Is your car eligible? Here are the criteria…

​List your first car here.

Make your listing stand out

Give your car a catchy name…Here’s an example of mine - not ‘Audi A3’ but ‘Audi A3 Ambition Turbo Quattro S-Line convertible’ – both are accurate, but which would you rather?

Describe your car – you have 1,000 characters – make every letter count! Sell the experience.

If you had UCS or have Turo listings that worked, copy and paste from there.

If not, or you’re starting from scratch, try (for free) Chat GPT (or similar) here. 

An example brief to Chat GPT, sticking with the same Audi, might be: ‘Write me a 1000 character listing for an Audi A3 Ambition Turbo Quattro S-Line convertible for rent in Sydney via Drive mate’ - try it!

Pro tip – always sense-check the AI output…

Pricing

The Drive mate app has recommended pricing based on similar vehicles. Note that your take-home will be 75% of this amount (as Drive mate takes 25% fees), so don’t go below your comfort zone to start. Suggest staying with +/- 20% of our recommended pricing

If bookings are slow you can drop prices, and raise if bookings are steady. Consider allowing Hourly and Instant Bookings to maximise your booking potential.

You can set a peak price for weekends (recommended) and public holidays (highly recommended) – try your base price plus 10%.

Drive mate allows discounts for 7+ days bookings – I suggest making this chunky – 30% off a week’s booking yields same as five x one day trips, for much less work.

All Drive mate bookings currently offer the driver 150kms per day, although the average driven is around 75kms. When setting your price, factor in the wear and tear, depreciation and servicing this will generate. 

Pro tip – one day is almost negligible, but consider the yield from200 days rental @ 75kms.day, averaging 15,000kms, probably needing a service, and using about 25% of the average set of tyres. 

Photos

The right photos can significantly improve your rental yield. Here’s a great Carsales article on taking enticing auto photos. 

Ideally shoot during ‘the golden hour’ - just after sunrise or before sunset, limiting the intense glare and shadows caused by daytime sun; and against a striking or neutral backdrop.

Play with your phone settings for best snaps. iPhone / Mac users can then auto-enhance images. I also use Vivid (see below) or Dramatic filters, but Carsales disagree! See what works for your vehicles… I like the same look and feel for all my listings.

Oh and definitely add a profile photo and say why you’re a good host - great for guest trust - here’s mine.

Drive mate listings need at least four images but there’s no limit - click ‘Add more photos’ to boost your listing. Show multiple angles and the interior, and ideally the boot or cargo space, essential for vans and utes.

Landscape photos are best as that’s how Drive mate displays to drivers - 4:3 or 16:10 are both fine. Ensure cars are nicely centred in photos with good space all round.

See my resulting Audi listing here.

Availability + Subscription + Device + Insurance

The more available your vehicle, the higher your car sharing income - simples! Same for Easy Access - switch on Instant Booking if you can make that work.

Read this article comparing our subscription plans and pick which suits best - you can always change later.

Higher plans cost slightly more, but give more automation and thus less host time needed.

Note that you must at least have a working GPS - not just an Airtag - so we always know your car’s location.

Your chosen plan will unlock the relevant options on the Device page - remember you can BYOD from Uber Car Share, or order new devices from us.

Traditional car insurance doesn’t cover carshare vehicles, but Suncorp and AAMI have policies that do - you have to call and specify carshare NOT rideshare.

Or… Drive mate offers Between Booking Insurance aka BBI for Best Mates plan vehicles, increasing your yield per trip, by reducing our fees from 25% to just 15%.

How fuel works

Guests must check-out with same fuel level as check-in, taking mandatory fuel gauge pictures at both check in and out. Failure triggers refuel charges of $2.50/L + $10 service fee.

We’re moving to an (evolved version of) Uber Car Share’s fuel policy late 2024 - watch this space!

How distance works

All Drive mate trips currently include 150 kms per day of hire, so 300kms for two days, and so on.

We charge guests 35c for each additional kilometre driven over this limit, with 28c per extra km added to the host’s account to compensate for added wear and tear.

How tolls work

It’s essential to use your own E-Toll (preferable) or Linkt tag for toll management. Switch the default statement frequency from 3-monthly to monthly with statements via email; then forward each statement to tolls@drivemate.au.

Some Linkt statements only show the tag numbers not the regos - we’ll need to know which vehicle rego each tag’s linked to.

You’ll be refunded toll charges for trips taken by Drive mate guests. 

⁠Pick ups and drop offs

Funnily enough, the best way for hosts to understand these is watching the Guest pick-up and drop-off how-to videos in this YouTube Playlist, noting the type(s) of trip starts relevant for your car(s).

Beyond that, we recommend hosts take vehicle photos inside and out whenever with their cars, for extra damage, fuel and cleanliness accountability.

How vehicles cleanliness works

Hosts should provide guests with clean cars. In turn, guests ought to return cars in same condition as received, ideally clean!

Guests can choose not to accept dirty cars by contacting Drive mate customer support to help address the issue.  

If hosts receives dirty cars from guests, they can charge for cleaning fees, per our detailed vehicle cleanliness policy here - well worth reading.

To sum up…

There’s lots of info here to absorb, but after your first few trips, most should become second nature - any questions please: