Why we think charter buses will drive the next mobility revolution
Europe is among the most urbanized continents in the world — with around 75 % of its population living in towns and cities. Even though people live different lives, most Europeans eat, sleep, work and live in a small or large city.
No wonder then that the last years has sent a wave of new micro-mobility-services across the cities in Europe. This makes it easier to get around within the city, either by scooter, electric bike, ride-sharing or public transport . The result (and partly the goal) is that fewer of us will need a car on a daily basis which might prevent us in buying new ones.
City legislations and aggressive removal of street parking in many cities have have also forced many car owners to get rid of them (e.g. Amsterdam and Paris).
We don't stay in the city all the time (At least post-covid)
Less cars is good news for the climate because it will decrease our emissions. However; we still need to travel out of town sometimes wether it's for a conference, festival, sightseeing or other affairs (I know at least one person that will do this more often in the post-covid-era).
So; with less cars; how do we “get out”?
The answer seems obvious — and has been for years: Those that don’t have a car at hand will travel by plane, train or bus. There is only one problem: the increased demand for intercity transport might exceed the possible supply.
Steel and machines
While it's a relatively quick operation to fill a city with electric scooters — building intercity infrastructure like train lines takes
time. I am sure you are familiar with at least one train-line-project that has been in the works the last 10 years or longer. In my city there is a train line planned to start building next year. The project was originally presented in 1894 and are planned to be done in 10 years. And who knows; 10 years from now, we might not use trains at all?
Although incomparable with train lines it's also a slow process to build buses and there are only so many bus-factories to meet the demand.
Ride-sharing services like BlaBlaCar have helped to take the load of some of the infrastructure, but with increasingly less cars this will not be enough. After all; ride-sharing will only be an option as long as enough people own a car.
Introducing; the charter bus industry.
Motor coaches are often owned by SME's and there are over 20.000 charter bus companies across Europe. Their main purpose is to deliver private transport to groups, often sports teams, schools or companies.
In a climate perspective; Euro-6 motor coaches has the lowest emissions, trumping both trains and electric cars (depending on their source of electricity).
A motor coach is parked an estimated 80% of its lifetime and is on the road without passengers one third of the time. With other words; motor coaches are extremely under-utilized and the perfect star of the next mobility-revolution.
Given it's low emissions and obvious need for utilization we should start ride-sharing services for motor coaches tomorrow. So we don’t we?
Compared with it’s sibling industries, the charter bus industry are years behind on digitalization — hence everyday necessities for other industries; like tracking, route-optimization and auto-dispatch are rarely seen. Regulations for drivers and costs for acquisition and maintenance means we are less likely to see the gig-economy move into this industry any time soon.
A network of motor-coaches
We are currently building a network of motor coaches across Europe — easily accessible for everyone. Our goal is to increase their utilization, targeting
- Areas with high intercity demand and a lack of buses
- Areas with limited or non-existing train-capacity
- Other areas where a decreasing car-fleet creates urgent need for additional transport services
We want more people to use motor coaches for intercity transport — and we will optimize the usage, routes and planning of the existing companies.
Who are Ferdia?
We were created out of a small charter bus company in Oslo and have for the last 5 years been building what we think is the best ERP platform for SMEs within the industry. After partnering with Tide, Norway's second largest bus company, we are planning our expansion into the charter bus industry in the Nordics. We are currently scaling the team as we are accelerating our efforts within optimization and testing of new mobility services for businesses and individuals.
The mobility problems of the future are complex and will need solutions on many levels — covering new vehicles and train-lines, autonomous vehicles and (hopefully) something yet unknown.
We strongly believe that we can solve many of the short term challenges in an efficient way and help shaping the solutions of the future. Utilizing existing capacity should be the answer before building new infrastructure.
Do you think we are onto something?
Shameless hiring plug; We are looking for passionate people that wants to shape the future of mobility. Are you an engineer with a passion or interest for the mobility-scene? We are hiring. See open positions here or send us an open application to careers(at)ferdia.no
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