Photo: Kater
Using an app to request and pay for a ride is an almost mythical experience for British Columbians still awaiting the arrival of regulated ride-hailing.
It鈥檚 now become even harder to come by ahead of ride-hailing鈥檚 expected rollout after Kater Technologies Inc. announced it has suspended operations of its own transportation services.
The Vancouver-based company began offering rides in the spring after striking a deal last year with the 麻豆传媒映画Taxi Association (VTA) to secure taxi licences for Kater鈥檚 own fleet of vehicles.
The deal saw Kater paying out 20% of its profits to the VTA in return for taxi licences that would allow it to facilitate rides and payments via an app.
A statement posted to the company鈥檚 website said it has stopped operating its fleet of cars and has started the process of switching to 鈥渇ull-scale ride-hailing operations, launching in the very near future.鈥�
The messaged signed off stating, 鈥淪ee you all in a few weeks鈥� time.鈥�
Kater did not respond to questions from聽Business in Vancouver聽prior to publication.
But Kater CEO Scott Larson previously told聽BIV聽that once his company receives an operating licence 鈥� or Transportation Network Service (TNS) licence 鈥� it would be ready to offer services in Metro 麻豆传媒映画within seven to 10 days.
While the B.C. government had said regulated ride-hailing would launch before the end of the year, those estimates were thrown a curveball in October.
That鈥檚 when the province鈥檚 Passenger Transportation Board (PTB) 鈥� the body charged with approving TNS licences 鈥� sent a letter to applicants warning that their applications could face processing delays of as much as 21 days owing to a judicial review launched by the VTA.
The VTA raised concerns that ride-hailing companies won鈥檛 initially face caps on the number of vehicles they can operate.
Peter Lukomskyj, general manager of B.C. operations for Lyft Inc. (Nasdaq:LYFT), told聽BIV聽in October the PTB was expected to begin issuing licences by mid-November.
So far, no licences have been issued.
Combined with the aforementioned processing delay, it鈥檚 unclear whether regulated ride-hailing will hit B.C. roads by the end of the year.
But B.C. Transportation Minister Claire Trevena聽聽she still expects ride-hailing to arrive by Christmas.
