Introducing Innovation: Wanderu

The bus and coach sector is bustling with innovation. From the established players to the newer startups, companies are constantly developing new ways to facilitate the life of travellers all around the world.

Wanderu is a ground travel meta-search website operating in North America and founded in 2011. It lets the consumer to enter their starting and ending destinations (and possible points of interest) and then shows a list of possible schedules from different bus and train lines. The search is also able to perform live routing to combine travel options for the fastest and cheapest trips not served by any direct route. In addition, Wanderu partners directly with bus carriers and integrates fully with their system similarly to equivalent services with hotels and airlines.

Apparently the idea for Wanderu came to its founders during a cross-country trip. When an issue arose with their ride sharing, they “tried desperately to find a bus to get to their next destination". Not finding any direct bus routes, they also realised that they had no means to find which other bus options would get them to their destination or at least as close as possible.

Unfortunately many bus companies still don’t have an online booking system. In addition the data in use is not standardised as it is with e.g. airlines, which has tremendously simplified the search for flights for the customers. Wanderu is working on fixing this discrepancy by consolidating travelling options and streamlining the process of finding trips for bus travellers as well.