Cambridge residents will be able to use ride booking service Uber from 4pm tomorrow, Varsity can reveal.

The smartphone app, which matches licensed private-hire drivers with nearby customers, will be activated on Thursday, making Cambridge the seventeenth city in the UK to have Uber drivers on its roads.

The news that the service was coming to Cambridge was first broken by Varsity in August, after the City Council granted a taxi operator license to Uber. The Uber launch follows the introduction of rival cab booking service Gett, which connects customers with regular taxis rather than Uber’s private vehicles, in May 2015.

From tomorrow, Cambridge users will be able to use Uber’s budget uberX service, with a sample journey between King’s College and Cambridge Station estimated at £5.80. No plans have yet been announced to roll out Uber’s luxury UberBlack or taxicab UberTaxi services at this time.

Uber have in recent months attempted to respond to concerns over the safety of their service. All drivers, a statement from Uber’s communications office reports, must be fully licensed by the City Council and undergo a full DBS check, the same as black cab drivers and care workers. All journeys will be tracked by GPS, to ensure that each trip is safe and provides value for money.

Fred Jones, Uber’s General Manager in Cambridge, said: “we’re incredibly excited to be launching in Cambridge,” and said that he was “looking forward to helping people get a safe and affordable ride at the touch of a button.” Jones also praised the employment opportunities Uber may bring to the city, commenting that “locally licensed private-hire drivers can now apply to use the Uber app and become their own boss – choosing when they want to drive.”