Kabu Ride is planning to re-launch its ride hailing service in Kamloops later this year.

Spokesperson Martin van den Hemel tells NL News that while the Richmond-based company saw tremendous growth after becoming the first ride-hailing company in Kamloops, that success was quickly decimated by COVID-19.

“People were downloading our app and drivers were signing up and it looked good for the first two to three months after we launched on Canada Day in 2020, but then things kind of fell off the edge of a table,” he said.

“We were getting fewer and fewer drivers. They were very concerned about getting COVID and same things with customers, not wanting to get into a small car with a stranger.”

Still, van den Hemel says Kabu wants to return to Kamloops, noting the company in the process of trying to find drivers to serve the Tournament Capital.

“We see the light at the end of the tunnel and so we are going to wish the optimism for the economy,” he said. “We had big hopes for offering better transportation solutions for customers in Kamloops, and we remain committed to that.”

“In hindsight, the timing [of our initial launch] wasn’t great but we had already wanted to push through with a ride-hailing option for Kamloops and so we said, ‘you know what, maybe this COVID thing isn’t as bad as it seems. Maybe by the summer time, it will all just disappear,’ but of course that didn’t happen.”

And while Kabu is eying a summer 2022 re-launch, van den Hemel says there is no set date when vehicles could be back on the roads in Kamloops, as the company first plans to re-launch its service in Victoria.