Worry about Uber, Daniels warns rural operators

摘要

The people operating rural buses should be really worried by the threat posed by the Uber ride sharing app and other disruptive technology, says Transport for London surface transport managing director Leon Daniels. Daniels is this year's Omnibus Society president and in the course of a wide-ranging address to members in January, he identified Uber and its ilk as something likely to transform the market for public transport. 'Nationally, don't think of Uber as a trumped-up Addison Lee [the London-based private hire fleet] but as a Goldman Sachs financial, Silicon Valley solution. 'Why is it important? Because it is blurring the distinction between taxi/private hire, rural bus and patient transport.' If they are able to deliver a demand responsive service with shared rides, he believes these systems' developers will pose a serious challenge to big buses running partly loaded at relatively low frequencies on country routes.