Tag: Transport

Singapore – Along with the peak season of summer 2023, consumers are turning to their mobile devices more than ever before for travel and transportation needs, increasing year-over-year usage by 14%, which is more than three times the total from the summer of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by mobile analytics provider data.ai.

Data from the report mainly suggests that time spent in travel apps reached new heights with time spent on Android phones surpassing four billion hours, or an average of more than one billion hours per month, between May and August 2023.

Interestingly, the increase in time spent between 2022 and 2023 came mostly from apps used for more day-to-day travel, not vacations. Transportation apps and rail & coach booking apps had significant increases in time spent in the summer 2023 season.

Meanwhile, apps related to vacation and business travel like integrated travel service, hotel booking, and airline apps, were able to mostly maintain the gains seen from the previous year, with time spent in these apps notably surging in the summer of 2022 with consumers planning trips for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

The report also listed the travel and transportation apps that saw the most time spent in the summer of 2023, with transportation apps being prominent in the list with apps such as Where is my Train, inDrive, and Grab Driver being top breakout apps of the season. 

However, apps outside of the transportation subgenre such as Flightradar24, United Airlines, Trainline, and Jet2 managed to reach the top breakout rankings in many key markets like the US and the UK. 

“The trend seen in the results suggests that this is not just a one-off spike following the pent-up demand after pandemic-related travel restrictions, and that these travel and transportation apps will continue to see positive growth, especially during peak travel seasons,” data.ai said in a press statement.

Singapore – With half of commuters in Asia Pacific using four or more different payment methods for transportation each month, Visa’s ‘Global Urban Mobility Survey’ conducted by Wakefield Research shows that 58% of respondents expressed a desire to use a single payment method for all transport modes, which would encourage them to use public transport more.

The study surveyed commuters across Australia, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore, with 96% of respondents expecting public transport providers to offer contactless payment methods, and 65% of respondents likely to use a contactless payment option for their public transport needs.

These options include contactless debit, credit or prepaid cards. Benefits cited for leveraging contactless payments include convenience, having less worry about the amount of cash on hand, and a guarantee of the best possible fare through fare capping limits.

That being said, the study also shows that half of commuters are willing to use public transport on a more frequent basis if they are fare-capped. Contactless payments guarantee exact fares for transit riders as opposed to other methods such as cash. Fare capping also limits how much a commuter pays for their total rides in a day, week or month, eliminating the need to tie up funds.

Talking about the results, T.R. Ramachandran, head of products and solutions at Visa Asia Pacific, said, “The study reveals a strong demand among commuters in Asia Pacific for seamless and convenient payment options in public transportation. At Visa, we continue to work closely with governments and transport operators to offer a unified payment experience that accommodates a wide range of payment methods to boost urban mobility by focusing on customer convenience.”

“Digital payment methods for public transport play a key role in supporting underbanked and unbanked individuals, for which public transport remains a necessity. As a leader in digital payments, Visa is committed to ensuring inclusivity in the urban mobility ecosystem through accessible financial solutions,” he added. 

Cebu, Philippines –  SWAT Mobility, the Singapore-based smart mobility company that provides employee transportation and logistics solutions, has announced its plan to expand smart mobility adoption in the province of Cebu in the Philippines. This will be particular among IT-BPM companies. 

The Philippines is home to a number of IT-BPM firms that suffer from the inefficiencies of the transport system. While local roads remain clogged with traffic, business productivity suffers and leads to increased costs for businesses.  

As part of the Smart Mobility Summit, held on, April 1,by Cebu’s IT-BPM group, the company presented its vision for Philippine transportation in the future and predicted that dynamic shuttles would augment public transportation in Cebu to meet local demand in the near future. 

One of the topics highlighted at the Summit was how Cebu-based IT-BPM companies can overcome the constraints posed by traffic and the current transportation infrastructure. More particularly, how they will deal when the majority of their employees are required by the Fiscal Incentives Review Board to return to work (FIRB).

Nicholas Stipp, chief revenue officer of SWAT Mobility, shared that as Cebu and the rest of the country fully reopen this month, they expect a much larger volume of movement which is already straining the current transport system. To maintain productivity, businesses recognise the need to utilise digital solutions to help their employees go back to work.

Stipp added, “Smart mobility solutions have proven to improve transport efficiency, reduce operational costs and enable businesses to reach markets more quickly. As local companies are looking to embrace smart mobility and digital technologies with a clear focus on future business growth, they need to actively engage their workforce in driving this transformation.” 

Meanwhile, Theresa Busmente, country business head for SWAT Mobility Philippines, commented, “We have helped BPO companies offer transport to support their staff’s commutes and increase retention by enhancing the convenience to employees. Smart technology helps companies to fully realize the benefits of offering transport.”

During the Pandemic, the company has introduced smart mobility to BPO companies in Cebu with their implementation partner, Hagibis Ventures, Inc. 

Singapore – ComfortDelGro (CDG), one of the leading land transport companies in Singapore, is set to launch a super app, slated for early next year. The all-in-one app is said to combine its taxi and lifestyle services.

The news comes as the company announced a new private mobility group (PMG) as part of its reorganization, bringing together its taxi, private bus, and car rental as well as its leasing and lifestyle businesses under one division. 

Of the new mega app, the company shared that it will be enabling customers to select from a variety of service offerings from a single platform. A ‘One CDG’ option will also be part of the new app which will make easier for its taxi users to rent a car in a breeze. 

Just in the first half of this year, CDG has been introducing new feats in its customer experience. Most notably, it launched in March ‘Zig’, a one-stop mobility and lifestyle app. Through an interactive map-based interface, users are able to search for lifestyle services such as dining reservations, Food & Beverage (F&B) merchants, and also entertainment outlets and attractions. 

Meanwhile, in April, it unveiled a one-of-a-kind partnership for a transport company, making available its taxi booking services in e-commerce app Lazada. 

According to the company, the up-and-coming mega app will be housing some of the lifestyle options it introduced in Zig like its restaurant bookings. 

On the new PMG meanwhile, CDG shared that the move aims to synergize and leverage on CDG’s core strengths in land transport solutions, seeing the re-organization as a way to allow for a more focused approach in the development of novel and sustainable mobility solutions using digital technology and clean energy.

Jackson Chia, who joined the group in 2017 and who is currently the group’s chief risk & sustainability officer, will be taking the helm of the new PMG. The company said the new PMG will have a combined fleet size of over 12,000.

“The ComfortDelGro Group has a broad range of mobility solutions in Singapore. Pooling the resources in the Private Mobility Group will enable us to develop smart and green intermodal mobility solutions for our clients,” said Chia. 

“With scale and our diverse range of assets, we will be better positioned to forge partnerships to experiment and offer innovative products and services. Corporate and individual commuters will be able to access our range of mobility and lifestyle offerings via a unified digital platform,” he added. 

Chia shared that in the future, the company will be adding other services in the group like learner driving services and medical transport. He said the goal is to cross-market CDG’s extensive range of transport solutions to enable convenience to the different communities it serves. 

The first quarter of the year also saw CDG launch a new line of service – a medical escort transport service. The said service is catered to seniors and persons with disabilities (PWD) to provide non-emergency transportation. 

Singapore – Earlier in March, Singapore-headquartered mobility tech SWAT Mobility (SWAT) launched delivery services with online grocer Uglyfood, making it SWAT’s official entry into the logistics space. 

SWAT mainly provides B2B transport solutions for passenger booking and rides management and prior to Uglyfood, SWAT has run seasonal delivery services with a hotel, meat grocer, and for covid test samples.

Uglyfood is an online grocer with a mission to eliminate food waste. Their produce is marred in some way but is perfectly good to eat. By offering these ‘ugly’ foods for sale, they aim to create a sustainable food ecosystem. Aside from produce, they offer branded products that are also made from its produce and also offer sustainably-sourced goods.

“Often, unappreciated food goes to waste due to the lack of proper knowledge. We are pleased to provide this extra service to our customers who are part of this sustainable effort alongside us,” said Mark Lee, head of operations at UglyFood.

SWAT’s delivery system will pool orders going to the same area together. Through the outsourcing, SWAT is able to help Uglyfood scale with minimal disruption to its operations.