‘Reverse Uber’: Community rideshare service pitched for Waikato commuters
Tuesday, 16 June 2026
If you have a decent daily commute and wish you could share the costs, Clare St Pierre has an idea that might appeal.
The Waipā councillor has her sights set on a community rideshare service for people commuting to Hamilton. She recently explained it at a Waikato Regional Council transport committee meeting - noting that she was speaking as herself and not on behalf of Waipā District Council.
“My journey about ride share began when I realised that where I live, in Pirongia village, we'd be unlikely to get any bus service for at least 10 years and we'd probably only get just one return service a day,” she told councillors.
“I had to find a better way for smaller communities who rely on car transport and are really hard hit at the moment with fuel cost increases.”
She added the cost, high density demand and fixed route/timetables simply didn’t make public transport viable, hence the market for a ridesharing service to bridge the gap.
“It's kind of like a reverse Uber [because] the trip's already being done,” she told the Waikato Times.
'You're not getting someone to do a special trip just to get you somewhere… it's just sharing the costs so it would be affordable for people to use most of the time.'
After conducting her own research, including outlining the 25 million trips a year to and from the city in the 2023 census paired with the recent fuel crisis, she decided to take action.
The technology is already in place, as ridesharing apps such as Blablacar are commonly used overseas. Funding is not an issue either, the councillor said, confident that she can start the service “within her own resources”.
Community members and regional councillors alike have 'loved the idea', St Pierre says. She’ll also focus on women and prioritising their safety.
'The research I had done was through Australian universities [who are] interested in sustainability projects… it showed women are three times as likely to use rideshare as men,“ she said.
'I realised any system I designed just had to have women right at the heart of it.'
Similar screening and security systems to ridesharing apps are paramount, St Pierre said, suggesting a 'trust score' for drivers, which can be enhanced if they are involved in local community groups/organisations.
'If people realise that the ride they're getting is from someone who's really invested in the community, it changes the whole prospect, doesn't it?“
Ensuring travellers don't get 'stranded' for a ride back home or matching up working hours are some of the biggest holes to address, St Pierre said, especially for those in smaller communities.
While it 'would be nice' if the regional council considers funding an emergency service if that happens to help increase confidence in the service, the ultimate solution lies within its popularity.
'The idea would be to get a large enough pool of people going to and from those communities so that you could change to someone else.
“For me it's easier to work with larger communities to start with but we could get something out of the smaller communities with safeguards.'
A small-scale pilot will be the key metric to gauge community demand, St Pierre says, highlighting how it will help develop how people register, find/sign up for trips as well as the correct commission rate for drivers.
'You've really got to make sure it's easy to use,“ she said.