Meet the brand: SWITCH Mobility
We catch up with Louise Taylor from SWITCH Mobility about their presence at Euro Bus Expo, on stand A50.
Tell us a bit about your company:
SWITCH is a next-generation electric vehicle company backed by over 100 years of experience.
We are speeding up the switch to zero carbon mobility and our technologies and vehicles are helping cities around the world achieve their net zero targets.
We know that decarbonising fleets can come with challenges. That’s why our innovative products have been designed to offer the lowest Total Cost of Ownership, thanks to engineering that drives efficiency and intelligent use of technology and data to maximise its impact on every journey.
Our fully-electric buses are designed to flex and adapt to customer needs and deliver a premium driver and passenger experience. With zero-carbon manufacturing sites in the UK, India and Spain, our hands-on and sustainable approach to production ensures we can continue to effectively work towards our vision of providing cleaner, smarter journeys that are accessible to all.
www.switchmobility.tech
Tell us about your latest products, services, promotions or launches that visitors can hope to see on your stand:
We will be showcasing three products on our stand at Euro Bus. Delegates will be able to explore the SWITCH metrocity in two different lengths - the most efficient bus in its class. This low weight midi bus offers up to 190 miles on a three hour charge with a 260 kWh battery pack. From the city to the suburbs, it’s the ideal single deck bus for all urban environments.
Its versatile design, unbeatable efficiency and 100% electric motor have made it a firm favourite on routes across the UK, Europe and Japan. At just 7.8-8.8 tonnes and fitted with the latest NMC battery technology, the metrocity is the most efficient bus in its class. It can travel up to 190 miles on a single charge, with a full charge complete in just three hours. This midi-bus is also renowned for its superior agility and manoeuvrability, available in five different lengths with an optimised wheelbase position to make turning even the tightest corners a breeze.
The SWITCH metrocity was the first British-built, pure electric EV to enter service on London’s roads in 2014. Since then, it has been helping cities around the world move with ease and meet their net zero targets. Whether it’s a crowded city street or an open road, the metrocity can help you get where you need to go in the most efficient way possible - without harming the environment.
Alongside the SWITCH metrocity models will be the new 12m SWITCH e1 - our first fully electric bus designed for the European market. The latest NMC powerpack technology reduces mass, increases efficiency and delivers increased kilometres per kilogram. A lightweight integrated chassis and body construction further improves efficiency, delivering the lowest TCO for operators and helps to support operators and authorities achieve their net zero targets.
Why is exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo 2022 an unmissable opportunity for you?
In the first year of operation we celebrated 300 vehicles on the road, and a pipeline of thousands more. We were the first global manufacturer to be certified as carbon neutral and joined the UN Global Compact Network. Our global presence extended from the UK and India to include mainland Europe - an investment that will bring jobs and infrastructure to Spain. We now have nine sites across three countries that create direct and indirect jobs in all associated regions. We have so much to share, and Euro Bus Expo is an excellent springboard for us to do just that.
While we are proudly global, we are also incredibly proud that a significant number of our buses are built in the UK. Euro Bus Expo is the premiere bus event in the UK’s mobility calendar and as such we see this as an unmissable opportunity to show the UK’s future of mobility stakeholders how SWITCH can help them achieve their net zero ambitions. We look forward to meeting influencers from all corners of the industry, exchanging knowledge and ideas and forging new partnerships.
Meet the brand: Flowbird Transport Intelligence
We catch up with Paul Rogers from Flowbird Transport Intelligence to find out about their presence at Euro Bus Expo, on stand T84.
Tell us a bit about your company:
Flowbird is a global business with a mission to make transport easier, safer and quicker for people to make better journeys, whatever the mode of transport.
Our systems are central to the successful operation of transport networks in the UK, Europe, North America and Australia, including Edinburgh – where we support Lothian Buses with Open Payments and Account Based Ticketing - and in London, Belfast, Paris, Monaco, Helsinki, Brussels, New York, Algeria and Perth (Australia).
Our ability to integrate multimodal ticketing with payments drives innovation in Account Based Ticketing, Open Payments, mobile platforms, electronic ticket machines, cloud back-office platforms and front-end retail and validation systems. We help deliver bus networks that are better integrated and more responsive to customer needs, making it easier for people to access and pay for both their journeys and a growing range of transport-related services, such as parking, EV charging and leisure attractions – all through a common user interface.
This expertise is proven to help city and transport authorities improve social cohesion, stimulate economic development and promote the modal shift that supports a more sustainable way of living and working.
Our integrated solutions – coupled with ongoing and significant investment in R&D – drive innovation to enhance urban mobility, reduce congestion and make mass and micro transit more accessible.
We are unique in transportation markets in combining fare collection and ticketing expertise with an end-to-end payment processing solution across multiple payment points (card reader, web pages, mobile app. etc).
Thanks to our omni-channel Central Acceptance Scheme, we can provide operators and authorities with a payments suite built on configurable modules. The system works in conjunction with online/mobile apps and ‘Card Present’ and ‘Card Not Present’ channels, and offers virtual-to-physical payments and vice versa.
We’re bringing the vision of seamless, smart urban mobility to life.
Tell us about your latest products, services, promotions or launches that visitors can hope to see on your stand:
Visitors to the Flowbird stand can explore a technology journey embracing ABT, Open Payments, all-in-one mobile solutions, front end retailing and validation, back office systems, and innovations in fleet management, payment services and associated markets.
• Open Payment Account Based Ticketing
Flowbird’s new Sesame Account Based Ticketing enables contactless Pay-As-You-Go travel for passengers by using cEMV bank cards (or mobile phones/ smart watches) or smart travel passes.
Customer taps are recorded and consolidated, and the fare calculation is completed in the cloud, enabling operators to apply system wide changes more easily and apply fares rules such as daily or weekly capping for regular travellers.
Our ABT and payments expertise, coupled with the CloudFare multi-vendor back-office platform, provides a foundation for integrated mobility and payments, making travel seamless.
• Mobility-as-a-Service
Our Mobility-as-a-Service mobile applications make it easy for people to plan, book and pay for travel, parking and a range of associated services. For example, in Monaco, the Monapass app provides unified access to journey planning, ticketing and payment for bus services, e-bike share, on-street parking and combined journey and destination/events. The app can also host other third party ID-based passes and subscription accounts through a new ‘open ticket portfolio’.
• Devices & Applications
Flowbird driver consoles, electronic ticket machines (ETM), handheld terminals and passenger validator solutions provide fast transactional performance required by bus operators. Based on a future-proof Android operating system architecture, all devices support contactless bank cards, open loop payments and multiple smart card standards including ITSO and Calypso, offering operators a suite of solutions for their fare collection requirements.
Options include Barcode/QR code reader, NFC mobile compatibility and BLE beacon for close proximity messaging.
Why is exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo 2022 an unmissable opportunity for you?
Euro Bus Expo is the premier bus industry event of the year – and provides opportunities for networking, meeting customers and, for Flowbird, communicating market innovations.
This year, there is a particular focus on the cost-of-living crisis and the role that bus operators will play in supporting their customers through these challenging times. Indeed, the government has just announced a £2 flat bus fare in England that will run from January to March next year.
We’re looking forward to conversations about implementing not just this flat fare environment but democratising access to best available fares through capping.
Flowbird’s Sesame Account Based Ticketing system provides a ‘pay as you go’ environment in which customers benefit equally from regular travel without needing to purchase travel passes upfront. So, for example, with Sesame, operators can set caps for a given number of journeys by day, week or month, and as soon as the threshold is reached, a cap is applied, enabling passengers to travel for the rest of the period without any additional payment.
Critically, capping is seamless from both a user and operator perspective. Whether it’s closed loop or open loop cEMV using contactless bank cards or smartphones and devices, the cap is automatically applied by CloudFare ABT, Flowbird’s modular back office.
Simply being able to ‘tap and go’ safely in the knowledge that fares are the best available – and will be capped at a certain threshold – is not only good news for consumers, it also helps operators increase ridership, collect data to improve services, and speed up passenger throughput.
Flowbird’s Sesame ABT coupled with our CloudFare ABT back office module manages the entire ‘contactless and capped’ process, with operators able to set the cap level, manage their assets, and configure fares remotely. Sesame is an enabler for BSIP plans.
Meet the brand: Air Products Plc
We catch up with Jon Roper from Air Products Plc to find out about their presence at Euro Bus Expo, on stand C22.
Tell us a bit about your company:
Air Products is the world’s largest hydrogen producer, with over 60 years’ experience. We work across all facets of the hydrogen value chain – from production to distribution, storage and dispensing.
We work together with our customers, providing hydrogen solutions to support them on their sustainability journey, and we partner with select industry experts and governments on large-scale solutions.
We’re proud to be a first mover in large scale, clean hydrogen production. We operate the world’s largest hydrogen pipeline system with hands-on operating experience with over 250 hydrogen fuelling station projects in 20 countries. Our technologies are used in over 1.5 million fuelling operations annually.
Tell us about your latest products, services, promotions or launches that visitors can hope to see on your stand:
We are delivering a range of proven technologies and reliable end-to-end solutions: from production to distribution to stations.
Each of our customers will have a different requirement regarding their use of hydrogen. Air Product’s ability to deliver high-quality infrastructure, through equipment and stations, coupled with a dependable supply of hydrogen, means that time savings and cost efficiency are just two of the core benefits to customers of working with us – regardless of their volume of hydrogen needed.
Why is exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo 2022 an unmissable opportunity for you?
The potential long-lasting relationships are crucial to shape our industry future which makes Euro Bus Expo an unmissable opportunity. There is a lot of pressure on transport operators to make any infrastructure investment viable, particularly due to the long lead times.
As a hydrogen infrastructure supplier, we can explain the benefits of converting to hydrogen fuel will make, with decarbonisation goals more achievable. It’s crucial to speak to us early in the process, before any planning permission is sought and before vehicles have been purchased, so they can offer additional strategic thinking about how to decarbonise a fleet or prepare to build a new refuelling station.
Our experts will advise on the best option for the fleet, based on the business’ needs, size of fleet, type of fuel, growth ambitions and the area where the refuelling station will be based.