Uber has launched a push along the southeastern Connecticut shoreline, an area it believes is fertile turf for its ride-sharing service.

It’s struck alliances with hotels, bars and restaurants, and is seeking to expand a stable of drivers that numbers roughly 400.

At “onboarding” sessions in New London last week, Uber representatives expedited the processing of paperwork for new drivers willing to use their own vehicles to ferry passengers around a region whose population mushrooms after Memorial Day.

“We’re making a concerted effort to amplify our presence in coastal Connecticut,” Ariella Steinhorn, an Uber spokeswoman, said last week.

More than a dozen establishments have partnered with Uber, agreeing to distribute the company's promotional materials, including cards that provide discounts for first-time riders.

Participating businesses include Saybrook Point Inn & Spa, Quality Inn, The Monkey Farm Café and The Back Porch Restaurant in Old Saybrook; The Bee and Thistle Inn and Lenny’s On The Beach in Old Lyme; Holiday Inn Express, S&P Oyster Company, The Whaler’s Inn and the Inn at Mystic/Harbour House in Mystic; and America’s Best Value Inn and Breakwater restaurant in Stonington.

“We’ve been very successful on the Jersey Shore and in The Hamptons" on Long Island, said Kyle Thomas, an Uber operations manager who led an onboarding session Thursday at the Holiday Inn. “We think we can have similar success, with smaller volumes, on the coast in Connecticut.”

The effort won’t work, he said, unless Uber can sign up enough drivers to meet the ramped-up demand it hopes to tap.

When riders summon Uber via smartphone app, it’s important that they don’t have to wait long for a driver to arrive, Thomas said.

“The goal,” he added, is to make the process “as reliable as running water.”

Tim Brown, co-owner of the Inn at Mystic and the Harbour House restaurant, which is adjacent to the inn, welcomed Uber’s pitch.

“I’m a believer, anyway,” Brown said. “I’ve used it a couple of times myself to get home (to Noank). I’ve used it in New York City and Boston. I’m not a young guy, so (Uber) may be one of the only apps I have.”

Brown said taxi service in Mystic is “spotty” at best and that securing a cab ride on a Friday night usually involves prolonged waiting.

Still, he said, Uber’s impact on cab companies gave him some pause.

“I wondered about it," he said. "Is it really fair to cabs?”

Within weeks of Uber’s 2014 debut in Connecticut, more than a dozen cab companies in the state filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the service banned.

Curtin Motor Livery Service, Groton Cab Co. and Yellow Cab Co. of New London and Groton, all based in Waterford, were among the companies that claimed Uber should be subject to the same licensing, certification and permitting requirements as taxi services.

The state legislature considered a bill last year that called for the regulation of “transportation network companies” like Uber.

The House passed the bill but the Senate never took it up.

In March, a U.S. district judge granted Uber’s motion to dismiss the cab companies’ suit.

Last week, judgment in the case was entered in Uber’s favor.

After operating in Fairfield, Hartford and New Haven counties, Uber announced 15 months ago that it was partnering with Mohegan Sun.

Southeastern Connecticut’s two gaming palaces, including Foxwoods Resort Casino, are responsible for a good share of Uber’s business in the region, according to Uber drivers.

“Uber is in place to provide guests an alternative means of travel at a reasonable cost,” Ray Pineault, Mohegan Sun’s president and general manager, said in a statement provided by a casino spokesman. “It’s a responsible means of transportation for those that may have had a few drinks as well.”

Support from MADD

Lee Reichardt, a Mystic retiree who’s been an Uber driver since November, said he often picks up late-night revelers eager to avoid a drunken-driving arrest.

Other “typical” passengers, he said, include business travelers — sometimes groups of them — who stay at one of the Mystic hotels near Exit 90 of Interstate 95.

Rather than rent a car, they rely on Uber to take them to and from the casinos or wherever else they want to go, he said.

Reichardt can transport up to seven passengers in his Honda minivan.

And then, he said, there are the “kids” from the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton, and the Coast Guard Academy and Mitchell College in New London, who don’t own a car.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which supports Uber nationally, has gotten behind the ride-sharing service’s southeastern Connecticut initiative.

“We’re working with them,” said Janice Heggie Margolis, executive director of MADD’s Connecticut chapter. “We encourage law enforcement and local bars and restaurants to pass out Uber cards."

"Our main interest is in keeping people from drinking and driving," she said. "Ideally, people should think about transportation before they start drinking. In cases where they’ve had too much to drink, they need to use another form of transportation.”

She said Uber is the only ride-sharing service operating in Connecticut, adding, “We’re happy to say we’re partners.”

Some drivers are veterans

Uber has cultivated a relationship with the U.S. military, targeting veterans and military communities in a bid to attract drivers and promote the use of its service.

Steinhorn, the Uber spokeswoman, said internal surveys indicate that many Uber drivers in the state are veterans or have a military connection.

One of them is Donald Lohr, an ex-Marine who lives in Ledyard with his wife, Desiree, and their three children.

In a recent interview, the 31-year-old Lohr said he was working full time as a FedEx courier and supplementing his income with a newspaper motor route when he heard about Uber’s partnership with Mohegan Sun.

The Lohrs had used Uber during a trip to Disney World in Florida, and he decided to sign up.

After he’d been driving for a month, he and his wife quit delivering papers. A year later, Lohr’s driving about 15 to 20 hours a week, activating an Uber app to indicate when he’s available to accept fares.

When he gets a “hit,” he has 30 seconds to accept it.

“On Friday and Saturday nights, I’d say about 80 percent of it is casino traffic,” he said. “Thursday night’s a good night for Connecticut College. They seem to go out to the bars that night.”

He said it makes him feel good to know he's providing safe transportation for passengers who might otherwise get behind the wheel after drinking.

“My goal is to earn $200 a week,” Lohr said. “I average $150 to $300 on a weekend. Made $600 the week around New Year’s.”

And sometimes, he said, the conversation’s good, too.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com