FlixBus bigger, Ola & GETT (?) to go public and NYC take on blue-collar use of transport

Big deal of the week goes to... FlixMobility, which acquired Greyhound, the US? largest long-distance provider, from First Group. First has been trying to offload Greyhound since May 2019, as the company is focusing on its UK operations. With Greyhound’s 1,300 vehicles, 2,400 employees and 1,750 destinations in the US, FlixBus is now the largest player both in Europe (BlaBlaBus 2nd) and in the US.?

The deal was announced Thursday (Oct. 21st) morning; First’s (FPG.L) stock started at 89.9 on Thursday morning, and is now (Friday, 11:20) at 91. The market seems fairly happy with the deal.?

News from Israel

GETT might be SPACing to the tune of ±$1.3bn. GETT is expected to receive $150-200M, cash that would be used to get its corporate ground travel management (GTM) up and running. Why might? Because this has only been published in one (leading) Israeli financial newspaper. Last time GETT was said to be SPACing was earlier this year in March.

Waze found that congestion has increased by ±25% Feb-20 (Before Covid, or BC) and Feb 21 (AC). This is attributed to fear of public transport and because people travel abroad less. Those of you who follow Israeli transportation news know that the new transportation minister is set on investing in public transport. Good luck.?

Yandex (taxis, ride-hailing, deliveries) bought Wind’s Israeli activities (scooters) at ±$50M, allowing it to offer a multi-modal solution.?

AIR (please change that name) has joined the flying vehicle industry. The Israeli start-up out of stealth (website) wants to sell direct to consumers starting 2024. The ‘AIR ONE’ will have two seats and a range of 177km, and could be available to those of us without a pilot license. I wonder which regulator would be the first to allow this…

In other flying cars news, Chinese HT Aero raised over $500M (!) for its series A (!?) round. They plan to bring flying vehicles to the market in... 2024. HT Aero wants to focus on… you got it - individual consumers.?

I stumbled upon Grab’s (Singapore/Indonesia) website and this is a great example of a super-app. Founded in 2012, the company evolved from mobile taxi-booking to ride-hailing in 2014 to… well, everything. Other than transport, Grab also has food deliveries, market deliveries (grocery, pharma, beauty etc.) and P2P deliveries. But that’s not why I brought them up. Grab also has a digital wallet, insurance, investments (through asset managers) and gift cards, all under the Grab Financial Group. This is how a super-app should look.?

Europe sells more battery and plug-in electric cars than diesel (but much less than petrol, with ±60% of sales). Norway leads with >75% of car sales being electric, the UK with ±20%.

Driver shortage?

The driver shortage news reports have dwindled, but the shortage is still real. The bus industry needs 4,000 more drivers to keep running. Zeelo (disclosure: I work at Zeelo) is set on recruiting new drivers into the industry, and launched a new driver program, combining paid driver training with full-time internship and placement services. First cohort is expected in the next few weeks. Do you qualify? ← <- <-?

On other news, coach of the year 2022 goes to - NEOPLAN cityliner Platin by MAN.?

DRT/ride-hailing

Genius move - Lyft allows you to pay for your Tinder date’s ride.?

TechCrunch on mobility startups in emerging markets. SWVL, Treepz, Jatri and others are changing the way people move, allowing better transportation opportunities to women, the middle class & young professionals.?

SWVL published its Q3 reports. Reminder: the company announced a SPAC ±2 months ago, acquired Shotl, and is looking to de-SPAC soon. Numbers show that SWVL are bouncing back better from the pandemic. Read the full report here. And an interview with Victoria Grace, founder of blank check firm Queen's Gambit (which SWVL SPACed with), who speaks about the ESG strategy of the deal - women empowerment, tackling emissions, making transportation better for all people and improving dreadful congestion.?

Long read on Uber and is it worth $91bn. No definitive answer. We’re all waiting for their Q3 results to see if they are adjusted-EBITDA profitable or not.?

Ryde received its full ride-hailing license in Singapore, and it is now the 5th operator to hold a full license, and the 2nd carpool full license holder. Grab is the other.?

Ola is IPOing - without its COO and CFO - who are leaving the business.?

Derby council is launching DerbyGo by Kinto.? Kinto has created a MaaS application to integrate existing bus and rail solutions managing payment &? information, and will add new mobility solutions to it. See their website for the range of services.?

CoMoUK added a ‘DDRT’ member council. DRT has been expanding in the UK and now will be better represented by CoMoUK (disclosure: Zeelo is a member). The UK has grand plans on improving public transport and decarbonising transportation and DRT can play a big part in those.?

Autonomous

Cruise plans to have ‘tens of thousand’ AVs on the road by 2024 as robotaxis and delivery vehicles. This seems a bit optimistic (we’ve all heard similar projections before), probably fueled by last week’s announcement that Cruise has a license to operate driverless robotaxis in California.?

A long-read interview with Waymo’s co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana. Key takeaways: safety first; future business models: robotaxi, long-haul trucks and personal car ownership. Also inside some interesting learnings from Waymo’s Arizona operations about what people really need. Like knowing from which mall exit will the robotaxi wait for me?

Ocado invests $13.6M in Wayve, a self-driving startup. The deal is not exclusive, Wayve is also working with Asda. Ocado on her part, recently invested in another autonomous start-up, Oxbotica. With deliveries booming post-covid, it is clear why Oacdo would invest in autonomous technology.?

Hyundai is opening a self driving R&D test bed in Korea. Amazon’s self-driving cars are coming to Seattle. Four SUVs fitted with Zoox’s technology will run around downtown (with a security driver). Over the next three years 200 autonomous vehicles would crash, US federal regulators predict.?

Micromobility

Bird can now detect sidewalk riding and force stop. The technology is being tested in two locations in the US. Lime is profitable (EBITDA-adjusted) this quarter, and this is the 2nd time this has happened. Tier has partnered with APCOA to use it’s parking garages for its charging bases.? TfL expands scooter trails to cover Camden.?

UK back-to-public-transport

UK back-to-transport. Data up to Oct. 11th suggests that people are getting used to public transport - but more on weekends. Tube ridership is ~55-60% on weekdays (vs. same time pre-corona) but weekends are 70-80%. London buses see a similar trend, weekdays ~75% but weekends >80%. Outside London trends are the same, but usage is ~5% points higher than in London. And cars? Busy as ever, with >90% usage on weekdays vs. pre-corona and >100% weekends. Remember there was a boom in 2nd hand car purchase in the midst of the pandemic? Now those cars are driving.?

BUT, I don’t know if you’ve noticed - there are far fewer tourists now. Lookin At air arrival statistics Jan-July (inc.). 2019 has 30M non-British air arrivals vs. 2.7M in 2021, more than 90% drop. The data doesn’t continue beyond July, but definitely tourism hasn’t fully bounced back yet. How does that affect the tube and bus use? Don’t know, but I’ve asked the DfT, so bear with me.?

New-York back-to-public-transport

The city comptroller published a report on Covid-19 and the effect on public transport. The report looks at different parts of the day and different socio-economic neighbourhoods, and finds evidence of the discrepancies among blue-collar workers and white-collar workers. For example, (a) Manhattan subway and bus usage dropped by ~15% points more (66% subway down, 52% bus) than it did in the Bronx (53%, 37%); (b) same trend applies to 7-9am rush hour vs. 5-7am. Also, same as in the UK, weekend ridership has bounced back faster than weekday travel.?

Enterprise launches car-sharing (rent) service in Ireland. A self-service per hour business model. I’m blown away. Enough for today.?