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DyComDrive operator kit · Queensland

I started building our booking system the day before my first Uber trip.

I’m Bruce Muir. I run an IT business on Bribie Island. In late July 2026 we bought a second-hand Kia EV9, and in August it was licensed for booked hire. On 23 August I started building our booking system, directing AI coding assistants. The next day I drove my first Uber trip in it. The car charges mostly at home: off the roof during the day, and at 8c a kilowatt-hour overnight. The rest of August and September was concept and build. On 30 September 2026 the company got its own booking entity authorisation, BEA 289710, and the system began running under it. Riders can now book us direct, under our own name.

We’ve walked this path ourselves, mistakes included, and our first quarterly report to TMR is next. Now we help other operators walk it, under their own brand and their own authorisation.

Read how we did it Talk to us
  1. Booked hire service licence 285467
  2. Driver authorisation
  3. We start building our booking system
  4. First Uber trip
  5. Booking entity authorisation 289710
  6. TMR reporting and shift log built
  7. First quarterly report due

Real dates from our own records. Your path may take longer or shorter. Nobody can promise TMR’s timing, and that includes us.

If you’re here, you’re probably one of these

You drive for Uber or DiDi and want your own customers.

Regulars who would rather ring you than open an app. To take a booking yourself, you need your own booking entity authorisation. We’ve just been through that ourselves.

You run a car or a few, and the paperwork is getting away from you.

Written quotes, booking records, receipts, fatigue records, quarterly reports to TMR. We built a system that makes them part of the day instead of a job for Sunday night.

You run community or volunteer transport and need proper records.

Who travelled, when, what help they needed, what they were quoted. Our system was designed for older riders first, and keeps a record nobody can quietly change.

You are outside Queensland.

Booked-hire law is state law, and each state has its own. We know Queensland’s, because we live under it. Tell us your state and we’ll say whether we can help.

A white Kia EV9 parked on a gravel verge with the tailgate up and a red vertical bike rack on the tow bar holding one turquoise mountain bike.
The EV9 with the bike rack on. Ride days for mountain-bike crews were one of the things we built on the first day.
A golden retriever lying in the boot of a white EV9 on a black quilted liner, with the liner’s flap folded down over the bumper.
The fitted boot and its daily road-tester. Pets ride in the back, on a liner that comes out for cleaning between animal trips.

The story in five chapters

  1. Chapter 1: A car that charges off the roof

    The EV9 charges on a portable 15 amp charger that Home Assistant dials up and down every 15 seconds to soak up whatever the panels aren’t using. About a fifth of all the energy the car took came straight off the roof, and most of its home charging went in during the 8c overnight window. Across 40 days, at home electricity rates, that came to about $1.80 per 100 km. It also charged straight into peak on day one, which is its own story.

    The car’s energy by source: solar off the roof 117.0 kWh, grid at 8c overnight 366.0 kWh, grid at other times 21.9 kWh, public charging about 75 kWh, of about 580 kWh.
    • Solar off the roof: 117.0 kWh
    • Grid at 8c overnight: 366.0 kWh
    • Grid at other times: 21.9 kWh
    • Public charging: about 75 kWh
    Where the car’s energy came from, 29 August to 8 October 2026 (40 days): about a fifth straight off the roof. Home charging is metered: our method accounts for 504.9 kWh of the 507.6 kWh the charger’s meters recorded, within half a percent. The three public charges are our own approximate figure. How we worked it out, and what these numbers are not.
    The figures
    The car’s energy by source, kilowatt-hours, 29 August to 8 October 2026
    SourcekWh
    Solar off the roof117.0
    Grid at 8c overnight (midnight to 6 am)366.0
    Grid at other times21.9
    off-peak (25.6c)8.0
    shoulder (30c)7.8
    peak (39.9c)6.1
    Home charging accounted for504.9
    Public charging (three charges, approximate)about 75
    All the car’s energyabout 580

  2. Chapter 2: Building our own booking system

    I started the booking system at 9:10 am on 23 August 2026. By that afternoon it was up on our own server, sending texts and refusing to let anyone edit a booking’s history. About 150 changes went in over seven weeks, and from 26 August every one ran the full automated tests before it was released. All of it was concept and build until 30 September.

  3. Chapter 3: Starting on Uber

    I drove my first Uber trip in the EV9 on 24 August 2026, the day after I started building our system. From then on, the Uber that turned up on the island was often me. Driving it confirmed what our market scan had already found: prices that can surge, and no promise of a ride home from the hospital.

  4. Chapter 4: Getting our own BEA

    We lodged our booking entity authorisation application on 24 September 2026. BEA 289710 took effect on 30 September with no conditions, and our vehicle sign was approved the same day. That ended concept and build. From 30 September the system has run under our own BEA. I didn’t drive a single trip under it until the shift log, the fatigue record it requires, was built.

  5. Chapter 5: Running it day to day

    Every booking now gets a written quote before it’s confirmed, and every finished trip gets a receipt that’s also a tax invoice. The shift log keeps the fatigue record the law asks for. Our first quarterly report to TMR is due on 28 October 2026, and the system builds it from the record.

Read the whole timeline →

The operator kit: what we did, offered to you

The kit is three things. You can have one, two or all three.

Guidance on the whole path

From the vehicle and its licence, the driver authorisation and starting on Uber or DiDi, through insurance, signage and the safety management plan you develop from your own risks, to your BEA application and the first quarterly report. We walk it with you, from what we did ourselves. You write your own plan and lodge your own applications, and we never promise TMR’s answer.

The system, under your name

The booking system we run DyComDrive on: online and phone bookings, written quotes, receipts that are tax invoices, texts, a driver app, a shift log, TMR’s records and reports. Your brand, your fares, your BEA, your own copy of the system and the database. We run it for ourselves today. Running it for other operators is planned, not built, and there’s no date on it yet.

Done with you

Both together: the path to your own BEA, and your own system ready for the day it takes effect.

Your bookings stay yours. We sell software and guidance, never transport. We never take, answer or confirm your bookings, and our name never appears on your quotes, receipts or reports. The system already refuses to take a booking unless a BEA is in force; in your copy, that BEA is yours. So are the records: your riders’ information and your bookings belong to you, not to us.

See the packages

The path, in six stages

  1. The vehicle.

    A booked hire service licence for the car. We had ours on 7 Aug 2026.

    Stage 1 in the guidance

  2. The driver.

    A driver authorisation, plus the training. Mine came through on 21 Aug 2026.

    Stage 2 in the guidance

  3. Starting on Uber or DiDi.

    The app company is the booking entity, so you need no BEA yet. My first Uber trip was on 24 Aug 2026.

    Stage 3 in the guidance

  4. Your own bookings.

    Your own BEA, your own approved sign, and a safety management plan you develop from your own risks. Ours took effect on 30 Sep 2026.

    Stage 4 in the guidance

  5. Day to day.

    Written quotes, booking records, receipts, fatigue records, reports to TMR. Built into our system.

    Stage 5 in the guidance

  6. Keeping it current.

    Renewals, changes TMR must hear about, plan reviews. Our system has a register for every authority, with a renewal reminder before each expiry date entered.

    Stage 6 in the guidance

Three ways we can help

Pathway guidance

We help you work out the path and walk it, from the first licence to your own BEA.

Ask about this: Pathway guidance

Your system, your name

The booking system we run on, set up as your own.

Ask about this: Your system, your name

Done with you

Both: the path to your BEA and your system ready on the day.

Ask about this: Done with you

No prices on the website, because no two operators start in the same place. Tell us where you’re up to and we’ll tell you what it would take. The first conversation is free.

What we can show

Numbers from our own records and TMR’s certificates. We publish no income, trip or rider figures, ours or anyone’s.

Build stories

  • TMR reporting and the shift log

    The paperwork of a BEA never stops. Make it a by-product of the day, not a job for the weekend.

    Getting licensed

  • The licences, and our own BEA

    Each licence answers a different question: the car, the driver, and who takes the booking. Get them in that order, and diary every expiry.

    Getting licensed

  • Starting on Uber

    Driving for an app tells you whether there's work. The moment you take a booking yourself, you need your own BEA.

    Getting licensed

All the stories →

Need a ride on Bribie Island? This site is for operators. You want dycomdrive.com.au: book online, or ring us on 07 3059 8632.

Thinking about your own booked-hire service?

Tell me where you’re up to. I’ll tell you honestly what I think the next step is, including when the answer is “not yet”. The first conversation is free.

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