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A beta version of the Kater app launched at the end of March. The app is now widely available and the company has 35 cars that operate using taxi licences that were issued to the Vancouver Taxi Association, picking up passengers in Vancouver and dropping them where requested.

Kater pays the association an undisclosed percentage of its profits — believed to be around 20 per cent — for using the licences.

Initially, the idea was to use the 140 licences that had been allocated to the taxi association and scale up to that number of cars within weeks of the company’s launch, but Larson said as Kater’s technology improved and after the latest announcement that ride-hailing companies will be able to apply to operate this fall, the plan changed.

“We’re not going to use them. We’re focusing on the ride-hailing,” he said.

The Vancouver Taxi Association still owns the unused licences.

Kater can still only pick up passengers within the City of Vancouver, but can drop people off wherever they want. Drivers are independent contractors who are licensed and certified the same as taxi drivers, and are paid a minimum of $20 per hour.

The cost of a Kater ride is the same as a taxi, but can be paid in advance through the app.

When asked why Kater would want to keep its cabs if its application to operate as a ride-hailing company is approved by the Passenger Transportation Board, Larson said it is a matter of control.

“Having our own vehicles provides us some type of guaranteed supply — we can direct them, we know where they are, we can organize outside of certain events,” he said. “It integrates nicely with what is more traditional ride-hailing as we move forward.”