Many Victorians have wondered what the hold up is on Uber officially operating in the city.
Next week, the ride-hailing juggernaut will hold an event in Victoria to attract drivers and answer any questions they may have on their operation.
Uber’s journey to operate in Victoria
Uber has gone to great lengths to operate in Greater Victoria. Instead of going through the motions to operate within Greater Victoria and get a licence with the Passenger Transportation Board (PTB) themselves, they have purchased the licence of a Vancouver-based company called ReRyde.
ReRyde has a licence to operate in the Capital Regional District (CRD), Vancouver Island outside the CRD, Okanagan, BC North Central and Other Regions of BC.
Uber is currently only approved to operate in Whistler and the Lower Mainland until the licence transfer fully goes through. When that will be is still to be determined.
Uber’s upcoming information events will take place at the Delta Ocean Pointe Hotel on Monday, October 31st from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and on Tuesday November 1st from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
During these events Uber representatives will be available to answer questions for those who wish to earn some extra income by driving for them.
UberEats already operates in many of Greater Victoria’s municipalities, and likely some drivers that are currently food couriers and will begin driving people around as well.
KABU’s road to operating in Victoria
KABU, another ride-hailing company that is brand new to Victoria as of October 11th, Thanksgiving Day is fully operating in the city, although their name does not have the same notoriety that Uber has.
Related:
Another ride-hailing service set to launch in Victoria on Thanksgiving Day
Kabu recently shared with Victoria Buzz some of the hurdles they’ve had to navigate through in order to have drivers operating in Greater Victoria.
“Currently, a business licence is required in each of the 13 municipalities in the Victoria CRD,” said KABU Communications Director Martin Van Den Hemel.
“For a driver to service this area through a ride-hailing company like KABU, he/she would need to spend upwards of $1,300 annually. That might not seem like a lot, but when you compare it to Metro Vancouver, it’s a boatload of money.”
“Currently, in Vancouver, each business licence in the Inter-Municipal Business Licence system costs under $150, and permits the drivers to serve more than two dozen municipalities.”
“So that’s $150 to work in Vancouver, versus $1,300+ in much-smaller and less lucrative Victoria,” Van Den Hemel told Victoria Buzz.
Lucky to Go’s experience in Victoria as a ride-hailing app
The very first ride-hailing company to operate in Victoria, have been in business and on the roads since May, 2022.
Related:
There’s now a ride-hailing company serving Victoria International Airport
The company was the first of its kind to get the green light from the Victoria Airport Authority to be an approved operator.
When they came about, they too had to jump through hoops for the PTB and provide sufficient evidence of “public need” for a ride-hailing company in areas of BC outside of Vancouver.
The PTB’s primary concern is that the addition of ride-hailing services will be detrimental to existing taxi companies.
