Wollongong has a strong interest in rideshare services, according to the founder of a company that launched in the city on Wednesday.
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Go Buggy is the first rideshare service to operate in the Illawarra.
Uber has been in town for one-day promotional exercises, like delivering ice cream, but has no plans to enter the market.
That was part of the reason Go Buggy director Simon Robinson decided Wollongong would be its first market.
“What we found when we were doing our research on social media was that people in Wollongong were screaming for Uber to come down here,” Mr Robinson said.
“There was an article in The Mercury that said Uber had no plans to come down here any time soon. And the Uber app won’t let any drivers drive down here either.
“So we know there’s a need for it. People have been calling for it.”
Mr Robinson said the service arrived in the city on Wednesday and spent that first day checking the paperwork of 28 drivers keen to ferry passengers around in their own vehicles.
Most of those already worked in the transport industry as bus drivers or behind the wheel of a private hire vehicle.
That meant they already had the driver authority required by the new government ridesharing legislation.
The company had also been checking the safety of the drivers’ vehicles.
“We’ve got an application that basically checks everything about the vehicle - everything from the engine and all the hoses and brakes, to the condition of the seat belts,” he said.
Mr Robinson said Go Buggy drivers were now on the road in Wollongong accepting fares – all people had to do was download the app to make a booking.
The company is unsure of when the peak times in Wollongong will be.
“It’s early in the day for us in terms of finding out where the demand is going to be at a particular time,” Mr Robinson said.
“If we base the figures on Sydney we know Friday afternoon at five o’clock though to 3 o’clock in the morning is going to be busy. But liquor licencing is a little bit different down here, so there might be more of a staggered time.”