The first two posts in this series covered what’s broken. This one covers what businesses want, and what Pearl Coast is doing about it.
The demand signal is unambiguous
When we asked Broome Chamber members whether they would support introducing a rideshare service like Uber in Broome, the response was:
- 84% said yes
- 10% were neutral or unsure
- 6% said no
For a public-policy question affecting a small regional town, that’s an exceptional consensus. The 6% who said no broke into two clusters: established taxi operators worried about their existing business, and a small group concerned about driver safety standards. Both are reasonable concerns. Neither held the majority.
86% would actually use it
The demand signal is one thing. Whether that demand converts to revenue is another. We asked the follow-up: would your business definitely or probably use a rideshare service for staff transport or customer needs if available?
- 86% said yes
- 9% said maybe
- 5% said no
The 86% is the number that matters commercially. It says rideshare in Broome isn’t a “nice idea” — it’s a service that businesses are currently structuring around because they don’t have it. Buying their own fleet vehicles. Paying for accommodation taxis on company accounts. Limiting after-hours service because they can’t get staff home. All of that converts back to rideshare bookings the moment a working service exists.
60% rate it 4-5 out of 5 importance
The last quantitative question: on a 1 to 5 scale, how important is improving transport to your business operations?
- 60% rated it 4 or 5 (high importance)
- 28% rated it 3 (moderate)
- 12% rated it 1 or 2 (low)
The 60% sits across every sector — tourism, mining, health, retail. Transport reliability is not a niche concern for one type of business. It’s a cross-sector operating risk.
What we’re building
This is the part where I declare the bias. Pearl Coast Rental Pty Ltd is the trading entity for a 50% Aboriginal-owned business that has been running passenger transport in the Kimberley since 2003. We are not a neutral observer of this market.
But we are the operator who took this data to Uber Australia’s regional expansion team in April 2026 and was formally appointed as their preferred vehicle solutions supplier and launch partner for the Northern Expansion. Broome first. Then the Pilbara. Then the rest of regional Australia.
The model has three commercial components and a fourth in negotiation:
01 — Driver supply. We recruit and onboard drivers locally. The bonus for activating new drivers on the platform is up to $3,000 per driver, terms apply. Local drivers, local cars, local mentors.
02 — Vehicle solutions. We rent vehicles to Uber driver-partners who don’t own a car. Three tiers from $379 a week, all-inclusive of insurance, registration and rideshare cover. Listed on the Uber Vehicle Marketplace as the primary regional rental option.
03 — Driver development. Our own pipeline takes people from learner’s permit to first earning trip. Mentored licensing, onboarding, vehicle, and the first 20 trips supported.
04 — Corporate charter. Private car hire and corporate fleet contracts for mining, government and resource companies. Because we are Aboriginal owned, the spend qualifies under the Indigenous Procurement Policy.
The model is intentionally simple. We use Uber’s platform to create driver income in places that have never had it. We use the proceeds to fund Aboriginal community programs. And we use Pearl Coast Rental as the operating brand to bring corporates and partners along with us, because no single operator can fix this alone.
What the data still can’t tell us
A 77-respondent survey is enough to establish direction. It is not enough to model unit economics. Three things we still want better data on:
- Trip volumes per business per week. We have demand intent. We don’t have trip frequency.
- Willingness to pay. We know businesses want rideshare. We don’t know the price ceiling.
- Geographic distribution. Broome itself is well-covered by this survey. Derby, Fitzroy Crossing, Kununurra, Halls Creek — that’s the next round.
We’re committed to a 2027 follow-up survey that covers all of the above. If you’d like to participate, register your business.
The bigger point
This is a real research dataset, but it is not a neutral one. We collected it because we wanted to build the thing it points to. That should be on the record.
What is also on the record: a transparent, anonymised, sector-balanced sample of 77 Broome businesses who told us, in their own words, that the current transport system isn’t working and that they want a different one.
The job now is to build it properly.