A rideshare company called Uride is expected to launch in Yellowknife.
Uride, founded in Thunder Bay in 2017, says it currently serves 26 locations in Canada. It has also expanded to parts of Mexico and Germany.
According to a description of the company, it was launched with an aim to “end impaired driving while bringing safe, affordable, and reliable rides to communities often overlooked by industry giants.”
The service it offers is similar to that provided by Uber and Lyft in larger cities. Neither of those is available in Yellowknife and municipal staff have in the past said they wouldn’t be compliant with the city’s current taxi bylaw.
Cody Ruberto, CEO of the company, explained the decision to launch in Yellowknife in an advertisement about the move but could not be reached for comment about the service’s launch or how it will comply with municipal bylaws. (Ruberto’s assistant told Cabin Radio he is in Germany and unavailable for an interview.)
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“I’m from a small town, Thunder Bay, and people used to be basically waiting outside in -30C,” Ruberto is quoted as saying in a video.
“They would walk home or a lot of people would drink and drive, and so I started giving people free rides home from the bar back in my hometown.
“I couldn’t make a difference on my own so we started a rideshare company to fix the problem there.”
After that, Ruberto said, the team began receiving requests from smaller communities across the country to bring the service there.
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On LinkedIn, Ruberto posted in mid-March that he had visited Yellowknife and consequently decided Uride should launch in the city.
The ad did not provide a date for when operations start in Yellowknife, but Ruberto said it will be “live soon.” He said the rideshare option enables users to have “more choice, save money, save time.”
The video caption included an offer to begin driving with Uride in Yellowknife, featuring either a $1,000 sign-on bonus or a $1,500 earnings guarantee over the first four weeks.
While some comments left under the video welcomed the move as a cheaper alternative to taxis, others argued the territorial capital already has enough options through the likes of City Cab, Yellowknife Cab and Aurora Taxi.
As with other rideshare companies, users have to download the Uride app and enter pickup and drop-off spots. The app connects them with the nearest available driver.
