A trial is underway in Auckland where travellers can order an electric van or car to pick you up and take you to work, or to the train station.
Similar to Metlink's Wellington trial, Auckland Transport's trial is underway in Papakura and Takanini, with plans to expand to other suburbs.
It could be your new ride to work, or the train station, a much smaller electric mini van or car.
It is the same concept as the bus, but you need to book your ride using the Auckland Transport app, website or the call centre.
Tag on and off with your hop card and if you get on a bus or train within half an hour, there is no extra fee.
The first passenger for the day was Ingrid in Takanini.
"So since there's like no buses around my area, it's really useful to call AT Local to get to a train station and then to take other transport onwards," she said. "I find it really reliable and quick. I'm just like probably booking like 15 minutes before and then they'll arrive on time."
But she would prefer a better bus route when working night shifts because AT local stops about 9.30pm.
Rachel was hoping they would get more drivers to speed up the process.
"Sometimes you set a certain time, but then it tends to go a little beyond that or before that, because there's very few drivers available."
Yashprit was fed up with her previous commute to work.
"Before it was very hard for me, like it took me an hour just to go like two minutes far from here, but now it's very easy for me."
Service network development manager Pete Moth said it was a great service.
"It's a corner-to-corner service we refer to it as, so the service zone is 14sq/km or thereabouts, and there's 400 virtual bus stops then we have 400 pick-up points across the service area so that means on average you're walking in the order of 120m per passenger to get to your pick up point."
In Papakura, it has replaced one of the bus services with poor patronage.
Local Board chairperson Brent Catchpole said the flexibility of the different stops was making a huge difference for residents.
"They're finding it more convenient because of a lot more opportunities to stop. There's over 400 stop-off and pick-up points," he said.
Catchpole said the vans were more inclusive for all passengers.
"Well, bus stops were a minimum of 400m away and so yeah, they [people] found it lot more difficult, particularly people that are disabled needed assistance, they found it a lot more difficult to get there."
Catchpole wanted to see the service rolled out in other areas too.
Pete Moth explained that was why vans and cars were better than simply increasing the traditional buses and bus stops for the area.
"We were running fairly empty buses a lot of the day and they're diesel buses, and it's not a great look to be running empty diesel buses in the time of a climate emergency and providing large buses in communities that are quite low density isn't always the right solution."
The trial is due to finish up in October this year when a decision will be made on whether it is permanent. Pukekohe is being eyed up as the next suburb to be given a trial, likely in 2023.
