As the Province moves toward lifting COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, a second ride sharing company has announced plans to expand to Kamloops, potentially by next month.
While ride sharing companies have been operating in the Lower Mainland since early 2020, it hasn’t taken off in the Kamloops area, partly due to COVID-19.
However, Cody Ruberto, the president of Ontario based Uride, says they’ve wanted to be in Kamloops for a while and said on the NL Morning News, that the time is right to expand.
“We’re getting ready to ramp back up and start launching more cities and we’re excited to be expanding to Kamloops. It was on our radar a long time ago, we know there’s a need for it,” he said. “We’ve talked to a lot of people throughout the community and, yeah it’s time for us to actually work to expand there and then try to make a difference.”
An initial application by the company to operate everywhere in B.C. expect the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley, and the Squamish-Lillooet area was rejected on Feb. 28, 2020, though a second application was approved on Jan. 12, 2021.
Ruberto says Uride wanted to launch much earlier in Kamloops, but said it was difficult because of the ongoing uncertainty because of lockdowns and other COVID restrictions.
“We’re excited to finally move forward now,” he added. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel so at this stage we decided to start expanding again and really ramp things up here.”
Uride is currently looking for drivers in the Kamloops area, with Ruberto noting the company is eying a launch sometime in March, if everything goes well.
“It is all about getting enough drivers on the road to launch. It is the community working together to solve this problem. We can’t do this without the support of the community here so let us work together to solve this problem for Kamloops.”
The first ride sharing company to launch in Kamloops, Kabu Ride is also looking for drivers as it plans to relaunch service later this summer.