Taxi app tries for a comeback in Vancouver - Action News
Home WebMail Saturday, November 23, 2024, 06:31 AM | Calgary | -12.2°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
British Columbia

Taxi app tries for a comeback in Vancouver

Uber app will send a car and driver to your door. Or would, if the Passenger Transportation Board would let them.

Company accused of undercutting cabbies returns

The Uber app links non-regulated drivers and their cars with people looking for a ride, and already operates in more than 200 cities worldwide. (CBC)

It's an app that's trying to make a comeback.

Uber app will send a car and driver to your door. Or would, if the Passenger Transportation Board would let them.

With a tap on your smart phone, Uber will send you a car and driver. Or at least it did. It was run out of Vancouver in 2012 for refusing to comply with a Passenger Transportation Board order to get a limousine licence and charge a minimum $75 per trip.

The app was back today, delivering ice cream on demand and building support and fans.

Socialite and event planner Frances Hui is already on board, declaring the service provided is better than that offered by taxis who sometimes pick up anyone at the address to which they've been called.

Jeff Weshler, Uber's General Manager of Regional Expansion, talks about the app's return to Vancouver. (cbc)

"Uber is not going to pick up anyone else. They're only going to pick up the person who ordered it, and you can be assured because it's tracked on your iPhone app," said Hui.

Uber operates in 150 cities around the world, but not always to popular acclaim. Taxi drivers in Paris and London have protested against Uber and similar companies for undercutting their business.

Jeff Weshler, the company's General Manager of regional expansion, wouldn't rule out sharing the app with taxi and cab companies in Metro Vancouver.

"I have no concrete plans to share, but it comes back to us being really excited about the potential here,' Weshler said.

With files from Kirk Williams