Uber launched in Nevada on Oct. 24, adding Las Vegas and Carson City to its growing list of American metropolitan areas that have access to the company's ride-sharing services. Unfortunately, Uber has already run into trouble with Nevadan law just three hours into its launch.
Teri Williams, spokesperson for the Nevada Taxicab Authority, tells the Las Vegas Sun that four Uber drivers, three operating in Las Vegas and another in Reno, were given citations for offering rides for hire without a license. Williams says the four drivers could face a fine of up to $10,000 each for illegally offering their services, and their vehicles have been impounded.
Uber stresses it is not a taxicab service but a platform for connecting drivers with riders. Uber spokesperson Eva Behrend says the company "vigorously defends the rights of our partner drivers and firmly stands by them when they are wrongly cited or impounded." She also says that Uber will shoulder the financial and legal costs incurred by drivers during citations.
This is not the first time Uber has gotten into snags with the law. The company has faced legal opposition in many of the 224 cities it now operates in, mainly from transportation authorities and taxicab operators who see the new app as a threat to their existing business.
In many cases, Uber has succeeded in lobbying for new legislation to legitimize its business. In Nevada, however, Williams says Uber is an illegal operation because the company did not apply for the Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity, which are needed to operate its ride-for-hire business.
Uber, however, is determined to expand its reach in Nevada.
"We're looking forward to having conversations with city officials and folks across the state," says Uber spokesperson Michael Amodeo. "Talk to them about Uber, the technology platform that it is and how it is offering freedom and flexibility to folks to start their own business."
Until Uber applies for a business license, state and local regulators will consider Uber illegal. However, taxicab companies are more direct with their criticism of Uber, saying the company's business model outright breaks the law.
"In order to operate in Las Vegas as a transportation company, you need to apply with either the taxi authority or the (Nevada Transportation Authority) to do so. Uber knows that and they refuse to do it," says Jonathan Schwartz, director at taxi company Yellow Checker Star.
Uber says hundreds of drivers have already signed up and passed the company's rigorous background checks to offer ride-sharing services in Nevada, but only a few cars were still visible on the Uber app as of Friday afternoon.
Willie Humphreys of Reno, who was recently laid off from his job, was one of them.
"It's very nice to have that flexibility of the job," Humphreys says. "Work when you want to and make as much money, I guess, as you want to."
