Saskatoon cab company Riide hoping for a big comeback after COVID-19 almost ended them

When faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saskatoon cab company Riide had to make the decision whether to fold completely or to operate with a skeleton crew.

With a lot of people depending on their service, they decided to remain in business, keeping just 30 per cent of their fleet on the road.

“We are surviving – I would say barely, but we are surviving,” Scott Suppes, President of Riide, told 650 CKOM’s Brent Loucks Wednesday morning.  “COVID, I would say, came close to killing us.”

Suppes says they have been operating with about 30 percent of their workforce.

“We had to park a lot of cars, layoff a lot of people at the cab company.”

They were already down to a small fleet and then some of their drivers had to self-isolate after transporting people to COVID-19 testing centres.

“We never had any drivers that ended up with the virus, touch on wood.  There were lots of times we had to quarantine, but we were very lucky.”

Suppes says they are still navigating through what business looks like for them through a pandemic.  With school back in session come September, they are working out proper procedures for transporting students to class.

They have added disinfecting and cleaning protocols and have put screen barriers in their cars.

Suppes says they are operating at about 40 per cent now and they hope that increases with the province slowly reopening, including the reopening of bars and restaurants on Monday.

He says many of their drivers who have been off since the pandemic hit are eager to get back to work, but as a company, they are trying to balance what is feasible for them.

“Riide is a newer name in the city, but it came from older companies that have been here for 50 years and have been servicing the city, so I’m hopeful people will look at it from that perspective and use local.”