Urbvan Transit

Urbvan is a shared commuting network that aims to improve thousands of daily commutes focusing on security, convenience, and efficiency.

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Written by Rinay Picard

Updated on 18:12, Oct 24, 2019

In Urbvan, we believe that the main problems/challenges with mobility in Mexico city include:

1) Unsafe: 82% perceive transportation as unsafe, while 68% have been physically harassed in public transportation.

2) Reliability and Convenience: 55% perceive transportation costs as expensive in relation to quality. Yearly, 2 months salary spent in transportation.

3) Traffic and Inefficient : 41% invest more than 2 hours a day commuting and 56% use more than 3 vehicles per journey.

4) Expensive: the alternative to public transportation is to expensive since a single-occupancy vehicles is too expensive for a daily commute, costing up to 10x more than public transportation in a large commute.

Urbvan is a shared commuting network that aims to improve thousands of daily commutes, focusing on security, convenience, and efficiency; all throughout the reach of a mobile app.

Our network has predetermined routes and timetables from which the user can choose the one that fits the most with their needs throughout our app. The user then needs to encounter their Urbvan in the selected station and enjoy the comfort and security of their trip.

With high leverage on technology, we are able to plan smart and efficient routes that connect the most amount of people with a similar origin and destination without condemning them into a slow and long commute. This way we significantly reduce car usage within the city, achieving an important impact on the traffic and on the environment. Most of our routes connect residential zones and important subway stations with the main business hubs, aiming to work as a complement of the actual public and private transportation networks.

All our vans are equipped with GPS monitoring and security cameras that enable us to have a quick response under any circumstances. That way we can ensure our users with security during their commute. We know that's not enough and that many of the insecurity events happen in the transshipments between transportations so almost 100% of our stops are made in private, safe and illuminated places in order to ensure the user with a great experience and strong security not just during their trip with Urbvan but also before and after.

Transportation users need certainty about their commute. How much time am I going to spend in traffic today? At what time is the next bus departure? Would it still be a free spot or am I have to do a long queue before boarding? These are just a few of the questions we are solving with our network and technology. Through our app, the user can know their ETA, follow their Urbvan, know the availability, and plan their trips. This way we ensure the user with reliable transportation.

We also look to impact not only users but the rest of the community that can join our platform with their van, turning it into an Urbvan to start generating attractive profits. This way we activate the community economy and increase the job offer.

The sum of all these efforts bring not only interesting results in terms of mobility but also in life quality for our users and an environmental impact.

Describe quienes utilizarían tu propuesta (1,000 caracteres) // Describe who will use your solution (1,000 characters)

Urbvan primary use case it’s a solution for daily commuting. Our customers are people that everyday have a routine between home-office and they need a new transportation system that is trustable but also accessible since currently there is a huge gap between the value propositions of public transportation and single-occupancy vehicles such as e-hailing and private car. In one hand, there are users that are willing to pay more for a safer, efficient and better experience but can't afford a single-occupancy vehicle. On the other hand, there are those who are looking for a more accessible commute without the need to drive. Urbvan works directly to consumers (B2C) that buy directly through the app and also to employees of companies (B2B) where those corporates want a private route for their employees or they incorporate them in the existing network of Urbvan routes by subsidizing the ticket fully or partially.

Describe la etapa de desarrollo de tu propuesta // Describe your solution's stage of development

Implementada: ya ha implementado su solución y está explorando nuevos casos de uso. // Fully Scaled - you have already scaled your solution and are exploring new use cases

Platícanos acerca de tu equipo o compañía (500 caracteres) // Tell us about your team or organization (500 characters)

We started off as a 3 person team and now after two and half years we are over 50 persons in the HQ than are comprised across operations, marketing, sales, supply, admin and Technology teams. Urbvan’s its top notch, fully committed and a passionate about the problem that we are solving. Also, we have more than 200 drivers that we like to call "hosts" as they make feel all our customers like they were home in every commute.

Tamaño de tu equipo o compañía // Size of your team or organization

51-250

Fondos // Funding Request

$100,000

Presupuesto aproximado (500 caracteres) // Rough Budget (500 Characters)

Working Capital: 20% Team: 15% CapEx (vans): 50% Marketing and promotion: 15%

Describe cómo usaras los fondos para tu proyecto piloto (1000 caracteres) // Describe how you would pilot your idea (1000 characters)

When commuting at night time, users are exposed to fewer transportation alternatives, unsafe scenarios and more expensive solutions. Together with this last, the average salary of these users in comparison to day - shift commuters, tends to be lower. This said we want to pilot an off-peak network where we manage to develop a transportation network for night shift commuters similar to what we have now on days during the day. In order to achieve this, there are many key activities we have to do: 1) Analyze data for commuters overnight. (Most needed areas, origing-destination mapping, interconnectivity with other transportations, etc..) 2) Identify and negotiate safe stops. 3) Work together with companies that have employees commuting at nighttime. (Restaurants, shopping centers, hotels, factories, warehouses, etc.). 4) Set smart pricing that makes sense with the profile of the nighttime commuter. 5) Start off with 4 -8 routes network in a needed area. 6) Adjust if needed.

Describe cómo medirías el éxito de tu piloto (1000 caracteres) // Describe how you would measure the success of your pilot (1000 characters)

Our success in the pilot should be measured by the number of users we manage to help commute at nighttime. This success will be driven by an interesting network of routes for the users that should be comprised, as said before, out of 4 - 8 routes per hub, with varied timetables that can fit the necessities of a larger portion of commuters. Landing in numbers, success can be traduced into the following: -> Daily commutes (Users): 120 -> 4 - 8 routes in a needed hub/area -> 1 company subsidizing their employees' transportation. If we achieve this, we will confirm that there is a strong need for nighttime transportation, that our route planning and growth management made sense and that there are companies willing to subsidize their employee transportation at nighttime.

Plan de sostenibilidad (500 caracteres) // Sustainability Plan (500 Characters)

Achieving the 3 KPI's mentioned above, we can ensure there's a strong opportunity in the nighttime commuting and together with our actual funds, we could easily give continuity to the pilot. The next steps to follow would be: 1) Increase the number of routes and timetables in the area chosen for the pilot. 2) Look for more companies willing to subsidize. 3) Find new needed hubs to recreate the nighttime network.

Social Media

https://www.facebook.com/urbvan/ https://twitter.com/Urbvan_Mexico

Written by

Rinay Picard

Attachments (1)

OnePager_Urbvan_B2C.pdf

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