Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SmarTrip (SMARt platform to optimise TRIP management)
Berichtszeitraum: 2016-08-01 bis 2016-11-30
Our company, Autotrip was founded by Sustainable Ventures, one of UK’s leading cleantech incubators, and has not stopped growing since then: we have seen two successful rounds of crowdfunding and have been supported by the UK Government’s Innovate award and the European Commission through its H2020 programme. Our performance has also led us to be nominated by Cleantech Innovate as one the UK’s top 40 Cleantech businesses. In Autotrip we have made sure that our team’s skills and knowledge cover all the aspects of a contemporary digital-based company (business and product development, data management and analysis, SW and HW deployment) and we firmly believe that counting on a multidisciplinary and engaged team can multiply the success of our projects.
Business mobility/travel management has always implied a challenge for enterprises working at international level but nowadays it has become a must even for small domestic firms: travel for business grew in Europe at a higher rate than expected in 2015. Many companies externalize the travel management services to travel agencies, car rental firms, etc. but frequently need an internal team to manage the additional documentation and data generated in these processes. For companies whose employees travel by road fleet management constitutes a complex task to deal with, due to the different nature of the actors involved (customer, fleet owner, maintenance service, car rental, etc.), international compliance in some cases or the fact that vehicles are frequently used for professional and personal trips simultaneously. Current regulations do not facilitate this management either: enterprises may be asked for evidence of their trips -fuel consumption, mileage and costs- in financial and tax audits and, in case of noncompliance, they should face important fines (up to 23000€/per driver). Accountancy and Sustainability departments claim urgently for easy-to-use tools focused on the end user to simplify the management of mileage expenses claims, fuel consumption bills and tax and CO2 emission reports.
Smartrip is an innovative Business-to-Business and Business-to-Customer service which consists of an intelligent fleet management system for light vehicles based on a self-install GPS device and cloud-based software. Our aim is to help companies simplify travel management processes, reduce mileage related vehicle fleet costs up to 35% and obtain a higher efficiency of the core business areas; concerning individual drivers, Smartrip removes the difficulty of having to record and prove business journeys and offers them an intuitive tool carefully designed for the best user experience.
Business mobility/travel management has always implied a challenge for enterprises working at international level but nowadays it has become a must even for small domestic firms: travel for business grew in Europe at a higher rate than expected in 2015. Many companies externalize the travel management services to travel agencies, car rental firms, etc. but frequently need an internal team to manage the additional documentation and data generated in these processes. For companies whose employees travel by road fleet management constitutes a complex task to deal with, due to the different nature of the actors involved (customer, fleet owner, maintenance service, car rental, etc.), international compliance in some cases or the fact that vehicles are frequently used for professional and personal trips simultaneously. Current regulations do not facilitate this management either: enterprises may be asked for evidence of their trips -fuel consumption, mileage and costs- in financial and tax audits and, in case of noncompliance, they should face important fines (up to 23000€/per driver). Accountancy and Sustainability departments claim urgently for easy-to-use tools focused on the end user to simplify the management of mileage expenses claims, fuel consumption bills and tax and CO2 emission reports.
Smartrip is an innovative Business-to-Business and Business-to-Customer service which consists of an intelligent fleet management system for light vehicles based on a self-install GPS device and cloud-based software. Our aim is to help companies simplify travel management processes, reduce mileage related vehicle fleet costs up to 35% and obtain a higher efficiency of the core business areas; concerning individual drivers, Smartrip removes the difficulty of having to record and prove business journeys and offers them an intuitive tool carefully designed for the best user experience.
During the Feasibility Study we focused on the following activities: segment and quantify Smartrip’s addressable market, verify if Smartrip is properly focused on a growing sector, identify our potential end users and their real needs, create a value proposition adapted to those needs, analyse Smartrip’s supply chain to identify the role of every stakeholder in it and try to engage them in the project, design our technical roadmap, identify our key technological assets and set the best legal/intellectual protection for them to ensure our Freedom-To-Operate, contact potential partners to start elaborating future distribution agreements, and set Smartrip’s technical and commercial planning for Phase 2.
The positive results obtained in these activities have confirmed the technical and commercial viability of Smartrip. Our strong capabilities and engagement have convinced us to continue with Smartrip’s development. The possibility of being again funded by the EC with a Phase 2 project remains as our preferable option because a) we can face the 30% needed for the project with our own funds (estimated Phase 2 total budget: ~1,8M€) and b) the timeframe (24 months) seems realistic for the essential activities: develop the SW and HW, test them with potential end users and apply simultaneously a commercial and communication strategy to ensure a successful market launch of Smartrip’s new service.
The positive results obtained in these activities have confirmed the technical and commercial viability of Smartrip. Our strong capabilities and engagement have convinced us to continue with Smartrip’s development. The possibility of being again funded by the EC with a Phase 2 project remains as our preferable option because a) we can face the 30% needed for the project with our own funds (estimated Phase 2 total budget: ~1,8M€) and b) the timeframe (24 months) seems realistic for the essential activities: develop the SW and HW, test them with potential end users and apply simultaneously a commercial and communication strategy to ensure a successful market launch of Smartrip’s new service.
AutoTrip’s immediate vision is to launch the best automated mileage‐expensing solution through creating an impartial product that fits any vehicle and provides the biggest added value for our potential clientele.
SmarTrip is anticipated to be suitable to 87% of AutoTrip’s existing 6 million customers, and is expected to boost new customer acquisitions by a minimum of 50%. This translates into over 1,000 sizable fleets (200 vehicles +) optimized, and an IRR over 70%, incorporating iterative development costs (see section 2 for detailed calculations). We foresee a business opportunity of near €5 million of revenue by the end of year 3, plus the creation of 14 job positions.
SmarTrip is anticipated to be suitable to 87% of AutoTrip’s existing 6 million customers, and is expected to boost new customer acquisitions by a minimum of 50%. This translates into over 1,000 sizable fleets (200 vehicles +) optimized, and an IRR over 70%, incorporating iterative development costs (see section 2 for detailed calculations). We foresee a business opportunity of near €5 million of revenue by the end of year 3, plus the creation of 14 job positions.