00:00Daniel, what is it about the company's earnings report that you think investors perhaps are not appreciating today?
00:06It's a little hard to know. Thanks, Carlos, for having me. I think the market's going to do what the market's going to do.
00:10We're very focused on the long term. I would say our Q3 earnings were, in my view, outstanding.
00:15We're very pleased with them. We exceeded on every metric.
00:18We're just going to continue doing our job here and helping cities and transit agencies improve their trend systems.
00:23So one thing about that, there isn't really another company that does what you do.
00:27But that's also confusing for investors who don't know who they should compare your company to in terms of valuation, in terms of metrics.
00:35So which existing companies are there that you can point to to say, like, oh, this might be a benchmark?
00:41You're absolutely right. And that's one of the advantages and disadvantages I think we had when we were looking at our IPO.
00:46We had to spend a lot of time with investors who, thankfully, were willing to take the time to really dig into our business, to really understand the work that we're doing.
00:53That felt very important. It took many meetings. In some cases, we sell to municipal.
00:58Governments, we sell to local transit authorities. Those are customers that most public investors are not used to seeing companies sell into.
01:04I think it's one of our great strengths. You know, these customers, they may be hard to penetrate.
01:08But once you're in, they can be very sticky. They're really loyal.
01:13They absolutely need new technology and innovation to help them.
01:16No one else is really supporting them. So we feel very good about the market.
01:20And I would say the market is huge. We are below one percent in our penetration at the moment.
01:25You said something about once you get in. But what is the biggest obstacle to actually getting in? Is it inertia?
01:31Very much. Yeah, very much. It's inertia. Inertia can be overcome with certainly persistence, with proving the return on investment, the ROI for those cities.
01:41And I think what's often most helpful is when cities see another city right near them that's doing the same thing and it's working.
01:47And so we start to see what we call these regional network effects or flywheel markets where you get one, two cities in a certain region.
01:54Everybody else sort of wants to follow. And that's been a great trend.
01:57And if we haven't made it clear already, you have a platform for public transit software and services.
02:02That's kind of what you offer. You help these companies, these transit systems overcome their legacy issues.
02:08You operate in more than 650 cities across 30 countries.
02:13So we know that each of them have their own problems, their own politics, their own funding issues.
02:19What is the common challenge across all these different cities you operate in?
02:23It's a great point. And, you know, we've had some really nice growth last quarter.
02:27So we're now over 700 cities around the world. And they're all very different and very much the same, I would say.
02:34They all face the same challenges with legacy technology. They are used to operating all of their different systems in different silos.
02:41Our software can help them bring all their different transit modes onto one platform that helps you achieve massive efficiencies in how you can use vehicles
02:50and how you can assign drivers to those vehicles and, frankly, in how the passengers experience the system so they can have a much better experience.
02:58With that, you can bring more passengers into the system. That makes the whole thing much more efficient.
03:02So there are a lot of advantages that these customers, these cities transit agencies can realize when they move on to a technology platform
03:10on which they can manage their entire system.
03:12So how are the cities and communities that you work with adapting existing jobs, existing positions to maximize the software,
03:19the platform that you offer them? I wonder whether VIA replaces human jobs.
03:23Yeah, that's a great point. So, one, it's been really hard for the transit systems to hire drivers.
03:28So, often, they're actually faced with major labor shortages. We're helping them address that issue.
03:35Second, and you're right, there may be someone on the transit agency side, for example, who, in their old system,
03:39was spending the entire day, sometimes the entire week, just preparing a report that they needed to file with the county,
03:44with the state, in order to get their funding. That can be automated with a click of a button.
03:49You're able to generate that report now and send it to the funding agency.
03:51So, what is that person doing? Well, that person can now actually do important things.
03:56They can address customer concerns. They can make sure the transit agency is improving safety.
04:00They can take a step back and analyze how is the system performing, where can we make improvements,
04:05rather than spending the entire day or the entire week trying to pull data from different legacy systems
04:09and put them into Excel or what have you and submit that as a report.
04:13It's not a great use of time. So, I think there are enormous opportunities for efficiency,
04:16and there is great need for these people to do more useful things.
04:20Now, your company's mission is to solve transportation problems on behalf of these agencies.
04:25They've got a lot to resolve. What do you think of New York City Mayor Zoramah Mamdani's promise to offer free bus services?
04:32You're based in New York, so I'm sure this is something that you've given some thought to.
04:35From where you sit, is something that he's promising, that thing that he's promising, doable?
04:41You're asking me a political question. I think buses are extremely important in New York,
04:47and they're an extremely important mode of transit. Whether they should be free or not is a policy question.
04:52We have not always seen great results with free buses when they are provided for free.
04:56How's that?
04:57You know, they can create some challenges in how they're perceived by the rest of the population, perhaps.
05:03So, you end up maybe splitting who's using the buses and who's not using the buses.
05:08So, there can be advantages and disadvantages. On the other hand, there are many people for whom this can make a real difference.
05:12You know, not having to pay the $2.90 for the bus can be a real boon to them. It can drive some ridership.
05:18In some systems, it can drive some ridership. I think it really depends on how it's implemented.
05:21If it's implemented in a way that's smart, where you're maintaining the safety and security of those bus systems,
05:26so people feel comfortable riding them despite the fact that they may be free, you can see massive gains.
05:31If you implement it poorly, like anything in life, you know, it's going to go badly.
05:34Can VIA play a role in bringing down the expenses of the bus system, at least?
05:38I really think so. I think even in a great system like we have in New York,
05:42with the MTE running these massive bus and subway systems,
05:45there are many pockets of the system that are highly inefficient.
05:48Where we are running buses because we haven't tried anything else,
05:51and some of our systems we call microtransit, these are dynamically routed shuttles
05:55that can be much more efficient in lower-density areas.
05:58I think of Staten Island, so much opportunity to expand transit there
06:01with these more dynamic modes rather than only relying on buses.
06:04Has the incoming administration reached out to VIA?
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