There are a bunch of numbers there that don't make any sense. If 315 cars were supposed to be out working on Sunday afternoon is average with a driver pool of 1,700, that would indicate that about 82% of the driver pool would not be scheduled to be driving. The claim that drivers are scheduled for 60 or more hours/week, even if only half of them actually were, that car pool count would be less than 60 hours/week. If the company pays lousy at 60 hours or more per week, what do they pay for 6-year+ seniority drivers? Is it enough to cut your work schedule by a third and still make more money? ....and any cabbie that only averages $2.50/ hour or less in tips is long hauling people who know better or is spending too much time doing things other than driving (doing his chosen profession).
I looked into getting licensed to drive a cab locally last year. The way it works here is, after you meet all of the state and local licensing requirements, you lease the cabs on a daily basis from the cab company. You pick your hours and days worked. Pick the wrong shift or area of town to sit while waiting for a dispatch and you can actually have to pay to work. You are an independent contractor. Make the Las Vegas cab companies work with that model and you would find drivers who want to do what they do enough to make more money than they would shoveling any portion of their paychecks into union coffers.
