Paulo is the Founder and CEO of Ubirider. He has a demonstrated history of working in the software and electronic devices industries.
Getty
Over the past decade, digital transformation has forced one industry after another — from retail and entertainment to financial services and hospitality — to throw out their old playbooks and fundamentally rethink how they operate.
Not to be left out, the transportation and mobility space has dipped its toes in these transformative waters, primarily through the debut of companies offering on-demand services for cars, bicycles, scooters and nearly every other imaginable form of personal mobility.
But what about the entities that operate trains and buses and ferries? These multipassenger modes of transport are the workhorses of any transportation network, and the public agencies and private companies responsible for operating them have been a little slower on the uptake when it comes to digital transformation.
From my perspective as the founder and CEO of a digital platform for transit operators that helps manage ridership and fares, if it was already important for these transit agencies and operators to shake off the cobwebs and start embracing innovative new ways of operating beforehand, it has become absolutely essential for them to consider it now in the age of Covid-19.
A new world requires a new approach.
The nature of the coronavirus means that human habits and behaviors have changed virtually overnight. It's unlikely that anyone wants to feed coins or paper money into a fare box that dozens of other people have touched. For similar reasons, few people want to deal with handling physical tickets. On top of that, no one wants to be bunched up in close proximity to other people at a time when social distancing is the order of the day.
But most transit agencies and private operators rely on physical, hardware-based systems for ticketing and fare control. We can quickly see the different ways that model makes it hard to address these problems (and how it creates new ones).
Let’s take buses as an example: In response to Covid-19, many buses need to allow people to board through the rear door for the foreseeable future. However, most buses have physical fare collection systems that are fixed just inside the front door, near the driver. Trying to reconfigure their physical systems by moving them to the rear door would be time-consuming, incredibly complex and prohibitively expensive. The bus could staff the back door with an additional person in charge of fare control, but that would incur additional costs and defeat the purpose of eliminating touch points and human contact.
What other choice does the operator have, then, but to open the rear doors and charge nothing? Needless to say, this is not a sustainable strategy for transportation companies that are already reeling from a plunge in paying customers.
This is just one example of why I encourage leaders of transit companies to consider how they could update their systems to digital solutions. In a nutshell, digital transformation can help provide greater flexibility and adaptability, thus allowing agencies and operators to nimbly react to unexpected events like Covid-19. It can also allow these organizations to operate with greater efficiency and provide better service to passengers, all while strengthening their own bottom line.
Digital To The Core
So how can transit agencies and private operators best foster digital transformation within the organization and ensure that innovation can truly take hold?
It all starts with mindset. Instead of having an “innovation department,” a transit agency or company should aspire to be an innovative organization from top to bottom. That means that innovation infuses all processes and is embraced at all levels.
A key part of this mindset is a willingness to take chances and try new things. Everyone must feel free to experiment with new approaches and technologies and not fear that they’ll get a slap on the wrist by the management team if an initial experiment doesn’t go as planned. Innovation should be seen as an investment in creating a better operation, and the experimentation that fuels it should be wholeheartedly encouraged and supported.
Once this mindset is in place, transportation companies can focus on the actual technical aspects of digital transformation. Many transit agencies have been dependent on very specific hardware and software supplied by only a few service providers to deal with operational activities. Those systems can be rigid and make evolution difficult. So if you're considering digital transformation, ensure you're looking for solutions that are more flexible, such as cloud-based options that can connect with smartphones.
A quick note of caution here: Some transit agencies and companies think that if they come out with a shiny new website or release a new app that they have “gone digital.” Tackling one small piece of the problem is not digital transformation. True transformation requires the entire system to change, from the front end to the back end.
Simply put, digital must be at the core of the organization and its systems, not on the periphery.
Everyone Wins
Many transit agencies or transportation companies hear the phrase “digital transformation” and immediately think, “That’s too expensive a project for us to undertake.” But they’re largely missing the point.
If they want to reduce their costs, provide better service, make fast adjustments to unanticipated curveballs and ultimately increase their profitability, then I believe the answer is to be more digital.
With the right investment in innovation, buses, trains and ferries can be successful. Digital transformation can help to root out inefficiencies that are holding them back so they can soar to new heights.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
