Update: July 2017 Uber and Lyft are now picking up all over Vegas. Operations started on September 15, 2015 and so far all is going smoothly. There are no restricted areas for use of the ride share services. Both Services are operating at the McCarran Airport. Now Uber has drastically cut prices many times. The base fare that was 2.40 is now 1.12, the price per mile was 1.85 is now .675, the per minute price was .30 is now .1125. A Service fee of 1.38 and booking fee of 1.90 will be added to every trip. There is also an Airport fee of 2.45. Lyft is mostly the same except You can tip on the Lyft App but cannot on Uber. Drivers are allowed to take cash tips on either service. The low rates have made it near impossible for drivers to make a profit and even though that is terrible for Them it is great for the riders. You will see that service is fantastic, cars are ready to pick You up all over Vegas. A short ride to the Airport from a nearby hotel will typically cost 12-13 dollars but only about 4.50 of that will go to the driver because of all the fees that are added. Uber is expected to add the tipping feature to their app by the end of July 2017.

Taxi’s on the Las Vegas Strip protested the coming of Uber and Lyft on Friday by standing still from 2pm to 5 pm. The protest did nothing for their cause as tourist were still able to get to their locations and now many of them have a bad taste for the Las Vegas Taxi’s. The amazing thing that came of this protest is that there were still many People that had never heard of Uber and now they know what Uber is and are going to use the service elsewhere. These kinds of protest have always been good for Uber and Uber does not have to spend a penny to gain exposure.

Uber did not comment about the protest but some of the taxi drivers tried to but no one would interview them. Plenty of riders that were told about the protest just laughed because there were still plenty of ways to get around Vegas without the main brand taxi’s. The Las Vegas Monorail saw increased riders during that time as well as hotel shuttles. Not all taxi’s joined in the protest and 2-5 pm is the slowest time of the day so the protest went unnoticed by most everyone.