“Our goal eight years ago when we started was to modernise the industry in Europe,” says Håkon Sæther, CEO of Ferdia, which made its formal entrance to the UK market at Euro Bus Expo this month.
Having established its products in Scandinavia, the business is targeting further expansion with both its core coach management system and the Sharebus crowdfunding app, both of which were contenders at the show’s Innovation Challenge.
Mr Sæther’s backdoor entrance to the industry was as chairman of a coach operator in Norway and it was there that he decided that “to grow and be successful, technology would need to be core”. But he adds: “We were looking out for who was leading the technology in the industry in Scandinavia, and we couldn’t find anyone that impressed us.”
Sharebus aims to turn the coach model on its head by allowing event organisers or any customer to set up a trip with a passenger goal without any financial risk. These tickets can be sold via social media, and a coach is booked when the target is met. If the target is not met, no payment is taken. The system is being used for Norway’s upcoming equivalent of the FA Cup Final, which is particularly well suited as there is a limited time span when a lot of people are travelling in the same direction.
Mr Sæther says of his introduction to the coach industry after moving from telecoms: “What surprised me is everyone has the same product — a nice coach with a nice driver. But it’s when you can sell it a different way that you have the opportunity to create super-profits.”
Expanding on those profits, he says: “Our goal, when we get a lot of operators, is to use the platform to turn many of the huge amount of empty trips that coaches make into Sharebuses.”
The coach management platform, which is used by the largest operator in Norway, as well as prominent ones in Sweden and Denmark, is designed to be less “introvert” than traditional equivalents.
The CEO says these older systems tend to be standalone but that this new technology is “open so it can be integrated with other software”. He adds that “the way of working should be network-oriented because some of the DNA of the coach network is cooperating but that’s done very informally.”
