A local Uber advocate says he is disappointed to discover the company has "pulled out" of coming to Chatham-Kent.
Florin Marksteiner says he first contacted Uber in December of 2017, when Radio Cabs went out of business, to fill the void of transportation in the community.
"They told me from the get-go that Chatham and Chatham-Kent is too small for them to operate in the sense of economical aspects," says Marksteiner. "But I said 'Okay, at least let's try it and let me create the market and demand and we'll even try to train the drivers and everything.'"
Marksteiner says he then began advocating for the service on behalf of the community.
In June, council approved the municipality's new Vehicle for Hire Bylaw.
Marksteiner claims that the company is now backing out of coming to the municipality.
"They just pulled out. Period," he says.
Marksteiner claims a lack of demand over the past few years in the municipality is why the company has lost its interest.
He says before the bylaw was approved, the Uber app was fully functional within Chatham-Kent because it falls under the company's Windsor jurisdiction.
"Now they decided no, we're going to take you off from Windsor," says Marksteiner. "The big reason why they told us they'd do that is because now, being a regulated entity, they have to organize the manpower and budget to be able to operate in Chatham-Kent, which doesn't make sense for them."
Marksteiner says he wasn’t too happy to discover this.
"It's disappointing because the community needed this. With a community of almost 120,000 people to rely on 17 cabs... it's just not healthy," he says.
Marksteiner says he is considering paying a visit to the company's headquarters in Ottawa to make a final plea.
"I don't stop until the last drop, but I feel like the next drop is the next one," he says.
While Uber Public Policy Manager Chris Schafer did not confirm or deny Marksteiner's allegations, he did provide the following statement:
"We applaud Chatham-Kent for passing smart ridesharing regulations. Uber is always evaluating the prospects of bringing the benefits of ridesharing to communities across Canada and continually assesses local market conditions to determine future operations."
BlackburnNewsCK.com has reached out to the Municipality's Licencing Services for comment and is awaiting a response.
Marksteiner notes that all training sessions that were planned for this week have been cancelled.