What is significant about the year 2007? A question Snap’s Founder and CEO, Thomas Ableman, posed to attendees of his seminar.
It was the year the iPhone launched and it created the potential to transform the industry, he says.
With the iPhone, all the information everyone needs can be provided by this device on both sides. An operator can know exactly where customers are going to be waiting and customers can see the coach moving in real-time and are provided with information.
That is a powerful reason why companies such as Snap can exist, he explains.
The technology offers huge benefits to customers. Using maps on the phone, Mr Ableman compared road journeys to those carried out via a train – the road was coming up quicker.
“If we can pick someone up from where they’re starting their journey and drop them off where they’re actually finishing it, then suddenly coach transport is highly competitive with rail transport and becomes something for everyone,” he says.
With Snap, the times the coaches operate is entirely driven by customer demand.
“Our aim is to know the journeys you want to make before you do,” he says. “But we only run trips that are actually in demand, which means we can offer the consumer a fantastic price. Our aim, and the operators we work with, is that we achieve a roughly 20% margin and yet we offer a price to the consumer that averages £7 – that is perfectly achievable if you only operate at times customers actually want to travel.”
