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After the first months of the pilot phase, the project partners of ioki Hamburg have drawn a positive balance: The new, individual shuttle service in the districts of Lurup and Osdorf is well received. Since mid-July, ioki Hamburg has been bringing passengers to their destination on flexible routes around the clock using electric cars. Due to its success to this day, the service is now being extended by two years. “We are very pleased to have this opportunity to push ahead with the targeted technical testing and development of the transport service and the development of additional customer groups,” says Toralf Müller, Managing Director of Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH).
“The launch of ioki Hamburg clearly exceeded our expectations. About half of our passengers travel to larger public transport stops. The plan to strengthen local transport is therefore paying off. This gives us a real opportunity to change mobility habits in the future. With connected offers for the first and last mile, we are making local transport much more attractive and life without a car is conceivable in the long term, especially for young people,” says Michael Barillère-Scholz, Managing Director of ioki.
“After an initial starting phase, the ioki Hamburg Shuttle can now be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We started with ten cars, meanwhile 20 vehicles are in use”, adds Toralf Müller. In addition, VHH has recruited more than 50 drivers for the new offer and trained them internally.
ioki Hamburg’s on-demand offer was scientifically supported by the Institute for Transport Planning and Logistics of the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH) during the first three months. The results show that more than 15 percent of customers would have driven a private car without the service. After all, 22 percent of users would have access to their own car at any time and 39 percent occasionally. The results of the TUHH also show that many customers of ioki Hamburg have already used the service several times and are in possession of a season ticket for public transport.
With the extension of the service in the next two years, VHH and ioki want to establish their service further and develop it into a mobility alternative.
Source: DB press release
