Commuting in the app of luxury

It's 5pm on Tuesday and I should have finished work two hours ago. I'm at Fairfax Media's Pyrmont office at 1 Darling Island Road and I'm more than ready to head home to Surry Hills.

I usually work from home, but today I went into the office to see some colleagues and get a wristband for the staff Christmas party. (OK, maybe I just went in for the wristband.) But instead of taking a taxi - or the light rail to Capitol Theatre and then walking - I decide to try out Sydney's new on-demand luxury private hire car service, Uber.

Uber's Australian general manager, David Rohrsheim, in one of the hire cars.

I had heard about it properly launching in Sydney this week and thought it might be fun to try it out. It allows you to book a private driver and luxury car (usually a Holden Caprice) via your smartphone whenever you need it and then watch the car and driver approach you on a map with an estimated time of arrival.

This is something that would normally be reserved for rich company executives but is now going mainstream with the help of apps like Uber and Dash being used by private car drivers when they are having down time and want more business.

Taxis wait outside Fairfax Media's Sydney office.

I book the luxury car and driver at 5.11pm via the app and it tells me a few seconds later that "Ronny" is on his way and will be about 19 minutes. It also shows me a button to call him if need be and sends me a text saying his ETA and how many stars he's been given by his passengers (4.7 out of 5 - nice work, Ronny!). According to the Uber app, Ronny is currently at Rushcutters Bay. As it's peak hour, I wonder to myself if he can really make it in the 19 minutes Uber claims.

Meanwhile, outside Fairfax's office, I see a row of taxis, one of which I normally would have jumped into to go home. At this point I realise my long day at work probably would have been over a lot quicker had I taken one of them instead of using Uber (or booked an Uber ride a lot earlier than I needed to take it). But heck, I stick with it, especially since this particular ride is free, not because I've been offered a review ride as a journalist, but because I noticed a tweet sent out via Twitter with a promotion code late on Tuesday saying rides of $60 or less would be free for the next three hours.

As Ronny makes his way to the office, the taxis begin to pile up at the rank outside work. When I first came outside to wait at 5.21pm there were two taxis and now, at 5.27pm, there are five.

It's 5.28pm and Ronny has arrived - two minutes earlier than the ETA! (well done, Ronny). I ask him how he got to me so quickly. He tells me he took the cross-city tunnel and complains about how expensive it is ($5 from memory).

The Uber app showing "Ronny" around Rushcutters Bay.

But I knew already that he took the tunnel of course, as I saw him take it on the map as he drove towards me.

As we drive off in his Holden Caprice, he asks where I want to go. I offer directions and he takes me. He tells me how tech illiterate he is, but that hasn't stopped him from signing up to the Uber app to make more use of his time as a driver.

My trip on a map.

Three of the best things about travelling this way were the fact 2GB wasn't playing on the radio, the driver wasn't talking to his wife on his phone and he didn't smell.

All too often I've been in a taxi and all three of the above annoying factors have been at play.

My trip's statistics.

I also found the conversation I had with the driver was more intelligent than what I'm normally used to with a taxi driver. He also knew where I wanted to go too, unlike many, many Sydney taxi drivers. For example, I remember once telling a taxi driver to go to Star City and he didn't know where it was.

The interior of this car was also very nice and it smelt fresh.

My fare breakdown.

Once we get to just outside my house I ask Ronny to pull over. He pulls out his iPhone 5, presses an on-screen button and it calculates the fare I would have had to pay had the ride not been free. As it pops up on his screen I'm impressed: $27.95.

Normally a taxi home from work would cost me somewhere between $14 and $16. At this point I should mention that I wouldn't normally have to give the driver money in the form of cash or credit/debit card. That information I saved on the Uber app on my smartphone earlier when I signed up so that the money could be deducted automatically after a trip.

Once I accept the payment, Ronny press another on-screen button and gives me, the passenger, 5 out of 5 stars. He says this is so other drivers know whether I'm good enough to pick-up or whether I've been given a bad rating as a passenger.

Very soon after this I get an email showing the journey on a map and a breakdown of the charges, time spent in the taxi and the distance travelled. This is very cool, and not something I would normally get from a taxi service.

Overall, I rate the experience 5 out 5. Yes, there are taxi apps like Ingogo, GoCatch, myTaxi and Taxi Pro that can get me an on-demand taxi (not that I needed one as there is a rank outside work), but I would find this service really useful if it was 3am on a Saturday and I was stuck in Kings Cross with a bunch of drunks all trying to get taxis. I'd also find it useful for taking someone on a date.

General manager for Uber Sydney, David Rohrsheim, wouldn't tell me how many drivers are currently using its service but he said Uber was always adding enough cars to meet demand.

He said the feedback from users had been great, especially from those in areas poorly services by taxis. On average, he estimates his service costs about 20 per cent more than taking a taxi and is much cheaper than booking a luxury private car directly with a private hire car service.

"We make hire cars more accessible," he said. "And we think there is a lot of demand for something like this ... It reduces the rates and increases the volume for private car drivers."

This reporter is on Facebook: /bengrubb