Uber could be back in Vancouver on Halloween

Trick…or treat? Popular ride-sharing app Uber is rumoured to be considering re-emerging on the Vancouver market as early as…today.

Since late September, the San Francisco-based worldwide car service has been making waves anew in B.C., following a short-lived stint serving the region in 2012. Although cagey about their presence in Vancouver, Uber met with civic leaders here, but found themselves faced with a six-month moratorium on starting up again, to give officials and the taxi and limo industry time to sort things out.

Uber, however, pushed aggressively to build their Vancouver management team, and stable of drivers.

This week, the ghost of Uber future seemed to be haunting the media, with suggestions the company would be up and running on October 31.

When faced with the query about an October 31 re-launch, Uber Canada’s GM Jeff Welsher told CKNW: “You know I don’t want to speculate but obviously there’s a lot of excitement behind the product and certainly we always look to surprise and delight.”

Hmmm. Does that mean they will have Uber witches offering lifts on their brooms? Pumpkin coaches? Zombie drivers? The possibilities are endless.

Currently Uber is not licensed by the B.C. Ministry of Transportation to operate in the province, and they have not applied to do so yet, either. Drivers could be fined up to $5,000 for repeated violations of driving without a permit.

So far today Uber does not list Vancouver, Canada on their website as one of the cities they serve, and the @Uber_Van Twitter account has been mum on the subject.

We’ve reached out to Uber for more info and will update as news becomes available.

UPDATE: Uber provided Vancity Buzz with the following statement:

We’ve seen tens of thousands of people download and open the Uber app in the Vancouver area, and we can’t wait until the day that they are able to use it because we love to make people’s dreams come true. In the meantime, we’re hard at work engaging with policymakers and regulators to ensure that they have a solid understanding of the Uber platform and the safety, accountability and affordability we already provide in 220 cities around the world.

Featured image: bfishadow/Flickr