Americans are driving less and travelling more, and are far more open to innovative solutions that improve their experience on the road. Pamela Whitby hears more

Wanderu co-founders CEO Polina Raygorodskaya and COO Igor Bratnikov are both 29. The pair recently made the list of Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ in the consumer tech space, and in 2015 both were named in Inc. Magazine’s best and brightest young entrepreneurs under 30. 

Only one owns a car but both travel widely for business and pleasure, and use a range of different apps and services to get around efficiently. They are not alone.

Indeed, this shift in consumer behaviour is one that has been gathering momentum. In 2014, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), for example, Americans took 10.8bn trips on public transport - the highest number of rides taken in 58 years.  And while all Americans are driving less than they did a decade ago, younger adults, like Wanderu’s founders, are driving much less. According to another report by the US Department of Transport (DoT) Americans aged 18 to 34 drove 21% fewer miles than those in that age group did in 2001. In fact, the total number of licensed drivers under the age of 34 actually declined between 2001 and 2012, despite an increasing population!

What is more, in the past few years, new and innovative tech-driven transport-related services have flourished.  Some like Uber are now counted among the biggest and fastest growing companies in the world but there are plenty of others - Carma, Zipcar and Lyft to name but a few. There is also growing use of inter-city bus and rail links. This latter trend – and the surge in bus travel, in particular – has spurred the growth of metasearch engines like BusBud, bustripping and Wanderu (which throws in train links for good measure).  

Tipping point

However, despite these fairly dramatic social shifts in a short space of time, even three years ago, when Wanderu launched, the market didn’t seem quite ready. Raygorodskaya isn’t surprised.

It was always,  “gonna take some time for [travellers] them to re-adjust”.

After all, for a very long time, the ground travel industry was notorious for not keeping up with technological advances!

“When we started pretty much everyone in the industry used to tell us that it would never be successful because there was no universal technology that could bring various bus and train carriers’ ticketing systems under the same umbrella,” says Raygorodskaya.

But despite the sceptics, Wanderu’s founders believe they have managed to build that universal technology, and since launching back in August 2013 has served over 16 million users. Today the firm has partnerships with all major ground travel providers throughout North America, as well as numerous local carriers. And more routes are being launched daily; its latest partnership – announced only last week– was with VIA Rail, a leading Canadian rail provider.

Says Raygorodskaya: “We are helping travellers to find the most convenient and cheapest bus and train tickets in their location to over 90% of the US that is reachable by ground transport, as well as the majority of Canada and Mexico.”

Raygorodskaya believes the success of these ‘alternative’ services is down to their ability to “respond to the current generation’s ever-growing demand for instant gratification on their own terms”.

I think it’s safe to say that the early days are coming to an end and the days of much-needed technological progress are upon us

“I think it’s safe to say that the early days are coming to an end and days of much- needed technological progress are upon us,” she says.

If an American Express business travel report, is to believed, 2016 could be the tipping point; this it says is the year US ridesharing services are expected to become mainstream. And with young Americans valuing ownership of a mobile phone more than a car, these will have distinctly mobile flavour, something that Wanderu is banking on.

Looking to the future, Wanderu expects mobile booking, and mobile boarding (in the way of the airlines) for bus and all other forms of transportation to become the norm. So addressing this will be a major focus, as will developing their content strategy.

“We want to inspire people to travel to different places and explore both local and distant destinations that they wouldn’t have considered otherwise,” Raygorodskaya says.

In 2013 Wanderu secured seed funding to the tune of $2.45 million led by Alta Ventures, with participation from, among others, Orbitz.com Chairman Jeff Clarke former Greyhound bus CEO Craig Lentzsch. Then in November 2014 it secured another $5.6m in series-A funding. 

To the question ‘is it profitable yet?’ the firm has this to say: “Wanderu is generating significant revenue and growing monthly. However, we are currently in growth mode and reinvesting heavily into building out our team and brand”.

Wanderu co-founder CEO Polina Raygorodskaya will be speaking at EyeforTravel's Connected Traveler North America 2016 conference in San Francisco (March 14-15) on a panel with executives from other ground transportation players including Lyft and Carma. Don’t miss it!