URIDE recruiting drivers in Belleville

By James Tubb

BELLEVILLE – Uride, a ride sharing company, has started recruiting drivers in Belleville in hopes of launching in time for the holidays.

At their Nov. 24 meeting, Bellville city council made the decision to waive the current by-law on a temporary basis and allow ride sharing services to begin operating in the city.

At the meeting, council referenced Uride, as the only ride sharing service that had reached out and expressed interest in operating in Belleville.

“We’ve been looking forward to launching Uride in Belleville for a while. Belleville residents started reaching out to us about a year ago asking us to bring our service to the city,” Vince Scott, Uride’s regional operations manager, said in a news release. 

“We heard about the struggles that face so many small and medium size cities across Canada, everything thing from long wait times to affordability,”

Uride was founded in Thunder Bay in March 2017. It now operates in 9 cities across 3 provinces.

Another reason the city waived the by-law is because they would like to institute ride sharing services as the weather gets colder and the holidays roll around. as the volunteer run Operation Red Nose announced it would not be running this holiday season due to COVID-19. 

“During the holidays, especially with a lack of private transportation options, impaired driving rates typically jump. We’ve made the decision to launch in time for the holidays when the need for safe, reliable and affordable transportation is at its highest,” Scott said.

Uride said that all drivers and vehicles are thoroughly vetted prior to being registered to drive on the Uride platform, with drivers completing criminal records checks and driver abstracts, courtesy of the company.

In addition, Uride says they provides blanket fleet insurance coverage that covers drivers and passengers when they are online on the companies platform.

The company says they will be offering new drivers a sign-up bonus of $250 after completing 50 rides within 1 month of the
launch of the platform.

Uride says drivers must be signed up in time for the Belleville launch, which is expected in the coming weeks. Drivers can apply by visiting their website.