Spurred on by his own experiences with catching a taxi between regional cities, Duncan Fisher has been working on his own ride-sharing start-up, Roober.

“I’ve found through work and through personal experiences, in the taxi world prices go through the roof when you’re going outside the town boundary,” Mr Fischer said.

“So if you’re going from Armidale to Uralla, you don’t just pay the fare there, you pay the round trip price.

“A big part of ride sharing is mostly people going around town, but there are also a lot of people in the community going between regional centres everyday – I drive from Uralla to Tamworth for work everyday. That’s a market I want to tap into.”

To begin with, Mr Fischer wants to trial Roober in the Tamworth, Armidale and Inverell triangle. 

“If someone drives from Armidale to Tamworth everyday and they pick up a passenger through Roober on one of those days, they can probably cover their fuel for the week, while the passenger can get to where they need to go for a reasonable price,” he said.

“It’s a win-win situation. Will it be a viable full-time job? Maybe, I don’t know yet, but there is certainly the ability to make some money.”

All transactions would be done electronically when the journey is booked, and passengers will have the ability to rate drivers.

“We’re aiming to be cheaper than a taxi and we won’t be doing surge pricing in times of high demand like Uber,” Mr Fischer said.

Mr Fischer said all the “preliminary business functions” were ready to go and he’s now looking for either an investor or technical co-founded to create the app, along with people willing to put their hand up to be drivers.

For more information go to roober.com.au.

TAMWORTH’S taxi drivers have knocked back the idea of a local rider-sharing service operating in the city during Country Music Festival.

On Tuesday, the Tamworth Business Chamber suggested a local rider-sharing service, such as Roober, could help meet the transport demand of tourists during the festival.

Tamworth has a fleet of 26 taxis to cater for the 100,000 people who flock to the city for the 10-day festival.

However, Tamworth taxi director Greg Rowland said those 26 taxis were working 24/7 during the festival.

“There is a considerable amount of thought and planning that goes into the logistics of moving people around efficiently during the festival,” Mr Rowland said.

“We put 12 months of planning into festival. The balance we have in relation to buses, our taxi fleet and other transport operations is sufficient.”

During the festival, Tamworth taxis aim to get to 80 per cent of customers in five minutes and the remaining customers within 15 minutes.

Mr Rowland said the latest data showed the taxis were almost on par with that goal, getting to 75 per cent of customers within eight minutes and the balance in fifteen to 20 minutes.

“We’ve implemented improved dispatch equipment, such as voice recording bookings and the mobile app, which have really cut down on the time people need to book a cab,” he said.

This festival the Tamworth taxi co-op will also provide additional maxi taxis to help meet the demand.