Being mum's, or dad's, taxi is a bane for Australian parents. The solution, of course, is an app.
A growing number of specialised transport services are catering to families trying to get their kids around safely. Inspired by Uber, these start-ups are driving a surge in the kid-friendly ridesharing space.
A natural business extension
FamilyCab was a natural business extension for Lewis and Mel Cann, of Perth Designated Drivers – an enterprise they've owned since 2010. The Canns saw a steady rise in families requesting childseats and launched FamilyCab last year.
"FamilyCab is like a taxi service for people who want car seats for their kids," Lewis says.
"For what we're doing at the moment, the majority of it is to and from the airport because that's the one instance where just about every family recognises they need a car seat in a car that's not their own."
Competition in Perth is limited, allowing the Canns to turn over $150,000 in the seven months since they launched. Expanding to other states is now on their agenda.
"I still get calls virtually every week, someone from Sydney or Melbourne, who has got excited and called to make a booking and I have to tell them, 'Sorry, we're only in Perth'," Lewis says.
"No one else here does it exclusively, it's always been the sort of thing a charter vehicle company has offered. But we've got the best seats, it's all top of the range and the guys all know how to install them.
"Everyone's trained in this area and the website is completely geared to answer all the questions a parent might have."
Lewis says FamilyCab charges consumers "slightly more than taxi rates" and employs seven drivers. However, the company doesn't cater to unaccompanied child passengers.
"We would need to set up a few more systems before we go down that path," Lewis says.
"We've only done it in circumstances where it's a previous customer and the child's not completely unfamiliar with us and the parents trust us because we've been driving them regularly.
We know a lot of parents put their kids in a Uber out of desperation, but there's a fear factor that comes with that.
Michelle Newton
"I know it's something that people want, it has been mentioned to me, but we're pretty busy as we are so I haven't devoted a lot of time to it."
Building trust
Parents juggling the headache of children with multiple extra-curricular activities have been using Uber as an extra pair of hands behind the wheel. But Uber rules ban anyone aged under 18 from travelling when unaccompanied by an adult. The same rules in the US have cleared the way for services like HopSkipDrive to appeal to overburdened parents.
But what would happen to fledgling child transfer start-ups if Uber decided to change its rules and shuttle children around?
"We're really working towards building the trust with parents and I don't think Uber will have that," says Michelle Newton, co-founder of Stretch Ride.
"We know a lot of parents put their kids in a Uber out of desperation, but there's a fear factor that comes with that.
"So what we're trying to do is build the trust and alleviate any doubts or concerns that parents might have. People have said, 'You're Uber for kids' and we're not really, because Uber isn't interviewing all their drivers personally, they don't have Working with Children Checks, they don't have police checks and their drivers don't need to have experience with childcare like ours do."
Care drivers
Stretch Ride, named after the stretched parents it aims to assist, launches this month in Sydney's CBD and plans to start in Melbourne afterwards.
The service is manned by "care drivers" who can be booked to drive children aged seven and older to extra-curricular activities, school or appointments. The drivers can also be hired to wait for the children during their activity and then drive them home. All of this can be tracked in real time by parents using the app.
Car rides for kids aren't the only Uber spin-off with female-only ridesharing services shebah and SheSafe hitting the market last year. Both companies also carry children and shebah founder George McEncroe says this has become a surprisingly large part of her business.
"I didn't know it would be so much a part of the business – the transportation of children is about half of our business," she says.
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