A ride-hailing company that began operating before the service was legal in BC is the firm that now wants to sell its licenses for Kelowna and Victoria to Uber.
ReRyde Technologies Inc., based in Richmond, was identified Wednesday by the Passenger Transportation Board as the company that wants to transfer its license to Uber.
ReRyde was granted a license by the board to operate in areas outside of the Lower Mainland in August 2020. It’s not clear whether or what to extent it ever began service in Kelowna.
Company officials could not be reached Wednesday and attempts to download the ReRyde app failed. The company’s Facebook page has had no posts since Dec. 25, 2021.
Earlier this year, ReRyde’s chief operating officer told Infotel.ca that the company was having trouble finding drivers in Kelowna. He also told the news website that BC had established a more stringent licensing requirement for drivers than has been the case in other provinces.
Last week, Uber revealed it had submitted an application to the Passenger Transportation Board to acquire a license already granted to a then-unidentified firm. An Uber representative confirmed to The Daily Courier the proposed transfer would involve a payment to the other company, but declined to indicate what the amount would be.
ReRyde, which has been operating in Manitoba for years, was originally denied a license to operate in BC by the PTB in early 2020. At the time, the board said it had concerns about the company’s proposed business plan.
But the PTB approved a second licensing application by ReRyde in August 2020, saying the company’s business plan had been improved.
Further back, ReRyde told people who’d downloaded its app in January 2018 that it would begin offering free rides to test the Vancouver market by March of that year, Global BC reported.
At the time, ride-hailing was still being studied by the government and the Passenger Transportation Board launched an investigation into ReRyde and other ride-hailing firms that were operating without approval.
