I don’t all the details of how Omaha runs their cab service, but I do know that you can call a ‘central’ dispatch, and they will send an available cab from registered companies to you. And from my experience, it is fast and safe. You also have the option of calling individual companies dispatch.
The city is considering changes to the cab rules in SF. Some are silly, like telling a single car owner and driver he or she has to run 24/7, basically eliminating single owner companies. This is wrong for several reasons, most importantly it goes against free enterprise, if someone wants to run their cab service 2 hours a day or 12 hours a day, that is their business, as long as they are following other city ordinances pertaining to cabs.
I have argued that the city needs a ‘central’ dispatch like Omaha. Any cab company can register with the dispatch (for a fee) and when they are available be put on the rotation docket. Now some people are afraid of ‘safety’, well mostly Councilor Erpenbach, who apparently only rides in cabs if she knows the driver, nice small town mentality. Drivers have to be licensed and certified, secondly, if you really need to know the cab company that is going to pick you up, you can call them directly. Central dispatch would be for peak hours when most people don’t care who picks them up. It would also be fair (because the companies would be in rotation and take turns), and from my experience fast.
This isn’t rocket science, but like most things the city tries to ‘fix’ you will see a mountain of new rules without a lot of sense behind them, and hardly any enforcement (think texting and driving).