There’s a new Montreal-made competitor for Uber and taxis. A new ride sharing app called “Eva” launched last week, and it claims to be more socially responsible than Uber.
“We wanted to bring a change to this whole ecosystem,” said Eva co-founder Dardan Isufi.
Like Uber, Eva is an app for your smart phone. You connect your credit card to it, type in your destination, watch the driver approach on a map and you’re on your way.
There are some key differences between Eva and the Silicon Valley giant. For one, Eva is a co-op.
“Both riders and drivers are members, so they get to decide on governance business policies, their board and so on,” explained Isufi.
“It puts the rider and the driver at the center of the ecosystem,” added Raphaël Gaudreault, the app’s other co-founder.
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Eva’s office is still under construction. Its two co-founders are both university students in their early 20s. Isufi studies political science at McGill. Gaudreault studies software engineering at Laval University in Quebec City.
They came up with the idea at 2 a.m. in a fast food restaurant just over a year ago.
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“It was nothing big, just two guys in a McDonald’s,” Isufi recounted through a smile.
The pricing for their clients is the same as Eva’s competitors, but Eva pays its drivers 25 per cent of the cost of each ride. Uber pays 15 per cent.
WATCH: There’s a new Montreal based ride sharing app competing with Uber and taxis
“Drivers are getting tired of this model because they’re being exploited,” said Raphaël Gaudreault.
The two co-founders believe people will appreciate how their money is not going to multinational corporations abroad.
“Our whole system is not benefiting some shareholders in the US, we’re localizing the economy, localizing the data so everything stays in Montreal,” said Isufi.
Drivers are subject to a rigorous screening process, and many already want in.
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“We have over 100 driver members currently active on the street, and 600 are in the process to finalize their 35-hour training, background check, vehicle inspection. There’s almost 10,000 rider members registered so far,” Isufi told Global News.
As for taxi drivers, Eva hopes to bring them into the app too.
“We truly believe ridesharing and taxis can coexist in one city,” said Isufi.
The app still has some minor glitches to work out, but is fully operational and available for download on app stores.
If all goes well in Montreal, they hope to expand to other cities in Quebec and across the country.