An UBER Service For Children Is Set To Launch In Sydney!

In a world where we’re able to outsource nearly everything, why not a car service that will pick up our kids from school too?

Stretch Ride, is the new Uber style service aimed specifically for children six years and up that need to be ferried around from school to sports to parties.

The concept of the car service came from three professional women who were flat out juggling busy careers, a household and eight children between them. They found they were often time poor and were unable to make school pick up or attend sport practice and events.

The service, to be launched next month, will offer qualified drivers to pick up your child and bring them home safely if you are unavailable to do so. They can even stay with your child during ballet class or footy practice and drive them home at the end. You could say the service is a fusion between a nanny and a chauffeur!

Parents will be able to track where their child is through a live GPS map and can rest easy knowing all drivers have had police checks, working with children checks, insurance, and have undergone a diligent screening process.

Co-founder Michelle Newton said she and partners Joanne Gray and Preya McMahon came up with the idea after realising so much of their time was spent in the car driving their kids around.  “Some of the time we had to be in two places at the same time for different kids — so we were literally stretched,” she said.

“We have been called Uber kids but our model is completely different to Uber. All our drivers are personally interviewed by all three partners. We also check not only their excellent driving history and credentials but also proof that they have worked with children and have the empathy needed to do that — for example, one of our drivers is a child speech pathologist so she demonstrates patience and care of kids.”

The point of difference with Stretch Ride is that the drivers will stay with your child for as long as is needed. “So they don’t leave the children at any point — they take them from point A to B and back again and they do not do other jobs along the way,” Ms Newton explained. “We also conduct driver training sessions where we get in the car with the care drivers, drive with them and check for cleanliness of the car. Eventually this hybrid care driver will be like one of your favourite babysitters.”

One group of mums who have already outsourced the daily school pick up are the stars of reality TV show The Real Housewives of Sydney. During an episode of Studio 10 this week, panellist Jo Casamento shared how the Real Housewives do school pick-up, “I was at a lunch the other day with the housewives of Sydney. I deliberately scheduled it for 12 o’clock in the afternoon thinking, three o’clock, they’ve all got kids, they’re all going to need car pick-ups. Three o’clock, I was the only one that got up from the table. They all rang up their Uber drivers or chauffeurs to collect their kids from the car line at school.”

What do you think? Is this a service you can see yourself using in the future?

Photos: Google images