There was once a saying. “You can’t be all things to all people.” It implied old school to stick with your product and never deviate. Today more than ever through well thought and planned alliances, we can and absolutely should be all things to all people providing they fall into the realm of ground transportation.
A similar phenomenon happened years ago when People’s Express airline was formed. They were nicknamed the Greyhound of the skies. Later when Southwest grabbed the baton, they in effect hugely increased the flying market.
Basically, UBER did the same thing. They were the first entity to capture and grow a market then increase it multi fold before abandonment occurred. Now that the ball is back in our court, we need new novel ways to monetize the market and in some cases perhaps copy some of UBER’S moves when it works.
One of my favorites is “Dumping for Dollars”. If you have an order that may exceed 100 miles then it is likely entering another transportation submarket. As an example, you have a pickup in Long Island going to Windsor Ct. It is nicely priced and only requires a sedan. You send out a reverse broadcast to all alliance partners in that market. A Hartford operator see’s the broadcast and he is licking his lips. He has a sedan with only one run that day, dropping at Newark and will be clear 2 hours before pickup time. It is his driver’s only order that day and his driver lives in East Windsor and takes the car home. He clears it with his driver and they agree to offer 50% juice and do the conventional split based on the net. Both agree, the operator bids on the order for 50% commission. The operator quickly agreed, this deal puts him at least 20% ahead. Deal sealed.
Now “Dumping for dollars” works the other way as well. If the operator was going to Windsor as planned he could broadcast to the same audience looking for a return at a given time frame to a given geographical zone or border as well. Reverse broadcasting among peers will also be bid casting for the general public. A driver in Toledo is going to dead head into Troy Mi for a 7-hour charter that clears later that afternoon in Toledo. He does a Greater Toledo area public broadcast and finds Jane Doe from Rossford, OH.
She was going to UBER in the morning to Toledo Amtrak, then take the train To Troy Mi for a meeting. She sees the offer and it will save her time and offer her a more comfortable option. She bids $50.00 door to door. Driver declines offer. She ups her time threshold to 90 minutes front or back and raises her bid to $65.00. Driver agrees. Complete score. Client wins, UBER loses, and driver hit the trifecta. Truth is he was getting portal to portal time anyways. That’s what I am talking about.
Dispatch swap casting for logistical reasons equals profit. Once we are on a systemwide industry neutral system, we can engage order swap casting on many levels. I can’t tell you how often cars criss cross each other on their orders because a virtual common denominator dispatch module does not exist. Even cruise lines and air carriers have repositioning flights or cruises so they can make the most of a payload dynamic.
The actual app and all it’s related parts and functions are frankly the easiest of the entire shooting match. The code writer of the past is the APP builder of today. Whether is begins as a white label product or is built from scratch our group is destined for victory because it really is the backbone of the operation not the the app itself.
The big question, once we launch, test and operate. Should we modify to attract and serve the general public. The answer is a resounding yes. Tweaking the app to do short runs are still runs or as I like to say mobility bondo. The bigger question, will the public embrace us?
The answer can best be a said from an ancient proverb:
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