The war of transport aggregators is served. At least in the big cities. One week after Renfe announced the premiere of Dōcō, the public company’s new door-to-door transport application, Uber announces the integration of Madrid’s public transport. Something that the technology company has been practicing in Barcelona for some time since March 2021.
Despite the fact that Dōcō includes the purchase and reservation of transportation by train, taxi, VTC, motorcycle, scooter, subway and bus –both public divisions and agreements with private mobility companies–, Uber wants to compete by betting with one of its strongest divisions: taxis and VTC. In this way, the North American company, which has long included the reservation of electric bikes and scooters – after the sale of Jump to Lime and subsequent investment in technology as part of its purchase – now adds public transport in the capital. Specifically, the Renfe metro, bus and commuter trains.
Without working as a payment gateway, broadly speaking the system takes the place of a transportation suggestion app. In this way, in addition to choosing a transport in some of the car options that Uber has, You can also choose public transport. Specifically, to know the fastest route, departure and arrival times. Prices, stops or stations.
Uber against Google Maps, Moovit or Citymapper
Without payment gateways that work with public mobility platforms, Uber wants to position itself as worthy competition to journey management apps.
In this case, and as they explain from the company, this ad It is part of a continuation of the Uber Green program in Madrid. The same one that they launched in January of this year with a fleet of electric cars and the unconditional support of the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, for the activity of private companies in the VTC sector. “We believe in free enterprise, also in transportation with public services that coexist with the private sector,” she said at the beginning of the year. Something that has materialized, also from the side of the Madrid City Council, with a regulation in favor of the VTC collective. Very different from Barcelona, which has the activity of Uber, Cabify or Bolt in check.
For its part, from Uber they point out that they remain “reaffirm their commitment to Madrid and the contribution to make it a cleaner and more sustainable city, reducing the use of private vehicles and promoting multimodal mobility that combines taxi services, VTC, micromobility and public transport”.