Ride-hailing app Kater officially applies for BC-wide license

Ride-hailing app Kater announced today that it has officially thrown its hat in the ring and applied for a ride-hail license to operate in every region of BC.

“As one of the last North American areas without ride-hailing, BC has an opportunity to introduce the service that is desperately needed in the right way,” said Kater CEO Scott Larson. “Our goal is to serve the escalating consumer demand in British Columbia while mitigating some of the inherent downsides that other jurisdictions have witnessed from incumbent ride-hailing providers.”

To accomplish this goal, Kater said it has identified some key measures, which include:

• Including approximately 250 wheelchair accessible vehicles in its network
• Providing a living wage and fair compensation for drivers. Kater said that this means, pending approval of its pricing model, “our drivers are projected to earn at least $25 for every hour that they are active on the Kater platform”
• Providing additional financial incentives for drivers that operate both accessible and hybrid or electric vehicles
• Proposing pricing at a minimum of 90% of current taxi rates and a maximum of 200%. This attends to consumer concerns over surge pricing and addresses concerns over equal economic conditions for existing stakeholders
• Providing location-based pricing and incentives to drivers to maintain suburban service throughout the day
• Self-regulating supply with no more than 2,000 cars on the road at any given time, until data shows a need for additional vehicles
• Supporting existing industry participants and offer consumer choice by integrating taxis into its platform

Kater said it has also officially integrated the back-end technology required to run a successful Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform, this will allow users to choose available transport options which best suit their mobility needs.

In the coming days, users will be able to book a Kater car, Kateroke, or Kater Spa and, when no Kater vehicles are available, traditional taxis, the company said.

“We are committed to providing Vancouver, and the entirety of British Columbia, with as many mobility options as possible and the integration of MaaS technology, with taxi integration into the Kater app, is the first step towards achieving this goal,” said Larson.