Despite opposition from the mayor of Richmond and senior staff, Kabu, a subsidiary of the Richmond-based ride-hailing service GoKabu, was approved by the Passenger Transportation Board (PTB) on Friday.
Details in the PTB’s decision explain how the mayor, Malcolm Brodie, and general manager of community safety, Cecelia Achiam, opposed Kabu’s application, with the latter saying its parent company (Gokabu) “continuously and flagrantly facilitated unlawful ride hailing services” in Richmond, disregarding the city’s business bylaw.
GoKabu, which uses the same app as Kabu, was used to provide 1.3 million rides to 70,000 customers over three years before ride-hailing was approved this fall.
But Kabu pointed out there were only two violations, one for operating without a business license and one for advertising without a business license. Furthermore, it claims the city never asked the company to shut down its app.
The PTB decision quotes Kabu saying it has admitted its mistakes and apologized to councillors.
“The idea that any business which has ever violated a city bylaw should be barred from operating is frankly ridiculous and undemocratic,” Kabu continued.
The PTB approved Kabu to service the Lower Mainland and Whistler as well as areas around the province.
The approval was based on the fact that GoKabu and Kabu are separate legal entities, although many of three “key management employees” work for both companies.
The decision states that Kabu was created in anticipation of ride-hailing coming to B.C. and it suspended its own app while waiting for its application to be processed.
GoKabu Group Holdings was founded in 2016 while Kabu was founded in April 2019.
In its decision, the PTB said Kabu is focusing on a “growing niche market” of minority groups, that is: new immigrants, international students and tourists by serving them in their native language.
The application notes Kabu will advertise to travellers at airports “in their native language.”
Previous to the application approved on Friday, Kabu submitted an “urgent public need” application on Sept. 3, explaining it was withdrawing its ride-hailing services on Sept. 16 while applying for the license. But it claimed there was an urgent need for their service because of the international students aged 13 to 19 in Richmond, Vancouver and Burnaby who rely on their services.
The application states about 50 per cent of their 3,000 daily rides were taken by international students.
The application continues that no other ride-hailing company will be able to serve “this unique Chinese market” if they go off-line. This urgent need application was denied on Sept 16.
Kabu hasn’t yet applied for a Richmond business license but the city is anticipating they will submit an application soon, explained city spokesperson Clay Adams.
As to why the city only issued two tickets to GoKabu with regards to its services, Adams explained the company "denied being responsible for drivers allegedly using the GoKabu app and we were unable to prove otherwise."
Furthermore, "because the link between the business and drivers was difficult to confirm, the city could not legally demand that GoKabu cease operating," Adams elaborated.
