Women-only ridesharing service to give safety lift too
An Auckland ridesharing service designed for women only is gearing up to launch next month and give Uber and Zoomy a run for their money.
DriveHer, founded and funded by 23 year-old Joel Rushton, has been set up with the intention to make women feel safe and comfortable.
The service will launch on December 3 and have all-female drivers.
Men will be able to use the service — but only with female passengers, and won’t be able to sit in the front.
Rushton, a third-year law student, says he was motivated to start the ridesharing service based on experiences he had grown up around with domestic violence and situations some of his friends had been in.
“DriveHer is about giving women options; it’s about giving women an option to feel safe because currently what we know is that the taxi and ridesharing industry isn’t safe,” Rushton says.
Rushton also took inspiration from Australian all-female ridesharing service Shebah.
“If women feel safer with a woman driver then they have that. It shouldn’t be something that is necessary but it is.”
Rushton invested more than $100,000 into the service, funds he says he saved himself.
DriveHer will work like Uber, with jobs popping up on a cellphone screen and drivers accepting or declining. It will have 50 drivers ready for launch, many of whom have moved from Uber.
“Many Uber drivers I have talked to have said they would not feel comfortable with their wife driving for
DriveHer is about giving women options; it’s about giving women an option to feel safe because currently what we know is that the taxi and ridesharing industry isn’t safe. Joel Rushton
Uber because they feel it is unsafe but they would be happy with their wife driving for DriveHer. Even wives or partners of Uber drivers that don’t currently drive, we expect to see them coming through as well.
“I think we need this service just as much as Australia, just as much as places like London and Canada where they have these services already.”
Rushton also hopes to launch DriveHer in Christchurch, Wellington and Tauranga, as well as other major cities.