VIDEO: Driver restrictions could give Uber a rough ride in Kelowna

The anticipated arrival of Uber in Kelowna has a lot of people excited about ride-hailing, including members of council. The city is vowing to provide a letter of support for all rideshare applications for their applications to the Passenger Transportation Board.

A motion passed yesterday, insuring all applications will be supported. This comes a week after Uber's announcement that it's applied to set up in Kelowna and Victoria. Uber, had been hesitant about the BC market because of the province's requirement that drivers obtain a commercial class driver's licence. But they're now established in Vancouver, and the pandemic has added motivation to expand.

“COVID and its impact is providing us a renewed look at where our footprint should be," said Michael van Hemmen, Uber’s head of city operations in Canada last Wednesday, "and we thought now is the time to move forward with an application.”

"Well it's pretty exciting," said Kelowna City Councillor Ryan Donn. "I wasn't sure it was going to happen because of the class 4 restriction."

Donn was a vocal opponent of that requirement, suggesting it provides nothing but a pointless barrier for potential drivers.

"The class 4 is about a 12 person or 15 passenger vehicle. That's never what people are doing when they're driving an Uber, almost never," he said.

"It literally was just a way to stymie and stop and stifle having more drivers."

He still argues that requirement should be lifted despite the new interest from Uber. "It's the gig economy," he adds. "People are struggling with the wages they're getting and the gig economy allows them to work on the side."

"We might get Uber, but we might not get as many drivers as we had hoped."

Donn said it matters because, despite the beginnings of ride-hailing companies like Lucky To Go and Kabu, it's still tough to find a safe ride home.

"I still know we have a large gap in our evenings, getting people a safe ride home," said Donn. "It's a pretty big thing that hopefully, we can solve by adding more ride-sharing companies."

It's expected that Uber will be up and running in Kelowna by the holiday season.