The first Uber boats are already on Hvar.
As announced a little more than a month ago, UberBoat has arrived in Croatia, just for promotional purposes for the time being. The operational centre of the service should be located at Divulje, and the service will include boats for between 4 and 12 passengers. The service will be available for reservation via a smart-phone application, similar to UberX. The ride on the Divulje-Hvar route could cost between 40 and 50 euros per passenger, reports Dalmacija Danas on May 4, 2017.
The first UberBoat has been seen in Hvar, but it is only a part of Uber's promotional activities.
Although the plans are very optimistic and Uber plans to launch the service as early as June, in reality there are certain issues. First of all, it is impossible to compare the car and the boat service. The reason is very simple: cars always have similar fuel consumption which is not affected by the wind direction, waves and other elements affecting boats. In addition, it is not the same thing to travel in a small rubber boat in comparison to a larger vessel with a cabin.
The owner of a charter company which has been contacted by Uber has revealed some of the details of the service Uber is preparing for the Croatian market. “Uber has not yet launched the UberBoat service because the app is not yet finished. This service will be open to anyone who has a registered business for transport or charter. They will be able to use the application as a kind of a business plan. So, people with registered businesses will be able to download a questionnaire, send their answers to Uber and start with operations, similar to with the cars. We will be notified when they start, and then we will see how it works.” said the owner.
While UberBoat is a service which is still being developed, there are more well-known, similar apps already in existence, such as Click&Boat which is available in Croatia as well. According to initial information, Uber will respect the prices of its partner and will not try to lower them to a huge extent. It the initial stage, it will accept the conditions offered by carriers.
Uber is currently collecting charter prices and plans to set prices that should suit everyone. As already stated, the standards for the car and the boat service are not the same, which greatly impedes the development of the UberBoat app. For example, the current boat taxi fare from Split to Hvar without waiting and the return trip is about 300 euros per boat.
Uber works very well when it comes to road transportation, but maritime transportation is a big unknown, meaning that the whole project this summer will be just a test phase. Given that there are better known apps in this segment, a source has given us a good example and an explanation of the service. “Imagine if Coca Cola were to now start producing creams. This does not mean they would be sold in great numbers, because in that segment you already have, for example, Nivea and other companies.”
So, the service has a long-term perspective given Croatia's tourist potential, but in the initial phase Uber does not expect a major profit from it. What is best for users is that they will not even have to download the new app, but they will have UberBoat option appear in their existing apps. It is also important to note that there is a high likelihood that Uber's permanent users might be surprised with UberBoat's prices.
We are looking forward to the summer when we will know more about how the service will operate.
