No matter what career you’re in, there’s one frustrating part of being a tradie that we all share.
The commute.
From sitting in traffic to running late, it can be tempting for time-strapped tradies to bend the road rules as they look for ways to get ahead on their day.
But with 1266 Aussies falling victim to road fatalities every single year, that drive to save a few minutes could end up costing tradies their lives.
However, a new Aussie app hopes to overtake those incentives by motivating tradies to take it slow and steady behind the wheel.
MyDriveHero promotes safe driving among Aussie tradies by offering rewards and prizes simply by obeying the road rules.
The gear-shifting app tracks driver speed and distraction levels, awarding them a safety score for every trip that is converted to in-app points.
Those points can then be redeemed for instant discounts at some of Australia’s top retailers, including Woolworths Milkrun, The Iconic and Culture King.
Tradies can also use the points for competition entries to win weekly prize giveaways, including free fuel, holidays or new cars.
MyDriveHero co-founder Joshua Sanerive told Build-it the app was a way to positively incentivise safer driving habits while reducing road-related incidents.
“With tradies spending so much time on the road, this is a great way for them get a bit of extra spending power every week,” he said.
“By encouraging safe driving through the app, we can provide an attractive incentive to obey the road rules while also helping to ensure Australia’s tradies come home in one piece.”
Joshua says the generous points-earning system made it easy for tradies to clock up enough points to redeem prizes almost instantly, and many use savvy tools to bring down the cost of living.
“The points are not a direct dollar value and depend on the voucher. For example, Woolworths Milkrun have given us a 5% discount on all groceries that can be used recurring week to week, and that is currently 250 points. So if we are looking at the average weekly grocery bill of 200, that’s $10 a week of savings,” he told Build-it.
“If you use the app to and from work, then 250 points a week is easily doable. We average around 30 points a 17-minute trip – and then users can use in-app gamification stuff like boosters to get more points.”
So far, the app’s combined driving statistics show a nearly 20 per cent increase in safe driver habits, with 16 million km travelled by all users and more than 75 million points redeemed.
