The ground transport sector is behind the times: Many bus and train companies operate without a modern ticketing or operations system, sometimes tracking sales on spreadsheets and often forcing customers to carry paper tickets.

There are multiple companies around the world that are working to bring the industry into the 21st century, some focused on the unique problems of their own regions and some approaching the issue with a global perspective.

Below are profiles of three companies that are working to help ground transport operators adopt more efficient digital sales and operations, which also makes a better experience for customers.

BuuPass

There are more than 200 bus operators in Kenya, and most of them only accept cash and track sales with pen and paper. Customers are forced to visit a booking office in person to purchase tickets.

BuuPass, a startup based in Nairobi, is working to change that in Kenya and beyond with software that can help operators track sales and sell tickets digitally.

“It was just a broken booking ecosystem, so we created a solution that solves issues on both sides,” said Sonia Kabra, BuuPass co-founder.

Before implementing software from BuuPass, some customers had been losing up to $3,000 each day because of manual tracking, Kabra said. One of the biggest pieces of positive feedback from operators is that they have been able to repair that cash leakage.

“They started making more revenue just because they had more visibility, so they were collecting what they actually were making,” Kabra said.

BuuPass provides software to 30 long-distance bus operators — typically those that provide trips between cities or countries — in Kenya and Uganda. It also works with the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway that started service in 2017.

Content retrieved from: https://skift.com/2023/05/30/these-innovators-are-bringing-trains-and-buses-into-the-21-century/.