Uber Shuttle
Product Exercise Hackathon
Current American public transportation issues
“American buses, subways, and light rail lines consistently have lower ridership levels, fewer service hours, and longer waits between trains than those in virtually every comparably wealthy European and Asian country.”
--- Vox.com
Quotes from people I know
“I can commute by train, but there are still 5 miles between home and train station.”
“It takes me so long to wait for the bus. It only comes by once an hour. ”
“You are so lucky! I wish my company offered the employee shuttle too… ”
Mind map
uberSHUTTLE Ideation
uberSHUTTLE is a new channel for long distance (routine) travel within the Uber app. It provides personalized bus shuttle services by matching riders and drivers.
Features
•Registration
•User information examination
•Map
•Path schedule requests
•Location-based match
•Payment
•Notification
•Chat
•Supervision and execution
•Cancellation
•Rating
•Referring to a friend
Target users
For people who go to work/school
•No company shuttle/school Bus
•Certain time schedule
•Public transportation issues (long distance, high cost, complicated transfer)
For travelers
•Personalized trip (within certain location route)
•Public transportation issues (long distance, high cost, complicated transfer)
For people who travel long distance routinely
(e.g. Couples who live in adjacent cities want to meet on weekends.)
Personas
Before & after uberSUTTLE
Who’s involved in uberSHUTTLE?
Rider
•Designates pick-up and drop-off locations and times. Sets schedule.
•If successful, activate routine, wait for the shuttle on time, and choose a payment plan (one-time travel, weekly/monthly/year pass)
Professional Shuttle Driver
•Provides safe shuttle services
•Dedicated to positive user experiences
Uber
•Attracts riders and drivers to join
•Forms shuttle schedule based on the rider and driver requests
•Estimates personalized cost range
•Makes profit
Sequence for all parties
Basic feature screens
uberSHUTTLE is a channel within the Uber app
The rider opens the Uber app, and by clicking on the SHUTTLE button in the top, the rider comes to the SHUTTLE channel.
Shuttle route matching
The first-time rider will see a form as the main page. He/she can write his/her pick-up location, drop-off location, scheduled arrival time, estimated departure time, and choose his frequency. Then Uber will generate and publish the rider’s route to drivers. If there’s already a shuttle on that route with available seats, Uber will notify this rider with pricing, schedule and pick-up location.
For riders with no shuttle in the next hour
For the rider who has purchased a plan, if there’s no upcoming shuttle within one hour, the main page will direct him to see his schedule calendar. On the days that have shuttle services, there will be grey dots below. The rider can cancel his/her plan one hour before the scheduled pick-up time.
When the shuttle is on its way
If there’s an upcoming shuttle within an hour, the main page will direct the rider to see the shuttle location on the map. Uber will also send a notification to the rider. If the rider shows up later than 5 minutes after the pick-up time, Uber will charge an extra 10 dollars.
Significant policies
Benefits
Launch plan draft
How to define success?
Rider Acquisition
•Number of riders
•How/why does the rider base grow?
•How many active riders (definition of an active rider)?
•What’s the average miles per active rider?
•How much money/time do riders save per ride?
•Where are riders coming from?
•Are they referring their friends?
•Which frequency is the most effective in getting riders?
Driver Acquisition
•Number of drivers
•How/why does the driver base grow?
•How many active drivers (definition of an active driver)?
•What’s the average miles per active driver?
•Where are drivers coming from?
•Are they referring their friends?
Money
•Rider/Driver acquisition cost
•Supporting cost per order
•Average revenue per order
•Lifetime value of a rider/driver
•Revenue growth rate
Conversion & Retention
•Conversion rate
•Churn rate
Customer Feedback
•What are people saying about the product (their satisfaction levels)?
•Riders/Drivers’ Feedback on pricing
Route
•Popular routes’ average miles
•Popular routes’ active area types(suburb->city/city->suburb/suburb->suburb/city->city)
Before and after uberSHUTTLE (ideal)
Estimated Profit
We assume there are 800,000 people in San Francisco, and 100,000 people are working. Consider if 1,000 of them were using uberSHUTTLE to commute for work, and every rider spent 200 dollars per month. Of this 200, suppose Uber earns 20 dollars in profit per rider per month, then Uber would get 20,000 dollars in San Francisco. Note 20,000 dollars / 800,000 people gives an average of 0.025 dollars per person. In America, there are roughly 325 million people, and the total estimated profit would possibly be 8 million per month.
How can we make uberSHUTTLE better?
•Educating riders
•Optimizing routes
•Strict authorization process
•Strict ranking policy
•In-app emergency button
Concerns
•Riders, drivers punctuality policy
•Riders/Drivers' background, personality
•Order cancel policy
•Rider’s request and the match have minor difference
•If lack of drivers, potential need to coordinate bus company (third party)