Starting on Uber

I’m Bruce Muir. I run an IT business, DyCom Group Queensland, from Bribie Island. In late July 2026 we bought a 2023 Kia EV9 second-hand, after checking the car’s history. August was paperwork: the booked hire service licence for the car (BHSL 285467) took effect on 7 August, and my driver authorisation came through on 21 August.

I started building our own booking system on Sunday 23 August. On Monday 24 August 2026 I drove my first Uber trip in the EV9.

Why start on an app

You can’t drive a single paid trip without a vehicle licence and a driver authorisation. You don’t have to be a booking entity yourself, though, as long as someone else takes the bookings. TMR puts it plainly: “If you’re a personalised transport driver and you don’t arrange your own bookings (for example taxi and Uber drivers) you don’t need to apply for a BEA.”

So Uber was the quickest way to start driving paid trips and learn the work. Uber was the booking entity for those trips. Our own system was in concept and build: I was designing it, building it and testing it, and we had no BEA yet.

What driving it confirmed

I didn’t drive Uber to find out what to build. Our market scan of the island came in on the afternoon of 23 August, the first day of building and the day before my first Uber trip. It found that there aren’t many app drivers on Bribie, that rides early in the morning or late at night are hard to rely on, and that an app leaves gaps for the people who most need a car. We designed the system around those gaps from that first day.

Then I drove. From 24 August, the Uber that turned up on the island was often me. That’s my experience driving here, not Uber’s data. My weeks on Uber, up to our own BEA on 30 September, confirmed what the scan found:

• The price can move. In our 2026 market scan, an UberX from the island to Caboolture Hospital cost about $55 to $70 at public prices, and could surge.
• Getting home is a second gamble. An app trip is two single trips. The ride home from a long appointment is a fresh request, and nobody has promised to take it.
• Pets. Uber Pet was already running. There was room for a direct-booked version with a boot fitted for animals.

The demand looked real, too. A local organisation runs nine buses on weekday mornings, and Translink is funding a three-year on-demand trial on the island. We read that as serious, recurring need for transport, much of it medical and much of it for older people.

What we built around those gaps

DyComDrive, booked direct. A fixed written quote before every trip. The price can come down from it but never go up, except for extra waiting on a Wait & Return, and the quote says so. Wait & Return: one booking for there and back, with a guaranteed pickup. And pets in a fitted boot. Each of those has its own story here.

When you need your own BEA

The law treats you as arranging a booking the moment you accept one, and that includes a regular who rings you direct. To drive a booking you arranged yourself, you have to be an authorised booking entity. That’s the next step, and it’s a real one: your own BEA brings your own duties, from written quotes to quarterly reports. Ours took effect on 30 September 2026. That’s when concept and build ended and our system began running under our own name.

General information, not legal advice. See the pathway for the rules and links.