Wollongong’s first rideshare service will hit the city next week.
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New company Go Buggy has announced it is entering the growing market, and will launch on August 10.
Interest in rideshare services in the region has been high, but Uber and other operators had not shown any rush to come to Wollogong.
One of the Go Buggy creators, Cath Savy, said Wollongong will also be the first city it will operate in and had been in planning for six months.
While the business is based in Sydney, Ms Savy said Wollongong was an attractive option for Go Buggy.
“We’ve been researching the competitors in the market and we noticed Uber wasn’t going there, goCatch isn’t focusing anywhere near Wollongong,” Ms Savy said.
“Also, the size of the city and the types of industries that are there, we thought it was a good opportunity.”
There are also plans to launch in Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga and Bathurst in the coming months.
Ms Savy said she and her business partner started Go Buggy following the NSW government’s passing of legislation dealing with rideshare services.
The service will start next week with a Go Buggy-branded vehicle and build up to a fleet of three to five such cars.
Drivers using their private vehicles are also being recruited.
“Next week we’ll have our own Go Buggy vehicle in Wollongong branded and driving around and we’ll have our phone lines up and running,” she said.
“We’ll have a Go Buggy vehicle there for three weeks starting from next week and after that we’ll start bringing on fleet vehicles.”
People can book a Go Buggy ride by either a 1300 number or an app.
A fare will be charged at $1.60 per kilometre travelled, plus a “waiting charge of 65 cents per minute, as well as a booking fee.
All fares will be paid via credit card.
In terms of passenger safety, Ms Savy said all Go Buggy-branded vehicles were fitted with CCTV and private drivers had to submit to a police check and supply all relevant insurance details, in compliance with the government’s rideshare legislation.
The market for a rideshare service in the city seemed limited, given taxi drivers’ complaints that there weren’t enough customers for them, let alone a competitor.
But Ms Savy said people had been “calling for an alternative type of transport in the Illawarra”.
She said the company was using charity as a means to attract customers.
Each month Go Buggy will select five Wollongong charities and ask customers to vote on them, with donations made based on the proportion of votes to each charity.
