About 50 men and women are interested in becoming Uber drivers in Chatham-Kent.
Local resident Florin Marksteiner recently stepped forward as the unofficial organizer of the local ride-sharing service. He says the group of drivers has already been vetted, now it's a matter of training -- something that he says has already started.
"When you sign up to be an Uber driver you have to give your life away in a sense," he says. "You upload your picture, a picture of the vehicle, the ownership, the insurance, the vehicle safety certificate, and then based on all of that, Uber does a background check."
Marksteiner says with training about to finish, drivers are expected to be out on municipal roads at the beginning of February.
"It looks like it's going to be a go," he says. "I'm pretty excited about it -- everybody's pretty excited about it."
He also says "we have had meetings with some entities -- I don't want to give away too much, but it looks like we're going on the right path." Marksteiner would not confirm whether or not those "entities" were municipal officials, nor did he go into detail on what was discussed.
Meanwhile, municipal officials say they're in the process of getting information together regarding the service, along with a review of the taxi by-law. The municipality is planning to have a report ready for the public in March. It'll then to go to council in April.
Even if the current by-law is amended to allow Uber to operate in Chatham-Kent, it would still be after the expected launch.
"The municipality is reviewing the law to determine if Mr. Marksteiner can operate Uber in Chatham-Kent without an amendment to our taxi by-law," said in an email from the municipality. "We would encourage anyone to not operate as a PTC (Private Transportation Company) until that review is complete. If determined it is against the law, the municipality will have to enforce the by-law."
Marksteiner says he'll hold a public information session January 31 at the John D. Bradley Convention Centre in Chatham at 7pm.
However, as stated in an email from the municipality, officials are not planning to attend the meeting set up by Marksteiner.