Daimler Buses is joining forces with the Berlin-based CleverShuttle on-demand rideshare service provider as a minority investor.
Thanks to the minority stake, Daimler Buses brand EvoBus GmbH, and CleverShuttle will strategically cooperate in on-demand mobility that flexibly adapts to suit customer demands.
Currently, CleverShuttle runs an on-demand ridesharing service in Berlin, Munich and Leipzig.
An intelligent optimisation algorithm bundles CleverShuttle passengers with similar routes into a single vehicle and drives them efficiently and inexpensively from door to door.
It is the first and only German company to have obtained approval from the authorities for such shared driving tasks.
Since the beginning of 2016, CleverShuttle has transported more than 170,000 passengers, testing its on-demand software with more than 500,000 driven kilometres.
The CleverShuttle software platform will allow public transportation networks, to be able to optimally adjust their mobility offers to customer requirements at any time. The on-demand software may integrate into existing regular service routes. This collaboration leads to transport offerings which are more suited to public needs and is more economical in operation.
Daimler Buses says it wants to shape the future of mobility actively and not merely using new vehicles, but also by new service offerings.
Since 2016, Daimler Buses has had a specialist Mobility Solutions department in place as a think tank for all future-relevant topics.
It says the further development of existing business models is every bit as much a part of the bus business as the development of entirely new concepts.
“In the development of new mobility solutions, we’re not only working with our long-standing customers from the public transport networks, but also with innovative technology companies from the start-up scene,” says Daimler Buses head of mobility solutions Heinz Freidrich.
“Together with CleverShuttle, we are going to test the new services this year in an initial pilot phase in a German city,” he says.
“We are already starting to see how well-received our ride-sharing concept in Berlin, Leipzig and Munich is,” says CleverShuttle co-founder and managing director Bruno Ginnuth.
“With it, we’re closing the gap between buses and taxis. Both have their purpose, but in between them, there was hardly anything available in Germany,” he says.
“We now want to use our knowledge as a B2B solution and have gained the best partner we could have wished for in the form of Daimler Buses,” says Ginnuth.
