It is sometimes difficult to know which bus line to take to reach our destination. Ubirider is a Portuguese company that has been working in this area, through a platform that can be used on smartphones and that will make life easier for the population.

Recently, the company entered a partnership with the Municipality of Cascais, which will make it easier for the resident population to travel by public transport.

Bringing together information

Paulo Ferreira dos Santos is the CEO of Ubirider in an interview with The Portugal News admits that the idea of ​​Ubirider arose from "the fragmentation of information and ticketing systems." The problems in this aspect led the team members who "are users of public transports" to realise that by eliminating these fragmentations they would make "life easier for a lot of people."

The CEO believes that apps that create itineraries in accordance with public transports are an asset to a population. To The Portugal News, Paulo Ferreira dos Santos used the example of going to a restaurant. With the help of a platform like Pick Hub, meeting a friend would be easier, as it is only needed to know the name of the restaurant. Then, “the most convenient route that combines various means of transport” will be presented, as well as the application's user will be notified when their bus or train stop is nearby. Therefore, "users will spend less time on the trip itself and focus on its real purposes."

After a market and situation study, "it was almost as a consequence" to realise that a platform like Pick would align "the operational and information needs of transport service providers with travellers." In carrying out the platform, according to Paulo Ferreira Santos, the team initially focused “on improving and creating value in public transport”, knowing that it would be necessary to attract passengers to public transport.

Pick Hub is a platform that "works almost all over the world to plan trips." At this stage, the purchase of tickets, passes or transport tickets in Portugal is only possible with operators or authorities with whom they have partnered. At the tourist level, the application can act as the traveller's tourist guide.

Improving experiences

Pick Hub improves the tourist experience, as it even indicates which routes to take by walking, as well as clarifying doubts regarding ticket prices, for example. Ubirider is also developing a new feature called “Explore.” The functionality “has tourists as its target and will allow them to buy services other than travel”, including tickets to museums, to eliminate “time wasted in queues or ticket offices”, with tickets being stored in digital format.

The arrival of the platform in the city of Cascais aims to “enlarge the portfolio of mobility services available to citizens and visitors.” The city will also benefit from the "web component of the platform" by using the platform Pick Insight, "which allows an anonymised analysis, but in real-time, of all the information generated by users of the Mobicascais app." In addition, the platform "has a powerful communications engine that allows the city to send notifications with relevant information to travellers." However, the Mobicascais which functions outside the city does not want to call the travel phone. Thus, residents of Cascais who work in Lisbon and use an app, can “load their Navegante Metropolitano pass with the app on a smartphone”, thus being able to travel throughout the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Paulo Ferreira dos Santos says that "by the end of this year, Cascais will have the most complete and comprehensive mobility application in the country."

Ubirider's CEO believes that the integration of Pick Hub in Cascais “will serve as a demonstration for other cities around the world that the Pick platform is unique and generates value for all the main players in mobility: cities, operators and users.” Paulo Ferreira Santos also believes that within two years, the platform will be adopted by other European and American cities.

The Pick Hub platform is available for download on Play Store, App Store and App Gallery.