The Okanagan will remain a no-go zone for Uber.
A provincial regulator has denied the company’s request to bring its popular worldwide ride-hailing service to the Valley and all areas of BC outside the Lower Mainland, where it currently operates.
The Passenger Transportation Board denied Uber’s licensing request in large part because it says the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has cut public demand for transportation.
“The board is persuaded that, in the current economic circumstances, the public need factor does not exist,” reads part of the Dec. 14 Decision by panel chair Carmela Allevato and panel member William Bell.
In their presentations to the board, owners of various taxi companies said their revenues had suffered greatly the last two years. If Uber were allowed to enter the local market, they said, their businesses would be “destroyed”.
Uber’s representatives countered with forecasts of demands for millions of trips and said allowing the company to expand across the province would create many new jobs for drivers. They also said passengers should be allowed to choose whether they want to take a taxi or an Uber.
In their judgment, the panel members say the presence of Uber and other ride-hailing services in the Lower Mainland has “delayed the recovery of the taxi industry” from the financial effects of COVID-19, and they’re concerned it would have a similar effect on the taxi business in the Okanagan and elsewhere in BC
“(We) find the markets in the regions applied for are unable to absorb any more competition at this time,” Allevato and Bell write.
