Uber begins ride-sharing service in Montana

The ride-sharing service that has been rivaling traditional taxi services across the world began rolling in Montana on Monday.

Uber, a multinational ride-sharing company based in San Francisco, established its Montana division earlier this month and has since been traversing the state to promote the launch.

“We’re just trying to build up a little bit of buzz and let people know we’re coming,” Brian Gebhardt, general manager for Uber Montana, said last week.

While Uber has had promotional events in the state’s larger cities, including a pre-launch party at the 406 Bar & Grill Friday night in Kalispell, Gebhardt said rides will be available even in Montana’s smallest communities wherever a driver has registered with the company.

“By the end of next week, Aug. 5, we’ll be live across the entire state,” he said. “If drivers want to sign up, we’ll take them through the process and they’ll be able to provide rides.”

Drivers register with the company through a five-step process.

The first two, Gebhardt said, are the biggest in terms of recruiting safe and qualified drivers. Uber first completes a background check searching for any type of criminal record. The next step is checking the sex offender registration.

These checks are important for a company that hires drivers as independent contractors — people who are on the clock or “available to provide rides,” as Gebhardt put it, whenever they are activated by turning the Uber app on.

Other registration steps include a 19-point vehicle inspection and review of a driver’s registration, personal insurance and driving license.

“We want to make the platform as accessible to drivers as long as the car meets our standards and the person is someone we want to work with,” Gebhardt said.

Gebhardt said the company doesn’t reveal the number of Uber drivers in any given region.

“But it is a lot and we feel like we’re in good shape,” he said.

Kalispell Chamber of Commerce President Joe Unterreiner said Uber’s arrival in Montana and the increase in short-term vacation rentals are indicators that a new form of economic and social activity is beginning to make its footprint.

“We now have Uber arriving, but we’ve also been dealing with VRBO and Airbnb here with the City Council. I look at those two together as big things happening in the sharing economy,” Unterreiner said. “It’s hard to estimate what the impact will be, but we’re beginning to see that impact of the sharing economy here in the Flathead Valley.”

The ride-sharing industry was later to arrive in Montana than other areas of the United States.

Seven months ago, when the Montana Public Service Commission approved ride-sharing on a 4-1 vote, the only commissioner to vote against the measure, Bob Lake, R-Hamilton, said ride-sharing had an unfair advantage over traditional taxi services and said Uber would operate without any oversight from a Montana-based agency.

Gebhardt said one source of confusion about Uber revolves around insurance.

He explained that Uber makes sure its new drivers have their own personal insurance and Uber provides insurance coverage during the time when drivers are “available to provide rides.” This insurance is provided through a company-driver app that drivers activate once they begin offering rides for the day and closes once they’re off the clock. Beyond the contract work drivers perform for Uber, insurance coverage falls back to the drivers’ personal policies.

“One of the interesting nuances about this services is because they’re all independent contractors, they can pick and choose when they want to be on the platform,” Gebhardt said.

Gebhardt said Uber’s Pacific Northwest team, based in Seattle, will provide the initial oversight for Montana. Over time, he said the company will assess its reach in Montana to determine if a regional office should be established here.

Reaching smaller towns in Montana was a goal of Gebhardt, who grew up in Roundup. Gebhardt said he hopes the new availability of ride-sharing can help alleviate Montana’s issues with drinking and driving.

“Having grown up here, I’m very much aware of some of the unsafe driving that happens on the weekends when alcohol is involved,” Gebhardt said. “We’re excited to provide rides to people after they’ve been having a good time with their friends and also to be able to offer jobs to people.”

The Uber app is available on iTunes, Google Play and Microsoft mobile platforms.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.