This month we interviewed Kris Bailey, the Chief Operating Officer of Electric Cab of North America. Kris joined Electric Cab of Austin in 2011 as the COO. He is the COO and co-founder of Electric Cab of North America which began operating in 2016 as a first/last mile solution company.
What service does Electric Cab of North America provide?
We focus on an industry known as Micro-Transit. We use electric vehicles to solve the first/last mile problem with public transportation. We firmly believe that the way to increase ridership on rail lines and bus systems is by making public transportation more accessible.
What locations work best for your first/mile last mile service?
We look to provide service that complements public transportation. Transit agencies and cities are our target customers. Large developments or areas with poor connectivity to public transportation are also where we focus. Our aim is to eliminate food and transit deserts one area at a time.
How is this product important to businesses and individuals? How will they benefit from using it?
Increased mobility in an area goes hand in hand with economic development. When people can move around easily, they can easily visit more places. This increases visits to businesses, creating more jobs and making an area more attractive to visit. All of this travel in our electric cabs – keeping Austin’s air clean and reducing traffic!
Where is Electric Cab of North America Operating?
We operate an on-demand urban mobility solution in downtown Austin 7 nights per week. People can easily move among all of the downtown districts (West 6th, Warehouse District, East 6th and Rainey Street, West Campus, SoCo, etc…). Instead of having to choose which district, you can visit all of them! We have also partnered with the Domain Northside to provide free shuttles through their development. We can connect the department stores to the condos to the restaurants. Again, with increased mobility, people frequent more businesses.
Where else do you operate – or plan to?
We are looking to connect this district to the Kramer Lane light rail stop as well. There is no public parking around that rail station, and it is in an industrial area. Within a 1mile radius, there are a lot of appealing destinations, such as the Domain Northside, with Whole Foods and all of the stores in addition to housing. There is also an Austin Community College Campus within a mile of that rail station. Can we increase ridership on the public transit system by providing accessibility to a rail stop? I think so.
We have been working in the St. Louis area for several years and launched Kirkwood, Missouri in late October. We have created a model that can be replicated and scaled to any city in the United States and are actively growing our company.
What else?
Our partnerships are what make us strong. We have partnered with Polaris, the manufacturer of our electric vehicles. They are firmly committed to providing high quality and reliable vehicles.
We have also partnered with United Rentals, which has given us the ability to launch a city from any of their 900+ branch locations throughout North America. For future projects we have partnered with 5D Robotics, a company focused on precise positioning that will enable autonomous vehicles to function better in the future. And we’ve partnered with Lone Star Clean Fuels Alliance to develop project ideas to submit to potential funders.
Contact Kris Bailey at: