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Las Vegas taxi drivers to boycott Strip hotels

Grassroots group fighting back against rideshares
Posted at 7:06 AM, Jul 12, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-13 08:24:55-04

The battle between taxi cabs and rideshare companies continues on the Las Vegas Strip this weekend.

A grassroots group known as Vegas Drivers Unite claim they have started to boycott several different Strip hotel-casinos in an effort to fight back against rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft.

On their website, the group says participating cabbies plan not to pick up any passenger from New York-New York hotel-casino for 72 hours starting Thursday morning and continuing every week for the rest of the month.

Last month, the group said they boycotted the Bellagio and next month they plan to boycott Mandalay Bay and Delano.

The grassroots group said they are fighting back against the takeover of rideshare companies.

Earlier this year, the Taxi Cab Authority released numbers showing a decline in taxi ridership in 2017. They claim ridership has been declining the past three years and millions of dollars are being lost.

Vegas Drivers Unite said they hope by not showing up at these locations, then casinos, hotels and community leaders will take notice of the importance of taxis and drive rideshare companies out of the resort corridor. 

Las Vegas local Sierra Snow said she preferred taking rideshares because they are "cheaper".

"It has been years [since I've taken a taxi]," Snow said.

While out-of-towner Doug Jim said he preferred the convenience of a taxi cab even if he has to pay extra fees.

"I paid extra fees but my taxi driver had a big kerfuffle with the Uber drivers, so I'm kind of on his side," Jim said.

13 Action News did reach out to Vegas Drivers Unite to get an idea of how many drivers were participating in the boycott but have not heard back. Drivers are not required to participate as it is a grassroots effort.