Snap (Coach travel agency)

[quarella]

https://v2.sn-ap.com/
Firstly I have no connection with this company and while seeing some benefits I have a few reservations on the long term impact to the industry. Looks like it has been running from Nottingham for a year or so and now trying Bristol. Put in the journey you want to make and should there be sufficient demand within 72 hours the coach will run. One aspect one forum member will like is being able to book 2 seats to themselves.

Sn-ap is on-demand, digital Coach travel

• Just choose your end destination and a convenient pick up point and tell us when you want to travel.
  
  
• Our system puts all the people wanting to make similar trips together and matches them up with with the best local coach operators.
  
  
• We keep prices low by only running coaches when there’s enough demand.

Press piece from the Bristol Post
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/business/new-door-door-bus-service-
1118297?service=responsive

A new door-to-door budget bus service is set to launch in Bristol – offering return journeys to London for as little as £10.

Sn-ap launches in the city on Saturday, January 27 and is set to rival existing coach operators Megabus and National Express.

However, rather than requiring travellers to wait at a bus station or stop, customers will be picked up more or less from wherever they desire and can be dropped off near their precise destination.

In a promotional offer to mark the launch, Bristolians can claim a free return journey to London by simply registering here.

The service works by matching demand for a certain journey at a certain time with independent travel operators in Bristol and the surrounding area.

Passengers can book online at sn-ap.com by choosing from either existing confirmed trips – which require an undisclosed number of people wanting to travel – or creating their own custom trips and encouraging others to join them so it is confirmed.


Trips are only confirmed when there’s enough demand in a bid to guarantee low prices.

The service launched in its first city, Nottingham, in 2016, providing travel to the capital. The Bristol to London route has now been added with others planned in the future.

After every trip, passengers rate their experience. Sn-ap uses these ratings to allocate more trips to the operators that passengers like best.

Thomas Ableman, founder of Sn-ap, has spent the last fourteen years working within the transport sector and set up Sn-ap in 2016 after spotting a gap in the market.

 

[BestWestern]

Well that'll last, I'm sure...

Random coach charters to sort of where you want to go and at sort of when you want to go there, if and when enough other people are daft enough to try and book the same trip at the same time. No idea what sort of coach will turn up (whoever's cheapest), how long it'll take to supposedly drop everyone off to where they want to go, or of course if it'll even actually run at all. And when they decide several days later that it won't, the same low headline fares from the proper coach companies that you could have booked in the first place will probably already have gone. And then the same all over again for the journey back.

No thanks.

 

[diffywood]

Free ticket code when you register

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/business/new-door-door-bus-service-1118297

 

[overthewater]

I hope there not that awful company in a new name.....................

 

[PeterC]

Trips are only confirmed when there’s enough demand in a bid to guarantee low prices.

So you have to guess that there will be other people wanting to between the same places as you. Looked at journeys between Bristol and London and they only quote a standard set of pick up and drop off points even if I specify somewhere close to the route.

 

[gazthomas]

Interesting model, Uber for coaches!

 

[Robertj21a]

I see the coaches to/from Nottingham quite often on the M1. They seem to have reasonable loads and they are well-respected operators like Paul Winson, Roberts etc

 

[PermitToTravel]

My brother lives in Nottingham and uses it very frequently. £2 trips to London are almost always available.

The demand responsive coach model makes quite some sense IMO, I'm really excited to see how it pans out.

 

[PermitToTravel]

No idea what sort of coach will turn up (whoever's cheapest), how long it'll take to supposedly drop everyone off to where they want to go, or of course if it'll even actually run at all.

They have good minimum standards. They don't drop everybody off at their destination! They just calculate a few points that will be convenient for everybody - I gather a common stopping pattern is Nottingham, Beeston (University Halls), Finchley Road, Covent Garden

 

[BestWestern]

My brother lives in Nottingham and uses it very frequently. £2 trips to London are almost always available.

That probably tells you all you need to know about how successful it is.

 

[PermitToTravel]

*shrugs* they're growing the service and market for now aren't they? I wouldn't write it off just yet

 

[BestWestern]

*shrugs* they're growing the service and market for now aren't they? I wouldn't write it off just yet

They're trying of course, but constant availability of loss-leading promotional fares isn't sustainable for very long.

 

[Robertj21a]

That probably tells you all you need to know about how successful it is.

You mean like Megabus ?

It seems to be picking up quite a bit of regular business, I doubt they would launch elsewhere if it wasn't doing reasonably well. Good to see some fresh initiative and it's a shame that it's being mocked by some.

 

[howittpie]

Found it interesting reading the comments here probably a lot of what I thought when they started on the Nottingham to London route.

For those that don't know Snap started running on this route roughly 15 months ago and was set up by the former MD of Chiltern Railways Rob Brighouse and the former commercial director Thomas Ableman. They saw a niche from Nottingham to London for students as they believed the market wasn't served by the mainstream operators. To be honest they were correct as fares on National Express had always been on the high side and Megabus have never really competed. The original service was marketed heavily to students but also with competitions for tickets on both Trentbarton and NET tram facebook pages.

As for fares to start with were extremely cheap but not now are only pennies for the services that are still building the fares are now regularly £6-£10 single for services confirmed. However they have obviously caused some concern to National Express as after about 6 months they started offering £2 fanfares on certain departures well below the usual fares from £5 they advertise.

How it works once a journey is confirmed they offer the trips to there partner operators and then choose the cheapest one would assume. So the regular operators I have seen on the Nottingham service are Machpherson and Paul S Winson well established operators. From looking at the careers they are wanting area managers for Manchester, Birmingham and Brighton this must be where they want to expand.

From a personal view have used the Nottingham service a couple of times and on all occasions the service has been 80% to 90% full and the from a personal prospective the coaches have been far more comfortable than what National Express or Megabus use.

 

[swifty]

They have good minimum standards. They don't drop everybody off at their destination! They just calculate a few points that will be convenient for everybody - I gather a common stopping pattern is Nottingham, Beeston (University Halls), Finchley Road, Covent Garden

Berkeley Coaches of Paulton are running a snap service today. It was a Van Hool T918, possibly YJ61 EXX.

 

[BestWestern]

Found it interesting reading the comments here probably a lot of what I thought when they started on the Nottingham to London route.

From a personal view have used the Nottingham service a couple of times and on all occasions the service has been 80% to 90% full and the from a personal prospective the coaches have been far more comfortable than what National Express or Megabus use.

I'm interested in your observations about comfort. What are they using that is notably better than the usual offerings?

 

[howittpie]

I'm interested in your observations about comfort. What are they using that is notably better than the usual offerings?

I find the leather seats on National Express really uncomfortable after a short while and the coaches of Snap I have been on have more leg room. I know comfort is a personal thing.

 

[backontrack]

Yeuch. I'd almost rather have Cityfox.

 

[VillaverdeAlto]

I've used Sn-ap(Nottingham - London) a few times in recent months. The coaches have been MacPherson each time except one journey with Roberts.

Given I've been doing a day return on a Saturday the cheap advance fairs on EMT had long gone before I decided to travel, so Sn-ap was ideal. Booking about two weeks in advance I've not paid more than £8 return.

The passenger numbers have been between 16 and 44. The latter figure was the weekend of the station fire.

I don't usually travel by coach so can't compare the quality with other operators. With the vast difference in price compared to the train, though, I don't mind spending an extra hour travelling. Stick the headphones on and take a good book and time flies by.

 

[D60]

In this month's (March) issue of B24/7 (www.bristol247.com), a free monthly magazine of things happening in Bristol, in the Business section there's a Q&A-type interview/profile ('If I Knew Then...') of Sn-ap co-founder Thomas Ableman.

No idea if it's available online, and I wouldn't be able to link to it on this phone if it was...

Describes Sn-ap as "the world's first on-demand coach network, comprised of local independent operators".

Says Ableman has had a 14-year career in public transport, since graduating, most recently as commercial director of Chiltern Railways.

Business highlight? "Raising the first £1million investment".

Low-point? "9 months working at Wrexham & Shropshire".

What's next? "Expansion to more cities to serve more customers".

There's also a Sn-ap advert in the magazine, with the header "Thousands are joining Sn-ap's on-demand coach travel revolution", and the tag-line "People going places, get it".

 

[BestWestern]

I thought Wrexham & S'shire was supposed to have been a happy place to work?

 

[D60]

I thought Wrexham & S'shire was supposed to have been a happy place to work?

Here's the full quote :-

What is your business low point?
"I spent nine months working in a startup rail operator called Wrexham & Shropshire. By the time I joined, it was already seriously struggling and ultimately didn't survive. It really emphasised the importance of building a sustainable business model."

No clues as to whether it was a happy or otherwise place to work.

 

[BestWestern]

Here's the full quote :-

What is your business low point?
"I spent nine months working in a startup rail operator called Wrexham & Shropshire. By the time I joined, it was already seriously struggling and ultimately didn't survive. It really emphasised the importance of building a sustainable business model."

No clues as to whether it was a happy or otherwise place to work.

Hmm. It was Arriva by the end, wasn't it?

 

[D60]

Hmm. It was Arriva by the end, wasn't it?

W&S was an open-access joint venture between John Laing plc (also involved with Chiltern Railways) and Renaissance Trains (also involved with Hull Trains), and ran from 2008 to 2011.

John Laing plc sold its rail operations to DB in early 2008, actually before commencement of W&S running services, and by late 2009, DB Regio had taken full ownership of W&S.

Arriva was acquired by DB in 2010, and DB Regio in the UK was merged/rebranded into Arriva in 2011, subsequent to W&S ceasing operation in Jan 2011.

It seems W&S was limited/restricted in its operation by ORR abstraction rules to protect the operations of each of Arriva Trains Wales, Virgin Trains, Chiltern Railway, who each raised assorted objections and counter measures/competing services.

(Info gleaned from assorted Wikipedia entries, so Errors & Omissions, blame Wiki.)

 

[Wirewiper]

It's an interesting development, I don't quite understand how it works but then I'm an old fart.

Impact on the existing industry? Megabus and National Express already have extensive operations and I doubt this niche operation will seriously upset them. Indeed it could grow the overall market from coach travel; National Express has in the past seen significant growth on corridors where it competes directly with Megabus. Growth can come from modal shift, i.e. passengers transferring from other modes, or from new demand generated by the low prices - coaches are well placed to pick up extra optional travel in a price-sensitive market.

 

[Pigalle]

As well as Nottingham I am pretty certain they were operating from Derby at one point although it looks as if that service has ceased now.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

I did a small write up when I tried the Bristol - London run. I was pretty cynical at first, I thought at low prices and free run offerings that it would be some old private hire vehicles, how wrong I was

https://bustravels.org/2018/02/11/sn-ap-bristol-to-london/

Since that report other vehicles I have seen in the Bristol runs:

Bakers Dolphin 16 plate Tourismo
Bakers Dolphin 14 plate Tourismo
Centurion Travel 17 plate Irizar i6
Falcon Coaches 14 plate (I think) Irizar i6

The operator I work for is looking at doing some operations for it. The boss was saying that with the low fares it runs at a loss and they know and expected that, hopefully by expanding they can get some profit going but apparently they had set a side a lot of money to cover the expected losses to keep it running

 

[howittpie]

Snap have expanded again and it appears are now offering some Cardiff to London Baker St and St Pancras service. There is also a launch event in Leicester today so it would appear they are going to start running Leicester to London service.

 

[James H]

Sn-ap is now selling tickets for the London to Windsor Green Line

 

[howittpie]

Sn-ap is now selling tickets for the London to Windsor Green Line

They are also selling tickets to Oxford on the X90 as well.