Last year PostBus Switzerland Ltd transported 141 million passengers (+ 1.2 percent). The highest growth in the number of passengers was recorded in the regions of Graubünden (+ 9 percent), Central Switzerland (+ 6 percent), and Eastern Switzerland (+ 5 percent) (see the table in the Notes). Across Switzerland as a whole, the number of routes has increased by 21 to 869. Last year the 2,193 Postbuses travelled 110 million kilometres for scheduled services (+ 2 percent).

163 new jobs

PostBus created 163 jobs (129 full-time equivalent positions) in Switzerland in 2014. The average headcount totalled 3,720 employees (+ 4.6 percent). 54 percent of the full-time equivalent positions are with PostBus Switzerland Ltd, while the rest of the employees work for one of the 148 PostBus companies. PostBus companies provide services as subcontractors, but operate under the PostBus corporate image. In the 50 municipal operations, though, PostBus Switzerland Ltd runs its own buses with its own employees. This combination has proven successful since PostBus was founded in 1906.

New PubliRide service

Passengers want to travel from A to B as easily as possible. Complicated services are usually concealed behind the appearance of simplicity. PostBus provides a number of products here, above all for transport companies. Three changes came into effect in 2014:

• In 2014, PostBus founded the PubliTransport Systems (PTS) unit. PTS provides services for e-ticketing, ticket inspection, and payment collection, among others. PostBus has acquired for the company and for other transport companies mobile inspection devices to use with the SwissPass. SwissPass will replace the GA travelcard and the half-fare travelcard from August 2015. The OpenEye inspection software installed on the industrial smartphones can cover all current conventional e-ticket solutions, including the SwissPass.
• PostBus plays an active role in cooperative mobility: since 2011 with the PubliBike bike sharing scheme, and since 2014 with the PubliRide carpooling project. The first implemented PubliRide project is a tailored solution for the small municipality of Blauen (BL). Fifteen Postbus journeys per day connect the village to the rest of Switzerland. The Postbuses stop running at 7 p.m., and unfortunately it is too expensive for the public sector to extend the service. As a result, PostBus has started a nationwide pioneering project together with the municipality. Any resident of Blauen can now either provide car journeys or accept carpooling offers. The journeys to and from Blauen are usually free-of-charge and are displayed in the specifically developed PostBus App. PostBus is in the process of developing the second and third PubliRide service for Baden (canton of Aargau) and Sion (canton of Valais) respectively.
• PostBus has been running the Mobility Lab Sion-Valais since November 2014. This laboratory was launched on Swiss Post’s initiative together with the canton of Valais, the city of Sion, the ETH Lausanne, and the HES-SO Valais-Wallis. Mobility experts are testing and developing new products in the laboratory that will further simplify travel in Switzerland. From autumn 2015 one of the tests will focus on the “Check In, Be Out” (CiBo) e-ticket system: The passenger gets on the bus and connects their smartphone to its Wi-Fi network. When they get off the bus, the connection is lost. This enables the transport company to issue an accurate invoice – the passenger no longer needs to buy a ticket.

Key performance figures in the nine PostBus regions:

Passengers transported (million)

Kilometres covered (million)

The total number of kilometres covered includes the school bus service

Number of routes