DIGITAL MARKETPLACES PROVIDING A BOOST FOR PASSENGERS & OPERATORS
Article by Safa Alkateb CEO of Autocab
Digital marketplaces have been transforming travel experiences for many years – making the booking of hotels or flights easier. If you can remember arranging travel or accommodation before the likes of
Booking.com existed, you’ll appreciate how much these aggregated offerings simplify our lives. They allow travellers to find everything they need for their trip at the touch of a finger.
The fragmented nature of the ground transportation industry had previously prevented this from spreading to roads, rails and rivers – but times have changed. You can go on a super app such as Uber and book a range of public and private transport.
While Uber’s initial focus may have been ride hailing, it now allows travellers to book trains, boats and bus rides – you can take a Clipper down the Thames in London or book a coach trip to cities across the UK.
This ability to consolidate multiple transport options on one platform is benefiting passengers and operators alike. In the case of private hire and taxi operators, we’re now seeing widespread collaboration with Local Cab being rolled out nationwide over the last year – and the benefits of this have been evident.
In major cities, such as Manchester, we’ve seen an extra 21,500 passenger trips generated in one month through the app. For operators, this is making up 5% of their total workload on average and has contributed almost £1,000,000 in additional revenues in the first six months since launch. And we’re still in the early days of adoption.
MORE SOURCES OF WORK
Local Cab, however, is just one source of work that is being fed to private hire and taxi companies through the adoption of digital marketplaces. Other demand generators are also feeding jobs into marketplaces – such as business trips and rail displacement work from solutions providers, such as CMAC, and pick up and drop off work from car rental firms, such as Sixt.
For quite a few years now, operators have been able to acquire this type of work, alongside jobs shared by other firms around the country, via the iGo Network. The network is generating 187,000 monthly bookings
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across the country – that would have otherwise gone unfulfilled. In this way, marketplaces are enabling transport providers to work together to satisfy passenger demand.
Operators are also using these platforms to pick up work from travellers who are unfamiliar with their area. In the past, operators would have needed to splash out on advertising and other forms of marketing to reach these customers. But that is no longer necessary as travellers are now far more likely to book through an app that they are familiar with – and operators can pick up the work indirectly through a marketplace.
ADDITIONAL VALUE
As digital marketplaces become an increasingly reliable on-demand transport solution, the more we’ll see other major demand generators wanting to tap into their potential. They
are encouraging new
customers to book trips, anywhere in the country, through various apps of choice. All the while, a growing amount of work is being supplied to the UK private hire and taxi fleet.
This is also enabling operators to offer a growing variety of work to drivers. With recruitment still a widespread issue in the industry, the extra work on offer will help to attract more people into the industry – as operators are in a better position to provide drivers with greater flexibility. With more demand available, they can allow drivers to pick and choose the type of jobs and hours they want to work.
BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER
What we’ve learnt from other digital marketplaces is that they work because they both remove barriers for travellers and bring people together, in a way that was not previously possible.
Booking.com, for example, is fantastic for people who don’t have time to research independent hotels. If they are visiting an unfamiliar region, they are introduced to hoteliers they may have never found on their own and can book a room in seconds.
The same now goes for ground transportation. Whereas previously, travellers would never have known the local taxi firms in every place they visit, digital marketplaces are facilitating that relationship. Through greater collaboration, they are making life easier for passengers – and helping to create millions of additional trips for operators as a result.
DECEMBER 2022 PHTM
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