You are a former football player. What path led you to a transport company?

The fact that almost 16 years ago I “transferred” from football to transport was partly a coincidence and partly a return to what I had originally studied. I graduated from a transport technical school, and before the revolution in 1989 I worked as a train driver. So, after finishing my nearly fifteen-year professional career in football, I returned to transport. Only this time, I left the railway tracks and switched to the road. At first, I started providing limousine corporate transport for multinational companies, and since 2008 also bus transport. From 2014, Umbrella Mobility began cooperating with the giant FlixBus, and since 2017 we have become its largest European partner.

How long has the company been operating, and what does it do?

Subsidiaries of the Umbrella Mobility group have been active since 2004 in the Czech Republic, and since 2013 also in Germany, in transport and service operations. We provide international and domestic bus transport, city and suburban public transport, and rail replacement services. We also run express, bodywork, and glazing services for minibuses, buses, and trucks. In addition, we operate a travel agency, arranging and organizing both group and individual trips as well as teambuilding events. We also have a charter company for the rental of sailboats and motorboats, including cabin charters worldwide.

What experience does the company have with public transport?

Since 2017, we have been providing domestic passenger transport in the Czech Republic for FlixBus. Its volume within the Czech Republic alone is more than three times greater than the size of the contract in Jablonec nad Nisou. So far, we have not operated city and suburban transport in the Czech Republic, but in Germany we provide these services in Hamburg at roughly double the scale of Jablonec. We also operate city, suburban, and replacement bus services in Karlsruhe, at about the same scale as Jablonec. In addition, we provide replacement bus services across northern Germany for Deutsche Bahn. Primarily, however, we are the largest European carrier for FlixBus, with operations exceeding 25 million kilometers per year.

What vehicles will operate in Jablonec?

Here, 26 Mercedes Benz Citaro II buses and four Mercedes Benz Sprinter City buses will be deployed. In total, Umbrella Mobility group companies operate more than 200 buses.

Do you have enough staff?

Our company has more than 300 drivers just in the Czech Republic who could start operating in Jablonec at any time. Primarily, however, the transport will be run by local drivers from the Jablonec and Liberec regions, who come from and live in the area.

Until now, transport was provided by buses meeting Euro 6 standards. What emission standards do your buses meet, and what is their impact on the environment in terms of noise and emissions?

Our fleet is made up half of Euro 5 EEV and half of Euro 6 vehicles. We operate buses that serve in major European cities. If these buses did not meet the very strict requirements of the various European countries, we would not be allowed to operate them there at all. Today, you cannot even drive a diesel car into the center of Hamburg or Berlin, let alone a poor-quality diesel bus. The Euro 5 EEV standard from Mercedes is in no way inferior to Euro 6 buses from SOR or Iveco, which are commonly used in Jablonec. As for driving comfort and noise levels, passengers will be the best judges, but I am convinced they will be pleasantly surprised. Personally, I would of course prefer if we could deploy brand-new Mercedes Benz Citaro Hybrid buses in Jablonec. But given that this is only a two-year contract, such a move was not economically feasible. A new hybrid bus costs more than 300,000 euros excluding VAT, which, for a two-year contract, would translate into additional costs of over 100 CZK per kilometer. With our offer, we have saved Jablonec enormous funds, which can certainly be used more beneficially for the city and its citizens. If a new contract were announced for at least 8 years and if we were fortunate enough to win it, I can certainly promise that we would deploy these top-of-the-line hybrid buses in Jablonec.

What can the people of Jablonec look forward to from February?

We do, and always will, absolutely everything possible to provide the highest possible level of service and the best fleet everywhere we operate. We make no distinction between Hamburg, with its two million inhabitants, and Jablonec, with its fifty thousand. That not everything will run perfectly smoothly at the very beginning, and that there will inevitably be some “teething problems,” is more than clear. But within a month, everything will settle down. I am convinced that in the overall context of this two-year period, the inhabitants of the Jablonec region will be satisfied with our services.