Rideshare startup extends service to Saint Andrews
A P.E.I.-based rideshare company is now taking hails in Saint Andrews as it continues to work out issues regarding local funding and legal issues.
In April, Kari opened its doors in St. Stephen for a six-month pilot project in partnership with the town's economic development agency, Future St. Stephen. The startup founded by two P.E.I. entrepreneurs announced last month that it would start picking up riders in Saint Andrews June 28.
"We wanted to take the opportunity for long weekend, we knew people would be in town," co-founder Matt MacLeod said last week, adding they hope to both serve residents looking for a way to get around and tourists seeking to get home safely after events or explore.
Customers request rides from local drivers using a smartphone app, similar to Uber or Lyft. After some success in greater Charlottetown and rural P.E.I., MacLeod said they were approached by Future St. Stephen to bring the model to Charlotte County.
"We do site visits regularly to see how things are going ... but to have someone there to champion it, that was crucial," MacLeod said. The economic development agency provided financial support and marketing help.
MacLeod said the ridership in St. Stephen since it opened thus far has been "promising numbers," especially in recent weeks, while the "uptick was a little slower than we initially expected." He said that St. Stephen traffic includes "day-to-day" rides including errands.
He said the service is data driven, so they know when things are going to be busy and can deploy drivers accordingly, so by having drivers in multiple centres, they can offer "rural rides" without excessive "dead-head" time where a driver has to come back without a rider.
MacLeod said they're "building out a web" of people who are available to pick up rides, saying that they guarantee at least one driver at a time in the local areas, and that drivers not on shift can be notified of the opportunity to jump on and take a call.
He said N.B.'s licensing regime is "reasonably easy," with Kari helping drivers get the required Class 4R licence, which requires a driving abstract and a medical, and providing commercial insurance when drivers are logged on. Drivers must provide a criminal record check and undergo training, he said.
The app is in the midst of seeking support from the Town of Saint Andrews, with council tabling a request for $18,000 in economic development funding at their June 10 meeting, amounting to a third of the costs of a six-month pilot project.
Councillors voiced concerns about whether support should be the regional service commission's job, whether an app-based service was suitable for seniors and how the money would be spent.
"It is tax dollars, essentially, going to a private business, so councillors ... needed to see a little bit more of the financial component of why the municipality would subsidize the operation," Mayor Brad Henderson said on June 20.
Henderson noted that there is currently no alternative to what Kari offers, saying it fills some of the gaps presented by Dial-A-Ride, which is for out-of-town medical appointments.
MacLeod, speaking last Tuesday before a Saint Andrews council meeting, said they "hope" they get support from the town, saying they need local buy-in.
"That's really really important for this," MacLeod said, saying they're a small business with limited funds. The company guarantees pay for a minimum number of drivers whether they're taking rides or not, and the money would cover a "portion" of that in the early stages of roll-out, MacLeod said.
"We can pivot and make things happen relatively quickly to get things running, but that has come with a lot of experience on our part," he said. "To make sure that we those minimums ... that's where the funds go for this, it's to keep fares as low as possible."
He called the app model "the model we hope is going to work, we have a lot of money invested in making it work," saying profits amount to about about five per cent of every ride.
"We are seeing really positive things from St. Stephen, we think there's even greater opportunities in Saint Andrews and there's two to three other towns that we're going to look at in the coming months," MacLeod said.
He said that the company launched without the funding in place because they "wanted to show that we do have commitment to the area."
Speaking Thursday, MacLeod said after two weeks that it's "too early to say" how the service is being received, adding they've begun picking up some rides and they're "working locally" to get more info about riders and drivers.
At the meeting July 2, CAO Chris Spear said that Kari had been open with their costs, and Henderson said the figures would be considered in closed session.
But the motion was tabled again after Coun. Darrell Weare noted that 2020 amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act allowing ridesharing require that the local authority have a vehicle-for-hire bylaw in place to regulate it.
The amended law prevents vehicle-for-hire businesses from operating "unless authorized to do so by the local authority," with the province saying at the time that governments "would be required to create bylaws," according to a press release.
In St. Stephen's case, Future St. Stephen president Jeremy Barham told Brunswick News in March that Kari was not covered by the town's taxi bylaw because rideshare services are separate. Barham did not respond to a request for comment.
Reached the day after the meeting, MacLeod said he understood that other vehicle-for-hire services like limousines have been able to operate without issue, and that Kari confirmed with the town that they "have no issues with us operating" in Saint Andrews.
Provincial spokesperson Allan Dearing said that local governments "must have a by-law in place to ensure things like liability insurance and vehicle quality are being met," which applies equally to rideshare companies and taxis.
Saint John passed its ridesharing bylaw in 2022, with Thunder Bay-based Uride launching in the city this past December.
Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Telegraph-Journal
