David Roberts
Analyst · CJS Securities
Thank you, Marc, and thank you to everyone joining us on the call today.
2019 is off to a strong start across all of Verra Mobility's lines of business, with our vision of being a global leader in smart transportation. We continue to make strides in both our core business as well as some of our longer-term initiatives, which include the expansion of speed enforcement in New York City and expanding into Europe.
As Tricia will discuss in detail later during this call, on a pro forma adjusted basis, our first quarter revenue grew 12% year-over-year to $98.5 million and our pro forma adjusted EBITDA came in at $51.3 million, up 12% year-over-year.
As a reminder, in the Commercial Services segment, we focus on products that make tolling, violation processing and title and registration smarter and easier for our customers, which comprised a 64% of revenue for the company.
We are the largest provider of toll management to rental car companies and fleet management companies in North America.
During the first quarter, the Commercial Services segment on a pro forma adjusted basis grew revenues 22% year-over-year to $62.6 million and reported pro forma adjusted EBITDA of $38 million, up 28% year-over-year.
During the quarter, we collaborated with our customers on increasing penetration and adoption of tolling programs through various pricing and operational initiatives. In addition, we continue to see expanded opportunities in our title and registration offering, as more customers are looking to outsource providers around this complex yet critical activity.
Finally, a tremendous effort was spent setting up our European operations, negotiating with the European toll authorities and working with potential customers on piloting toll management solutions. We don't have any specific updates at this time but would expect to have more detail as the year progresses.
We're very excited about the opportunities for our Commercial segment. With an increase in both the number of toll roads in North America and the ongoing conversion to cashless lanes, we expect 2019 to be a strong year.
The remaining 36% of our business comes from our Government Solutions segment. We are a leader in a photo enforcement in North America, including red light, speed and school bus cameras. We have become a trusted vendor for local municipalities and school districts who are serious about increasing road safety in their communities.
During the first quarter, on a pro forma adjusted basis, the Government Solutions segment declined 3% year-over-year to $35.9 million and reported pro forma adjusted EBITDA of $13.2 million, down 17% year-over-year.
The decline in service revenue was primarily driven by the elimination of the red light camera program in Miami, which occurred in Q1 of 2018. And because this segment has a higher fixed cost component, meaning that a small decline in revenues has a more pronounced effect on the EBITDA line.
As the first quarter came to a close, New York State passed a legislation that will increase the number of school zone speed cameras in New York City. We're very excited for the opportunity to expand an important safety program, which we have been an integral part of for over 10 years. The program currently permits speed enforcement -- speed photo enforcement at 140-plus school zones and will soon expand to cover 700-plus school zones in the New York City area.
We are working with our counterparts at the New York City Department of Transportation on an initial rollout schedule, and we'll update the investment community as information becomes available.
We maintained our consistently high renewal rates again in Q1. During the quarter, we've renewed key customer programs in Tampa and Seattle. And additionally, we won a key new contract in Philadelphia.
We're also currently conducting multiple school zone speed pilots in Georgia as a follow-on to the enabling legislation that passed last year. Overall, we continue to execute on our strategic initiatives for 2019 and are very pleased with our traction during the first quarter.
As you know, late in 2018, we launched Peasy. Peasy is a nationwide pay-as-you-go consumer mobility platform that currently can be used for tolling and can expand to include other applications such as parking and registration renewal. We are driving adoption of our platform mostly through marketing partnerships and integration with other mobility applications.
One of our first platform extensions is through our partnership with Arrive, the leading provider of branded and white-label last-mile mobility solutions. This partnership will extend the Peasy platform to include parking capabilities from Arrive. As this is a new product, adoption has been slower than we had anticipated, and we have reduced the expectation of subscribers in 2019 accordingly.
In terms of financial impact, we are not expecting any material contribution this year. Peasy aside, we are still anticipating a very strong year, and as Tricia will mention shortly, are bullish about the company's 2019 financial performance.
Our European initiatives are progressing well as we are finalizing the agreement with our first tolling authority located in France, which will allow us to process tolls for our rental car customers throughout France and positions us for a smooth launch for toll processing in Spain and Portugal as well.
Additionally, we are working with certain existing U.S. rental car customers that have European operations to finalize terms of the toll processing pilot program to launch this summer.
Finally, we hired Mike McMillin as VP of Corporate Development and Strategy to help build out the acquisition parameters through which we can accelerate our leadership in the smart mobility solution space.
We are focused on adjacent areas, which allow us to better serve our customers while expanding and solidifying our global scale. Companies that fit best will support our competitive modes while adding smart technologies, which prepares for the future of connected vehicles and autonomous driving. With Mike onboard, we will be better equipped to evaluate strategic acquisition propositions from Verra Mobility. Welcome aboard, Mike.
In summary, we reported a solid first quarter and continue to execute on our initiatives, which will drive a strong 2019.
With that, let me hand it over to Tricia to walk through the financials in more detail.