Nome Rider Network aims to alleviate Nome’s lack of taxis

The lack of legally running taxis in Nome since January of this year has imposed hardship on Nomeites and visitors alike who don’t own their own vehicles to get around.
But the void is about to be filled as a business-savvy and community-minded Nomeite figured out a plan, creating a Nome Rider Network, which essentially is a Nome-version of an Uber or Lyft driver model.
Andrew McCann, a banker for a local bank in town during his daytime job, said he was spurred into action in response to a letter to the Nome Common Council last week by local realtor Melissa Ford, who pointed out that her short term rental business – and by extension, the city of Nome—are losing business as no reliable transportation is available in Nome for visitors or business visitors to Nome. And he also heard from friends with medical conditions, how hard even a trip to the grocery store can be without reliable taxi service.

The problem
The only cab service running multiple cabs in Nome was Checker Cab until the company choose to not renew its taxicab licenses by the annual renewal date, January 1. The only other option to hail rides was Steven Longley, who operated in a gray zone, offering “rides for donations.” His taxi services were subject to law enforcement after he failed to obtain a cab license. Over a year, the city and the cab operators grappled with grievances until the Nome Common Council eased some of the taxicab license requirements, suspended the “medallion” system of offering only a set amount of cab licenses to operators and kept the chauffeur requirement alive.
A city-imposed March deadline to register new cab services came and went, with no takers. Only few public transportation options cropped up. Nome Eskimo Community offered its public transit service, the hotel ran a shuttle to the airport and NSHC continued to offer patient transportation to and from appointments at the hospital. But it was not enough to fill the daily transportation needs of people without cars or fourwheelers. Leon Boardway repeatedly approached the Nome Common Council, highlighting the hardship on elders and those with medical conditions who need cabs to go grocery shopping, going to work and navigating Nome in the harsh winter conditions. Also, visitors getting off the airport had to either face the mile-long walk from the airport to town with no pedestrian infrastructure in place, or find a ride with a stranger.
For the lack of Uber or Lyft drivers in town, and no business in sight that wanted to step up and offer cab services, the situation seemed dire. Council members reiterated that they have done what they can to ease regulatory burdens.

The solution
Spurred into action by the lack of solutions, McCann researched state statutes and found a path to get Nome out of the cab-less dilemma. He developed a plan, pitched it to others in Nome, but nobody jumped on it. “I started digging into what are the differences between how Uber and Lyft operate and how traditional cab companies operate, which brought me to the Alaska statute that was passed in 2017 specifically for app-based rideshare companies,” McCann told the Nugget in an interview. “A lot of people assume that we got to jump through those same hoops as the cab companies, but we don’t.” The Alaska statute he refers to allows ride shares that are fully legal, fully above board, and McCann created a business that would operate just like Uber or Lyft, but as a Nome version of it, so Nome Ride Network was born.

How does it work?
McCann formed a company called Nome Ride Network. He found an app platform called TaxiCaller that he pays for and allows for multiple drivers, functions as a dispatch center and takes payments. The app manages the cab hailing, the administrative side as well as the passenger side of the ride. People need a smart phone, install the app, set up their payment method and then they can request a ride through the TaxiCaller. This request then pings to drivers and the first driver to hit ‘accept’ on the app gets the fare. The passenger gets a notification that a driver is en route, with the driver’s car and name as well as progress of the route to the passenger pick up. Once the passenger is picked up, the driver notifies on the app that the passenger is on board. At the end of the ride comes payment and a rating feature.
One of the caveats of the Alaska statute is that the transaction has to be cashless. “You can’t accept hailed rides, so somebody with their hand up, that doesn’t work,” McCann said. “Just like Uber or Lyft, or any of these other platforms, you have a rating system, so the accountability piece of being able to rate drivers and rate passengers is there.”
Since cashless driver networks are regulated by the state, none of the City of Nome cab or chauffeur licenses come into play.

Drivers and vehicle
McCann was at first nervous that he wouldn’t have enough drivers. But call for drivers on social media yielded 30 persons interested, with five applications filled out. A first drivers meeting took place on Tuesday evening. The requirements are: Drivers must be 21, have a valid Alaska Drivers license, pass a background check (registered sex offenders and other felonies committed in the last seven years are disqualifying), and own a vehicle that is 12 years old or newer. Vehicles must be four-wheel or all wheel drive. In addition to auto insurance, the vehicle must have a rideshare endorsement attached to the policy. There are no third-party vehicle inspections required, but a safety self-assessment is needed and verified by a Nome Ride Network representative.
Since the drivers are independent contractors with Nome Ride Network, they set their own work hours and are responsible for their own tax payments, insurance costs, fuel and vehicle maintenance. They will get paid by Nome Ride Network based on their fares, after a deduction of administrative costs.
McCann said he has no interest in making money of it, but has certain expenses such as paying for the app and each driver on the app.
He realizes that people without mobile phones or the app will be left out. But the main goal for now is to get a ride service in town going to alleviate the dire transportation situation. Eventually, he said, maybe there will be a device with the TaxiCaller app installed at the airport.
He added that he only reluctantly is getting into the business of transportation but he heard too many stories of hardship to ignore. “I had no interest at first. It’s not something that I did want to do. I actually offered this plan to a few different people in town, some that were involved in providing rides, and others that I thought had an interest in it,” he said. Besides working a fulltime job, serving on the Nome Planning Commission and other civic organizations, and having a young family, his time is limited.
So why not use existing platforms like Uber or Lyft? “You don’t have the control of the backend platform if you’re an Uber or Lyft driver, you can’t, to my knowledge, set fares, you can’t control a lot of that aspect of it,” said McCann. He said that operating a business in rural Alaska is much different than anywhere else, and having no local representative on the ground would not serve Nome well, either. So, Nome Rider Network has a real person on the ground who can work with drivers if problems arise.
“There’s nobody here that’s representing Uber or Lyft saying, ‘Hey, Nome needs drivers,” McCann said. “There was nobody doing that, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m saying, hey, we need drivers. I’ll handle the back-end for you. I’ll help organize this for you. I’m a businessman, I can take care of the paperwork. You just drive.”