Driving change on the Coast
Battling traffic jams and a parking squeeze, Gold Coast residents are at a fork in the road … could Luke Rust and his start-up be the solution?
WHEN it comes to the future of cars on the Coast, we are truly at a fork in the road.
In a bid to cut costs, developers are already planning carfree projects for the city with no private parking spaces provided. Meanwhile, Coast traffic and carparking are some of the most contentious issues for residents.
In the midst of this traffic jam is entrepreneur Luke Rust, who has the inside track when it comes to new trends in transportation.
As the founder and CEO of tech start-up Outbound, the young father is shaking up the idea of private transport in favour of shared mobility.
His company looks to change the face – and the parking space – of the city.
The Outbound app allows $30 hourly all-inclusive rentals of Tesla, with the pilot model based at the Mantra at Sharks Hotel in Southport.
But that’s only the beginning.
Luke is in the midst of brokering deals with shopping centres, hotels and high-rises across the eastern seaboard – and developers can’t get enough.
“Just like a gym or resort facilities, this is something that developers can offer buyers … access to a pool of luxury EVS,” he says.
“Share d mobility of this type is dif
feren t from traditional car sharing because rather than private vehicle owners renting out their personal cars, vehicles are attached to a property and are available for communal use, exclusively for those who are staying there.
“There is a developer we’re in talks with right now who is looking at creating a project that would have no private car spaces – just shared EVS and ebikes. It sounds crazy but this is most likely the way the future is going to look.
“Right now we’re still in the mindset that developers and the city have to build more and more car parks which is just locking us in to roads and traffic.”
Originally from the UK, Luke says he noticed a gap in the Aussie market for shared mobility after moving to the Gold Coast in 2020.
He says the spark for his start-up business came after purchasing a second car, when he realised there had to be a more economical way to get around the city.
“My partner and I bought our first family car — a VW Tiguan for $40,000, but we quickly needed a second car as public transport access is poor in our area and Uber is expensive,” he says.
“We bought a second car for $30,000 but only used it for two trips a week. It sat idle 99 per cent of the time.
“I spoke to other residents in our apartment block and they all agreed they only needed 1.5 cars … so the idea of owning one and accessing one when you need it became obvious.
“I started thinking about how to flip the whole notion of car ownership on its head on the Gold Coast and work out a new way to still get around without a giant ‘money hole’ parked in the garage.
“Aside from the purchase price, the cost of owning a personal car can reach $17,000 per year. If communal EVS were available for use and that could just be included in your body corporate fees, you could cut a huge chunk of that expense.
“Not to mention improving local air quality.”
While Luke understands not everyone will be ready to ditch their second car, he says he cannot roll out his business fast enough.
He says he has more than 60 properties in the pipeline over the next few years, with future announcements imminent.
“It’s been a two-year journey building the technology and the company with a soft launch of our first site in Southport earlier this year,” he says.
“But now we’ve been flooded with interest and are partnering with hotels, apartment buildings, office buildings and shopping centres.
“The car rental procedure is all digitised through the app. You book it, load your ID and basic information, find the car from one of our locations, it unlocks and when you’re done you bring it back, plug it in and lock it up.
“The idea with shopping centres is simply that it’s a central location and much easier than going out to the airport or hire companies – it also means we’ll be bringing the tourists to you.
“This will be ideal for holiday-makers as they only have to hire the car for when they need it … a few hours to drive to Byron rather than a week-long rental where you have to worry about parking and wasting the extra money.”
Luke says the pilot site at Mantra at Sharks has already proven popular – even with locals.
He says as more sites roll out, he plans on researching whether shared mobility changes transportation habits or car ownership.
“At Southport it is funny, we have people who drive their own car there just to rent out the Tesla,” he says.
“From what I understand, that’s very GC. Drive the Ford and rent the Tesla, it’s still a novelty factor to a degree.
“But as this continues, we want to research and get some hard data about whether shared mobility can change our habits. Can we reduce the number of two-car households? Can we increase the use of public transportation?
“This is really an exciting field where we’re about to see a huge change. Even the way we build our houses will be impacted. What will it look like when we don’t have to have a two-car garage?
“We’re already seeing that start with developer looking at no-car buildings. Of course, that’s something the council needs to be comfortable with … we don’t want people to keep their cars and have it spill out on to the roads.
“But I think people are ready for change. It’s cheaper, it’s cleaner and it’s full of possibilities and opportunities.
“I couldn’t think of a better city to start this company than the Gold Coast. The help and support I’ve received from the community has been amazing and I think this city is really built on the spirit of the entrepreneur.
“It’s an exciting time to drive change.”
Literally.
I started thinking about how to flip the whole notion of car ownership on its head on the Gold Coast and work out a new way to still get around