If you’re thinking of taking the bus, there’s a new way to ride and it’s inspired by Uber.
NEW YORK — Traveling for vacation?
If you’re thinking of taking the bus, there’s a new way to ride, and it’s inspired by 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 purchase tickets through an app. Over the past few months, Our Bus has expanded routes inside and outside of Connecticut.
“We are working with local bus companies to provide the service,” said Numaan Akram, president of OurBus. “It’s a grassroots market there, we create the demand and the trips, we fix it, we plan it, we market it, it’s our brand, our technology. And what’s great is that there is an excellent network of small businesses that own these buses that fulfill our service.
Last month, new routes opened between New York and Amherst, Massachusetts, including stops in Connecticut at Hartford and Bradley International Airport and in Massachusetts at Holyoke and Northampton.
Our bus has also started service between Northampton, Massachusetts and Boston Logan Airport with stops through Pioneer Valley.
The company said the two new corridors will offer fares starting at $25 and the most direct routes with no transfer requirements for passengers.
“At the end of the day, all transportation is local,” Akram said. “And we are working with these local bus companies and bringing new demand to them. We are creating a new demand. We sell individual rides for trips that [the local bus companies] wouldn’t have done. And then we work with [them] to fill them. »
Our bus also monitors local businesses and drivers through apps. “We measure the driver’s performance and the bus company’s response time and their on-time percentage and how they drive like they stop and start too fast and speed up,” Akram said. “We have a set of criteria or a scoring mechanism for each operator and driver in the system. If they don’t respect them, well, they can’t drive with us.
Like Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb, pricing is based on demand and timing. And the company is also able to easily bring more buses to the busiest routes.
The company plans to list soon on the New York Stock Exchange. So this is great news for us.
“We continue to build. But what we’re doing here, everything [is] based on local dynamic technology, that’s what we’re going to replicate and scale across the country,” Akram said.
Doug Stewart is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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