Trust in Shared Surfaces, Trust in Shared Services
Updated: Jul 10
Keeping shared mobility fleets Covid-19 free
One of the biggest challenges shared mobility operators face, at this time, is guaranteeing the safety of their fleet. Gone are the days of simply sharing surfaces without consequence.
The crisis has brought a healthy sense of caution, but it is also making it difficult for mobility providers to attract users. For operators to get more people on/in their vehicles and to realize the true value of shared mobility in a crisis, they need to guarantee the cleanliness of their fleets. We are deploying our StreetCrowd service to enable this.
Many people still need to move around and the solitary nature of rented modes of transport make them a valuable means of getting from A to B in a health crisis.
A not too irrational fear
The idea of sharing services is certainly less desirable now than a few months ago. In some extreme cases, authorities have even shut down modes of shared mobility to reduce the spread of the virus. While this may be well intentioned, this is also counterproductive. Many people still need to move around and the solitary nature of rented modes of transport make them a valuable means of getting from A to B in a health crisis. What is needed, though, is a thorough decontamination of vehicles to ensure their safety.
Michele Kyrouz, a micromobility analyst, compares shared mobility with grocery carts, which for obvious reasons are still deemed valuable, despite also being shared surfaces. She argues that with sound disinfection procedures in place, shared mobility can thrive due to the fact that unlike the blind fight against airborne infections, the cleaning of shared surfaces is much easier to mitigate.
A Covid-19 free fleet
At Ubiq, we have sought to mitigate fears over shared services by developing a three-step sanitization service that allows operators to maintain a virus-free fleet.
Whenever a car has been driven, the vehicle will become unavailable to public users, marked as “to be disinfected”.
This will then trigger an automated alert which is then sent via our StreetCrowd app to the operator’s service team or our StreetCrowd community, notifying them that a vehicle requires disinfecting.
Only once disinfection has been conducted and documented (via video), can the vehicle be unlocked again for public use.
This way, only disinfected vehicles are available for customers. What is more, by combining vehicle sanitization with demand prediction, service teams are able to increase their operational efficiency and preempt cleaning routines.
Trust in shared surfaces, trust in shared services
In enabling operators to guarantee a virus free fleet, we can start to rebuild trust in shared services such as car and bike sharing, which when managed properly, are some of the safest means of travel. And while fears of infection will continue to linger over society for some time, we will continue to make shared mobility as safe and attractive as possible.
If you want to know how you can rid your fleet of Covid-19, get in touch with us at businessdevelopment@ubiq.ai.