Ride-hailing Day 1: Some teething problems for Uber and Lyft in Vancouver
Credit to Author: Joanne Lee-Young| Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2020 01:45:31 +0000
Vancouver was the last major market in North America without Uber or Lyft, but on Friday, supporters cheered the debut of these ride hailing companies in this market, while riders sorted through limitations and snafus.
Lyft service officially began at 8 a.m., but some eager riders saw messages such as “not yet available at this location,” depending on their location and where they wanted to travel.
Lyft said it will be serving the Vancouver International Airport, Pacific National Exhibition and the City of Vancouver bordered on the west by Dunbar Street, on the east by Victoria Drive and as far south as 41st Avenue.
I was sent to test the apps at the start of business on Friday.
I started on Main Street near 25th Avenue and was able to get Lyft quotes and times for a ride to the airport, but it would take 40 minutes for the driver to arrive. I wasn’t able to do the same for a ride to the Uber press conference, which was being held at Parallel 49 Brewing Company, half a block east of Victoria Drive on Triumph Street in East Vancouver, putting it a stone’s throw out of the Lyft zone.
Uber’s first official ride was scheduled to happen after the company’s press conference at 11 a.m., but its app went live and drivers were picking up riders starting just before 8 a.m., too.
I was able to get quotes and times for an Uber a ride to the company’s press conference, but the app seized up instead of showing a car to be on the way. After some fiddling, I finally called a cab and made it on time, but half-way there, the Uber driver called to say he had arrived for a pick-up. He canceled the request, but charged a $5.25 penalty.
Asked about complaints there didn’t seem to be enough drivers, Michael van Hemmen, head of Western Canada for Uber, said that “at the beginning of the service, in any city, there’s always an adjustment period when the drivers have to be able to understand the services available, and then to go online to be able to meet that driver demand. At the same time, though, there are a lot of restrictions that make it more difficult to have enough drivers to meet those demands.”
Lyft said it launched with 388 standard vehicles and 23 zero-emission vehicles. Uber said it did not have a ballpark figure for the number of drivers it has approved, with van Hemmen only able to say the number was “not enough.”
He explained the requirement for ride hailing drivers to have a commercial driver’s licence “in British Columbia is a challenge. It creates barriers for people who are otherwise safe drivers, but now have to go through a many-months long process and spends hundreds of dollars to prove they can drive, effectively, a bus, even though they are not driving a bus.”
Uber said it will be servicing most of Metro Vancouver.
One Uber driver, who goes by the app name of Siang, said he had been on the road since 8 a.m. and by just before noon, he had made almost $85. The Langley-based former cab driver said he used to take home about $100 after driving for about 10 to 12 hours, so he was feeling good about his first day’s earnings. He said Uber was offering incentives to keep drivers on its app in these early days such as an extra $20 if he completed 10 trips in the next three days or an extra $60 if he completed 25 trips.
Lyft said it is charging a minimum fare of $5 and then 65 cents a kilometre and 33 cents a minute or $19.80 an hour. Uber said it is charging a booking fee of $2, plus a base fare of $2.50, and then 70 cents a kilometre and 33 cents per minute or $19.80 per hour. However, both companies will be able to charge surge pricing, which increases rates at busier times of travel.
Yellow Cab in Vancouver charges $3.25 as a base fare and then $1.88 a kilometre or $33.55 an hour. Other companies such as Black Top and Checker Cabs have similar rates.