Colonie

When a friend called his local Capitaland taxi office in Troy to schedule a 4 a.m. pickup to Albany International Airport to catch a 5:50 a.m. flight, he was told the taxi company could no longer offer overnight services.

Lyft and Uber, he was told, had cut demand for their taxis so much they no longer had the drivers.

Instead the friend, who had booked the same taxi trip annually over many years, drove.

Capitaland owner Bret Peek wasn't surprised last week when told about our friend's plight.

"I'm closing that office," Peek said Thursday. "The night business is basically gone. The day business is almost gone."

Uber and Lyft, in just a few short months, have grabbed a growing share of the ride-hailing/taxi business in the Capital Region.

Capitaland has already closed its offices in Schenectady and Saratoga Springs, and plans to shift its Albany operations to its office in Colonie, Peek said.

Perhaps nowhere has the impact been as large as at Albany International Airport, which last week allowed Capitaland Taxi to start lining up its vehicles curbside next to the terminal, and to put up a taxi podium inside near the baggage claim area. Previously the cabs had used a commercial lane farther from the terminal that is shared with hotel and Park Ride & Fly shuttles. The change is part of a three-month pilot program to help Capitaland better compete.

Another change: Close-in destinations around the airport will carry a flat $10.50 fee. For trips beyond the $10.50 zone, the meter will start from the terminal.

Unlike Uber and Lyft, Capitaland as part of its franchise agreement is required to have taxis on hand for one half hour after flights are due to arrive, even if they're delayed until the wee hours of the morning. Airport spokesman Doug Myers says it's important that the airport maintains taxi service for passengers arriving and departing from the state's capital city.

At the Rensselaer rail station, operated by the Capital District Transportation Authority, Advantage Taxi pays a monthly fee to provide service to arriving train passengers. But, says CDTA spokeswoman Jaime Watson, "they're seeing the same impacts" to business as Capitaland is at the airport.

Peek, the owner of Capitaland Taxi, said that when Lyft began serving the airport in July 2017, he immediately lost 20 percent of his business.

When Uber joined Lyft at the airport this past November, he lost another 50 percent, Peek said.

While airport officials say they're not able to share marketing information on taxi and ride-hailing passenger numbers, revenue shows that the ride-hailing services have indeed made a big dent in the taxi business.

Capitaland, which won the contract several years ago to pick up passengers at the airport, had 43,070 pickups at the airport last year. Lyft and Uber together had 77,275 pickups and dropoffs; they pay a $2 fee each time they enter the airport, whereas Capitaland pays only to pick up passengers. The traffic tallies are calculated from annual fees paid to the airport authority, $86,140 for Capitaland and $154,550 for ride-hailing services.

The figures suggest how dominant ride-hailing has become. And Uber only began its pickup service at the airport in November.

Fans of Lyft and Uber say it's often more convenient, drivers' personal vehicles are clean and well-maintained, and riders and drivers can rate each other on their experiences, giving customers an idea of what to expect. The convenience of the Lyft and Uber apps is another plus.

"Since beginning to operate in the Capital Region in 2017, Lyft has brought economic opportunity to drivers, riders, and the larger community," a Lyft spokesman said Friday. "In fact, the majority of drivers drive part-time, using their own cars and earning on their own schedules.

"We are proud to provide affordable and reliable service to the Albany community and do our part to uplift the local economy," he added.

Critics of ride hailing claim it has some advantages over traditional taxi companies. First, it practices something called surge pricing, which basically means customers will pay more when demand is high. Taxis, meanwhile, have set rates.

Lyft and Uber drivers, as independent contractors, have the ability to reject trip requests. That may have left Capitaland making a disproportionate number of short, and largely unprofitable, trips to destinations close to the airport.

The Albany County Airport Authority approved a new fare zone around the airport in which taxis can levy a $10.50 flat fee. Beyond the zone, trips are metered.

"The short trips weren't worth it," Peek said Thursday. But he said the move last week inside the terminal with curbside pickup hadn't yet shown results, even though passengers no longer have to wait on a sidewalk outside the building.

Capitaland has turned to other services to make up for the business lost to ride-hailing services.

It has built a business taking Medicaid patients to and from doctors' appointments, and it has a contract with CDTA to provide some of the transit authority's STAR, or Special Transit Available by Request, service.

CDTA is in the midst of an effort to standardize and improve taxi services throughout the four-county area, although the process has taken longer than expected, Watson said Friday.

"We need to find a way to help the cab companies be viable and stay afloat," she said. "Yes, ride share is very convenient. But not everyone will have access to ride-sharing.

"There's always going to be a need for taxi service," she said.

Peek isn't so sure.

"In areas like we're in, you're not going to see taxis too much longer," he said. "And that's when you're going to see the rates go way up for Lyft and Uber."

Lyft, which filed paperwork Friday for an initial public offering, said its revenues climbed to $2.2 billion in 2018 from $343 million two years earlier. But losses also have ballooned, to $911 million last year from $683 million in 2016.

Lyft nearly doubled spending on sales and marketing to $804 million last year from $434 million in 2016. Research and development nearly quintupled over the same period to $301 million from $65 million in 2016, while another category, cost of revenue, jumped to $1.2 billion from $279 million.

Uber has expanded into meal deliveries, research into self-driving vehicles, and into freight and business services. Both Uber and Lyft also has begun integrating public transit services into their apps, giving users a wider range of options.