Karhoo recently joined MyCorridor and we wanted to know a bit more about their experience and interest in the project. We spoke with Nicolas Andine, Karhoo co-CEO at Karhoo, about their journey through MaaS and what MyCorridor has to offer as a mobility solution for all.
Where are you currently operating in Europe?
Karhoo is a digital marketplace that brings together travel/MaaS applications with taxi and private-hire vehicle fleets to create seamless mobility solutions for travellers. We connect transport providers around the world and make their service available through our application programming interface (API) and our software development kit for e-commerce websites and app integrations.
For example, we are the technology behind SNCF’s TGV INOUI Mon Chauffeur and Thalys’ My Driver, which offer first and last mile transfers to stations to customers purchasing a ticket.
We are headquartered in London with offices in France and Poland, and we operate globally, expanding our fleet partner network across all continents from our base markets in Europe: UK, France, Benelux, Nordics, Italy, Spain and Germany.
Which transport services are integrated into your app?
At this stage, all taxi and private hire companies using a digital dispatch solution can register as a transport provider on Karhoo platform using our public supply API. They can select their area of operations, vehicle types, pricing and terms and conditions to be displayed to potential customers requesting a ride on partner applications.
We also provide an on-demand transport dispatch module for vans, buses and any vehicles used for shared/pooled mobility. It includes a comprehensive operation management portal as well as brandable passenger and driver mobile apps.
Did the COVID-19 health crisis affect Karhoo’s operations and what measures is Karhoo taking to address it?
Karhoo does not own vehicles, but we are working with our fleet partners to compare the measures taken, identify best practices and re-establish trust in the taxi industry. In these uncertain times, it has become even more crucial to promote local small businesses on as many channels as possible and allow citizens, especially vulnerable ones, to access other mobility options when social distancing on public transport cannot be guaranteed.
Why did you decide to join MyCorridor? How is Karhoo involved in MyCorridor?
Karhoo is an aggregator of taxi services so there is a natural fit with MaaS applications. We believe that MyCorridor is a perfect project to demonstrate our model and proposition: access a world of taxi suppliers through one simple API integration.
This is also an opportunity to provide visibility to smaller fleets in Europe, which do not have the technical and marketing knowledge, or the financial resources, to compete with the multinational companies disrupting their industry. We partner with fleets in major and secondary cities and we act as a technology and business enabler to give them visibility on the MaaS applications of travel brands and municipalities.
In which pilots will you participate?
As we connect to fleets worldwide, we are participating in pilots in Amsterdam, Athens, Rome, Prague and Salzburg.
How can we find the platform and the service registration tool?
We connect to MyCorridor through our API, which delivers all of the necessary information to respond to ride requests: covered zones, pricing, vehicle type and terms and conditions. Karhoo and their partners do not actually need to use the registration tool, which looks great by the way!.
What do you expect to draw from the project?
We joined the MyCorridor project as we believe our platform to be the backbone infrastructureto access the thousands of local fleets across Europe. Our open and neutral model fits very well with the ethos of MyCorridor, extending and complementing its portfolio of transportation modes. Like MyCorridor, Karhoo is fundamentally pan-European, with a mission to offer mobility to every citizen by leveraging every licensed provider.
How do you see the future of transportation? How is Karhoo contributing to promote MaaS/sustainable travel/collective transport?
The current mobility offering is highly fragmented and the large number of providers creates a lack of connections and trust. This is quite puzzling to many travellers who end up preferring to take their own private car than dealing with the complexity and the risk. At Karhoo, we believe that high-profile brands, such as travel operators and municipal authorities, can provide the trust and the convenience of seamless services that will ultimately promote sustainable mobility. Unlike disruptive actors spending billions in recreating fully integrated models and slashing revenues, we want to achieve this by bringing together existing actors, both brands and providers.
To know more about Karhoo, visit their website and follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn.
