As we approach the end of 2024, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the wild ride we’ve shared over the past few months. This year has been nothing short of transformative - not just for Drive mate, but for the entire car-sharing ecosystem in Australia. Thank you all for coming on this journey with us.

When Uber Carshare exited the market in August, many doubted what would come next; but together, we turned uncertainty into opportunity. Today, we’re proud to recap some of the progress we’ve made, acknowledge areas we can and will do better, and share where we’re headed in 2025, and beyond.

Celebrating Wins Together

  1. Rapid Integration: One of our proudest accomplishments was integrating Uber Carshare’s technology into Drive mate within just 30 days of their exit. This monumental task was completed with you - our Hosts - firmly in mind, ensuring a (mostly) seamless transition and trying our best to minimize disruption.
  2. Introducing Drive mate 2.0: Based on your invaluable feedback, we launched a new pricing system that better reflects the needs of our community. This was not an easy decision - we had always hoped to maintain our old pricing model - but we listened, adapted, and delivered a system that we sincerely believe works better for you and your Guests. This is not the end state - we must ensure that pricing is attractive for different use cases.
  3. Support 2.0: We rolled out a ticketing system to improve how we handle support requests. While it’s not perfect yet, it’s a big step toward giving you the service you deserve. The biggest impact this has had for us is that it gave us clarity on how many different types of tickets are in the system to be resolved. For you as hosts having a ticket number for each ticket for which status updates are given in the app gives more visibility on progress. 
  4. Demand is Soaring: Demand on the platform has grown exponentially, and our improved SEO performance is finally bringing even more Guests to your vehicles. The numbers don’t lie: we’re growing faster and stronger than ever.
  5. Openness and Listening: Whether through one-on-one calls, bi-weekly Q&A sessions, or Facebook discussions, we’ve worked hard to maintain open lines of communication. Drive mate remains the most transparent platform in this space, and that’s something we’ll never compromise on.

Acknowledging the Gaps

Of course, we know there’s still much hard work to be done.

  1. Support Backlogs: We acknowledge the backlog of support tickets related to trips. The sudden surge in demand created staffing challenges, and while we’re working tirelessly to address this, it’s an area where we could have done better, and we will. Our teams are working tirelessly over the holidays, with the single-minded objective of resolving tickets (rather than just hitting a KPI to respond in a timely manner). Real answers are needed, not just responses. We get it and are working on that. 
  2. Reduced Founder Presence: Some of you have noticed that you hear less from us founders on the Facebook group these days. During the transition, we made a conscious effort to show up daily to give a face to the new brand. While we’ve stepped back to focus on running and improving the business, please know we’re still listening - and working hard behind the scenes to deliver on our commitments. It is essential that we keep working on improving the system to make the experience for both hosts and guests seamless.
  3. Trust & Respect: We are aiming to be clearer, fairer and more transparent, with detailed Drive mate 2.0 Terms of Service, Fees & Fines Schedule, and BBI policy details now in our Help Centre. We know that some Guests have not been treating your cars well, which absolutely devastates us to hear. We’ve tightened verification and have already seen a drop in Guest misdemeanours since Drive mate 2.0 launched, with its automations helping curb many Guest transgressions.

Looking Ahead to 2025

As we enter the new year, we are more committed than ever to making Drive mate the biggest and best car-sharing platform in Australia. Here are our key priorities:

  • Clearing Support Backlogs: Improving the support system and ensuring timely and, critically, fair resolution of all outstanding tickets. Continued training of our staff as well as increased automation of processes will help us do that.
  • Growing Demand: Initiatives like our car-sharing hub at Sydney Airport are just the beginning, with other cities planned. Expect more targeted advertising, SEO efforts, and partnerships to bring even more demand to the platform. We are also working on encouraging longer, higher paying bookings.
  • Automating Key Processes: Automating toll collection, fuel refunds, and other processes to make hosting on Drive mate as seamless as possible, generating less tickets, which will thus be resolved more swiftly.
  • Q1 Host Meetups: We can’t keep building Drive mate without your support input. We hope to meet as many of you as possible early next year to keep the dialogue open. Drive mate 2.0 already has multiple features requested by our Host community, and we’d love you to keep feeding back to us in 2025.

A Final Word

In August, many doubted Drive mate’s ability to step up into the gap left by Uber Carshare’s exit. But here we are, standing strong and growing every day. This progress wouldn’t have been possible without your trust, patience, and belief in what we’re building together.

We know there’s still a long way to go, but with your continued support, there’s no limit to what we can achieve. Thank you for being part of this journey. Together, we’ll make Drive mate a cornerstone of Australia’s shared mobility future.

Here’s to a successful 2025 - let’s drive it forward, together…

Dirk-Jan & Gaurav

Your Drive mate founders.