Dear Aussie hosts,
We’re genuinely sorry that UCS didn’t pan out and are here to help displaced hosts find the right platform for their vehicles to maintain and grow income, giving a locally-owned and run alternative to (American) Turo. We also accept older cars - 2010 and later - while charging less commission - just 25% with no excess - also lower and more transparent fees for guests - a flat $12 per trip. And we have stricter borrower verification, plus hosts can choose whether to accept each booking.
Drive mate is currently working around-the-clock to be able best to accommodate hosts and vehicles from UCS and beyond. We are privately owned and us owners are personally overseeing every aspect of this work from our Sydney and Melbourne bases..
We are the first to admit that our systems here have to date not been perfect, but we are 100% committed to stepping up to ensure Australian hosts and guests have smooth Drive mate experiences moving forwards.
Our backstory is that we started Drive mate in Singapore (as Drive lah) in 2019, where it’s hugely successful, trusted and well-reviewed. We copied that exact business model over to Australia and it simply didn’t fit the local landscape, hence significant teething troubles you may have read about. Every single one of these issues has been or is being fixed as we write…
Specifically, we have already recently implemented the following:
a. Stricter verification process so list with confidence, we are now the most due diligent carshare provider, we do facial recognition to license check through our partner Onfido, credit checks and stripe risk checks.
b. Stronger team, we have invested in our team across all Australia functions which most importantly means support when needed to assist you, our valued Host. Our friendly host team led by Jake Hyde (Head of Community with strong experience in this business) will reach out to all of you, and they would be your go to for support queries.
Over the next fortnight we will do the following:
c. Increase demand through new marketing strategy, we are heavily investing into a new marketing strategy, you will see this taking place soon and reap the rewards in the coming months.
d. Product & Tech upgrades, new upgraded tech with some fantastic features isn’t far away (we will tell all once arrived), new guest check in process for a quicker more secure vehicle check in and improvements to host analytics for more performance visibility in the app.
Plans over the coming months include
e. Pilot of new app lock/unlock technology (called Drive mate Go 3.0) - This will NOT be mandatory. We will reach out to interested hosts for our field trials.
f. Launch of Flex+ 2.0 - Our subscription product for long term rentals will see a facelift and will be good opportunity for car owners to rent out their cars for long term as well in addition to daily/ hourly rentals.
Whilst this post is host-focussed, rest assured we will be actively investing in our local digital marketing agency to recruit new borrowers, ensuring any new listings you trust us with see good usage.
We will be hosting weekly online drop-in sessions for current and potential hosts Mondays at 6pm AEST, where us owners will personally answer all your questions. Come and join and ask all the hard questions. We will stay online for as long as needed. Here is the link to join.
These will be recorded and shared afterwards, with all questions and answers, plus any resulting actions, dropped into a blog post the next day.
We aim to be both transparent and accessible, so the founders will each be hosting in-person meet-ups in Brisbane (4th Sep) , Gold Coast (5th Sep) & other city meetups (Coming soon) - venues tba very soon.
Come down, let us shout you a drink, and ask us anything and everything. We’ll repeat these as often as there is demand.
You can also email us both directly on dirkjan@drivemate.au and gauravs@drivemate.au, or call our team 24/7 on 03 4160 2205.
We hope you can see that we are absolutely determined to make Drive mate work for Aussies - we hope you’ll give us a fair go and we promise to look after you to the very best of our abilities.
Sincerely,
Dirk-Jan ter Horst and Gaurav Singhal , Drive mate co-founder and owners.
Here is the link to upcoming Q&A on Monday 2nd Sep at 6 pm AEDT (Online)
Join us for Drinks & Conversations (In person) - Sydney (29th Aug), Melbourne (28th Aug), Brisbane (4th Sep) , Gold Coast (5th Sep) & other city meetups (Coming soon)
Want a callback from our friendly host team. Click here.