A local resident of Noosa, James Hay has developed an innovative new way for people to charge their telephones in public places.
Charge Buddy is an App based power bank rental system which is a little like a sophisticated mini vending machine.
People wishing to charge their telephone can download the Charge Buddy App and find venues near them that have a Charge Buddy station in their premises.
They can then go and relax and have a coffee or a beer while they charge their phone. In some instances, such as Alexandria Headland and Mooloolaba Surf Clubs patrons have even been seen taking their power bank down to the beach with them so that they can use their phones as they enjoy the beach without fear of running out of battery on their phone.
Locations where you can find a Charge Buddy station range from shopping centres, bars, cafes, restaurants, bowling alleys and even a church.
James said, “2020 was not exactly the best time to start any new business but the lockdown and subsequent Covid restrictions allowed us to develop our App in peace and quiet and then to introduce the system slowly so that we could make sure that our App and charging stations were in perfect harmony before we really started to develop the market across Australia.“
“To date we have approximately 65 locations across Australia with the bulk being in SE Queensland.
“As of 31 December, we had reached 2000 App downloads and recently the number of downloads almost doubles every month.”
He said the advantage of power bank rental was that a business can charge their patrons phones anywhere in their venue.
“Their customers take the power bank and can sit anywhere in the venue, even at the tables outside,“ James said.
“To have a charging point at every table in, say a restaurant would impractical and prohibitively expensive. When it comes to spaces such as stadiums it is simply impossible to provide phone charging services. Charge Buddy now makes this possible with a system that is probably 1 per cent of the cost of the alternatives.”
James said very soon they will be installing a station in Nambour Hospital in a joint venture with the Make a Wish Foundation which will earn money for the hospital charity.
“Hospitals are one of those places that phone charging is an issue, and we are sure that hospital visitors and patients will enjoy finally being able to charge their phone during their sometimes long waits for treatment,“ he said.
“We are very grateful to Sunshine Coast businesses who supported us during our trial period.
“I would like particularly to thank Noosa business like Little Sister, Noosa RSL, KB’s Bar and Bistro C for their help. Without their assistance we would never be where we are today and looking at installing our systems in hospitals, universities and even horse racing tracks such as Flemington.”
