server in a restaurant that adds five more cocktails to your bill than your party actually received.

    - getting ripped off by an airline that bumps your reservation because they over-booked the flight, or leaves you sitting in the plane on the tarmac for hours.

    - getting ripped off by standing in line for the monorail at the Las Vegas Convention Center only to find out that each time it pulls up it is already full of people who walked to the Hilton or the Sahara to board.

    - getting ripped off at a hotel such as the Venetian or the Hard Rock by standing in an outrageously long taxi line at the same time that the hotel employees are forcing taxis to leave empty and are loading taxis as slow as possible in order to try and get you to take a limo so they can get kick-backs from the limo drivers who over charge you.

    - getting ripped off by a doorperson at a small hotel who tells you they called for a taxi, but instead they called one of their limo buddies who just happens to show up and talks you into paying three times as much as a taxi and gives a kickback to the doorperson who lied to you.

    - getting ripped off by shows that tell you to pick up your tickets two hours before the show or they will sell your seats and still charge you.

    - getting ripped off by nightclub doorpersons who won't let you get into the nightclub unless you tip them $100 or are a hot-looking female wearing next to nothing.

    - getting ripped off by an airline that leaves you waiting for an hour for your luggage, or loses your luggage.

    - getting ripped off by the city bus that packs people in like sardines and then makes you stand between sweaty stinky people while the bus is stuck in gridlock traffic forever.

    - getting ripped off by hotels that put you in a room with no air conditioning or plumbing that doesn't work or noisy neighbors.

    - getting ripped off by a slot machine that loves to take money from you and doesn't pay squat.

Certainly I could come up with a hundred more ways that you could get ripped off that are worse than getting long-hauled by a taxi driver in Las Vegas.

One way to avoid getting ripped off by a cab driver in Las Vegas is to pay three times as much to take a limo or town-car. Another way to avoid getting ripped off by a cab driver in Las Vegas is to take a city bus out of the airport for $1.75 without a transfer. Another way to avoid getting ripped off by a cab driver in Las Vegas is to walk.

Funny how newspaper articles and online blogs don't warn you to not get ripped off by limo drivers. Unlike cabbies, they are not regulated and can charge as much as they like. Getting long-hauled by a taxi driver in Las Vegas usually means you end up paying less than $10 more than the best possible fare under the best circumstances, and you get to your destination safely either faster or as fast as going a shorter way. If that is the worst thing that happens to you on your trip to Las Vegas, thank your lucky stars.

by Vegas Taxi Driver
July 15, 2007