Uride expanding, ready to take on Uber in Kelowna
A ride-hailing company manager doesn’t expect demand for ridership to decline with more competition in Kelowna.
Ravi Dhami, Western Canada operations manager with Uride, said the company just passed 1 million rides across Ontario and B.C.
Uride currently has services in Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George in the province and will be expanding to Nanaimo starting Dec. 2. Since starting in Thunder Bay in 2017, it has expanded into 12 cities across the two provinces and is aiming to launch its first international city before the end of the year.
The service launched in Kamloops, May 5 and Kelowna, June 3 and hasn’t experienced a slowdown in growth in either city, Dhami said.
“The biggest thing for us right now is to onboard drivers to keep up with the demand,” he said. The company is currently offering a $500 sign-on bonus for part-time drivers and a weekly guaranteed $1,500 for those working full-time.
“We continue to build up our driver base just to ensure we can continue to handle that demand,” he said.
Worker shortages across various industries have not impacted applications.
“It is a bit more regulated here so you do have to have a Class 1, 2 or 4 to work with us here in B.C. so that’s been a bit of a challenge, finding applicants that already have one of those licenses… but with the weekly guarantees and incentives like sign-on bonuses, we’ve not seen a shortage of applicants at all.”
Another ride hailing company, Uber, is also awaiting approval from the Passenger Transportation Board to allow operations in Kelowna by taking on ReRyde’s license. ReRyde is a Richmond-based company with a licence to operate in Kelowna and Kamloops but struggled to launch. It hopes to get approval before Christmas.
Dhami welcomes the competition and said he doesn’t expect Uber’s launch to impact demand.
“We believe competition is good for everybody and we aren’t going to change our stance on that in the event our competition gets stiffer or we get more competition, we embrace that challenge,” he said.
“The way of the future is ridesharing.”
Uride currently expanding across Canada, and aiming to launch their first international city before the end of the year, according to a press release issued by the company.
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