Sunday, April 4, 2021

Transport volumes are very low right now, but this isn't just bad news

We live in a business world now driven by Digital Transformation. It seems that every media outlet wants to be "the next Netflix" and every takeaway restaurant thinks they should be "the next Deliveroo" Note: This is despite Deliveroo actually losing over £200million last year, a fact that hasn't been lost on the UK stock market in the week

2020 will be remembered as the pandemic being the catalyst for a huge shift to digital. Digital working processes, Digital meetings, Digital retailing, etc. 

It will also be remembered as the year there was a huge reduction in the overall use of transport, as:

- those working were strongly encouraged to work from home, where possible

- lockdowns prevented a significant amount of personal & business travel 

- tourism was stopped

- people were furloughed from work  


Photo credit : https://unsplash.com/@thenightstxlker


But, as vaccines are rolled-out and restrictions are lifted, we are likely to see a significant "bounce-back" in the transport & mobility sector over the next few months, as staff return to the city and the office (although perhaps not to pre-pandemic levels for a long while / if ever). 

So now it is high time for transport operators (and their suppliers) to fully embrace digital transformation and modernize their legacy business processes & systems. The current situation of low passenger volumes may mean reduced revenue, but also means less risk when making significant technology and data changes. 

In short, if you are going to implement a new process or technology solution across the transport sector... now is probably the best time to do it.