Engehalde staff shuttle
On-Demand service for our employees
All staff at the Swiss Post Engehalde site benefited from an On-Demand service for almost two years. The electrically powered minibus took employees up the steep Engehaldenstrasse whenever they wanted, and then on to Bern railway station, or vice versa. This provided accessible and comfortable commutes, particularly for people with reduced mobility. This operation also served as a living “OD-lab”, where the system functionality was proactively fine-tuned, tweaked and optimized.
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Background
From PostBus’s point of view, it was a good opportunity to test On-Demand services at the customer’s doorstep and increase internal awareness. PostBus staff should be able to see what the PubliCar service is like for themselves.
Goals
- A pilot project for staff at the Swiss Post Engehalde site, which was an ideal follow-up solution to the public transport network from Bern railway station.
- As an "On-Demand lab" to adjust and refine all the options offered by the ioki system.
- Increase the quality of commutes made by staff in order to encourage a shift away from private cars to public transport, from the first to last mile.
- Increase the pooling rate for passenger transport, which means less traffic congestion and less of a need for parking spaces at work in the long term.
- More convenient workplace accessibility for everyone.
- Raise awareness of on-demand services in the city of Bern to support corporate mobility in the B2B sector with this service in the future.
Results
Overall demand was good: from the start on 1 February 2023 to the end of the project on 15 December 2024, a total of 19,262 journeys were recorded with 22,819 passengers. This period spanned 474 operating days, with an average of 41 journeys with 48 passengers per operating day. As expected, demand varied depending on the season: as soon as it got cooler and rainy/wintry, demand increased.
- Project period: user increase of 10% in 2024 compared with 2023
- On average, 48 passengers travelled per day. In the colder month of November 2024, this figure rose to 56 passengers a day.
- Pooling rate: 2.6
- Service rate: 88%
- Number of fulfilled bookings: 19,262 (rather than 21,818 bookings, 12% of which were cancelled by passengers. This means that 19,262 journeys were actually made).
From 1 February 2023 to 15 December 2024. During this time, the free eight-seater e-traveller was in use from Monday to Friday, 6:30 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m.
Reactions
The quality of the service was rated very highly by users: almost a quarter of all journeys were rated by passengers. The average scores were 4.8 out of 5 points for punctuality and the vehicle, and 4.7 for waiting time. Over 80% of users gave the service a 5-star rating.
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The Engehalde shuttle replaced the existing staff bus for the entire timespan of the project. The previous staff bus was a “traditional”, larger Postbus that followed a fixed timetable. It was replaced by an electric minibus, which only ran when ordered, making employee mobility more sustainable and more flexible.
The e-bus ran in the morning and evening between the PostFinance and PostBus locations on Engehaldenstrasse and Bern train station. Staff could book their journey conveniently using the “On-Demand” app, and an algorithm bundled the journeys. The capacity utilization of the shuttle had continually improved since the service was launched.
Living on-demand laboratory
But the Engehalde shuttle was much more than that: the pilot project is a lively laboratory for our On-Demand experts, enabling them to gain new insights and thereby continuously improve all our On-Demand projects. PostBus also offers this type of flexible transport to companies and private customers.
