The war of transport aggregators is being served. At least in big cities. A week after Renfe announced the premiere of Dōcō, a new door-to-door transportation app, Uber is announcing the integration of Madrid’s public transport. What the technology company has been practicing in Barcelona since March 2021.
While Dōcō includes the purchase and booking of transportation by train, taxi, VTC, motorcycle, scooter, subway, and bus—both government units and agreements with private transportation companies— Uber wants to compete by betting with one of its strongest divisions: taxi and vtk. So the North American company, which has long included reservations for electric bikes and scooters – following the sale of Jump to Lime and subsequent technology investment as part of its purchase – is now adding mass transit to the capital. In particular, the Renfe metro, buses and suburban trains.
Not working as a payment gateway, in general, the system replaces the application with transport offers. So, in addition to the choice of transportation in some of the car options that Uber has, You can also choose public transport. In particular, to know the fastest route, departure and arrival times. Prices, stops or stations.
Uber vs Google Maps, Moovit or Citymapper
Without payment gateways that work with public mobile platforms, Uber wants to position itself as a worthy competitor to ride management apps.
In this case, the company explained, the announcement is part of a continuation of the Uber Green program in Madrid. The one they launched in January this year with a fleet of electric vehicles and the unconditional support of the President of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, for the activities of private companies in the VTC sector. “We believe in free enterprise as well as transport with public services coexisting with the private sector,” he said at the beginning of the year. Something that materialized, also from the side of the City Council of Madrid, with position in favor of the VTC collective. Very different from Barcelona, which controls the activities of Uber, Cabify or Bolt.
For their part, Uber representatives note that they continue to “reaffirm their commitment to Madrid and their contribution to making it a cleaner and more sustainable city by reducing the use of private vehicles and promoting multimodal mobility that combines taxi services, VTC , micromobility and public transport”.
Source: Hiper Textual
