If you’re thinking of taking the bus, there’s a new way to drive, and it’s powered by Uber.
NEW YORK – Traveling on vacation?
If you’re thinking of taking the bus, there’s a new way to drive, and it’s taking its cue from Uber and other ride-sharing companies.
Our Bus is a company that provides bus service to cities across the United States, but does not own any buses. The company contracts with local bus companies to provide vehicles and drivers. Our bus provides passengers, who buy tickets through an app. In recent months, Our Bus has expanded routes in and out of Connecticut.
“We work with local bus companies to fulfill the service,” said Numaan Akram, President of OurBus. “It’s a core market there, we create demand and travel, we value it, we plan it, we market it, it’s our brand, our technology. And the great thing is that it’s a great network of small businesses out there that own these buses that fulfill our service.”
Last month, new routes were inaugurated between New York and Amherst, Massachusetts, including stops in Connecticut at Hartford and Bradley International Airport and in Mass. at Holyoke and Northampton.
Our bus has also started service between Northampton, Massachusetts and Logan Airport in Boston with stopover through the Pioneer Valley.
The company said the two new corridors will offer fares starting at $25 and more direct routes with no requirement to transfer passengers.
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“At the end of the day, all transportation is local,” Akram said. “And we’re working with these local bus companies and bringing them new requests. We are creating new demands. We are selling individual trips for trips that [the local bus companies] would not have done. And then we are working with [them] to fulfill them.”
Our bus also monitors local companies and drivers through apps. “We’re measuring the performance of the driver and the response time of the bus company and their on-time percentage and how well they drive like they stop and start very quickly and accelerate,” Akram said. “We have a set of criteria or a scoring mechanism for every operator and driver in the system. If they don’t fill them out, they can’t drive with us.”
Like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb, pricing is based on demand and time. And the company is also able to bring more buses easily on the busiest routes.
The company plans to go public soon on the New York Stock Exchange. So this is great news for us.
“We continue to build. But what we are doing here, everything [is] based on dynamic local technology, this is what we will replicate and scale across the country,” said Akram.
Doug Stewart is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dstewart@fox61.com.
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