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The new business segment at DB, ioki, is a full-service provider for road-based digital mobility concepts. Following the presentation of the first driverless bus service to run on public streets, in Bavaria at the end of October, the next premiere is already here – this time in Frankfurt am Main. Exclusively with DB employees from the Frankfurt site, ioki is conducting trials for a driver-based demand responsive transport service with digital booking via smartphone app that operates on request and without a fixed timetable or route.
Registered DB employees can book a vehicle with a single click and ride to one of the 32 DB sites in Frankfurt. Passengers with similar routes are automatically bundled into ride-sharing groups and travel together. This relieves the burden on both the traffic system and the environment. Not least with this in mind, ioki sets its focus on electromobility: in Frankfurt, the project initially deploys five electric TukTuks and two electric mini-buses. The test fleet comprises a total of 13 vehicles.
The aim of this pilot project is to further improve the IT on the basis of employee-feedback and make it fit for use by future customers. Over the past weeks, the team from ioki has developed the IT-platform and the corresponding apps – one for passengers and one for drivers.
The pilot project in Frankfurt is the first field trial.
In winter, initial operations in a rural area will begin with 100 selected customers in the town of Wittlich in the Rhineland Palatinate. In 2018, in the context of the Smart City Partnership between DB and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, ioki will be implementing a driver-based demand responsive transportservice integrated in the city’s existing public transport infrastructure.
ioki is a component of the DB digitalisation offensive that encompasses the development of new, interconnected and climate-friendly mobility services that meaningfully supplement rail transport.
