What is Mobility as a Service (MaaS)?

Mobility as a Service is an online technology solution that allows businesses to find, manage and analyse the travel of their employees. Mobility as a Service or MaaS, unifies all modes of transport for a business into one simple and easy to use platform with the objective of improving cost and efficiency through shorter travel planning and cost comparison.

A MaaS platform such as Mobilleo streamlines all aspects of travel for a business into one solution, this may include:

• Transport planning and booking
• Cost analysis of comparison of different travel options e.g. vehicle hire vs. train
• Storage and management of travel details and booking documents
• Expense recording and analysis
• On-demand booking and changes to transport or accommodation
• Discovery of accommodation or restaurant options
• Personalisation and data learning from historical data to plan future travel arrangements
• Total cost of mobility analysis

Why is Mobility as a Service for business important?

As businesses continue to grow their employee base, the costs and efforts required for travel during business hours will likely increase. By failing to treat business mobility as a holistic challenge, businesses risk leaking considerable expense and resource on individual tasks such as expense claims and journey booking. Mobility as a Service platforms like Mobilleo, use a smart mobility engine to connect with suppliers for car hire, fleet management systems, train providers, air travel, ferry crossing, taxis, hotels and restaurants. Through this smart mobility engine, you can find, book and pay for all aspects of an entire journey without ever having to spend time researching and booking individually.

Mobility as a Service is crucial for business in that improved travel planning delivers increased cost efficiency. Not only does a reduced planning time help improve operational costs but MaaS platforms like Mobilleo allow decision makers to compare journey options side by side. This in turn allows your business and employees to make the most cost-effective travel decisions with just a few clicks.

How will Mobility as a Service change the way we travel?

The growth of smart phone technology has led to a hyper-connected environment where users can find, book and pay for services on the go at any time of day. However, this increase of volume of online travel options has led to an over-saturated and competitive marketplace that can make the booking process difficult to navigate. Planning a journey can encompass in excess of 7+ different elements – taxi to the train station/car hire depot, train travel, air travel, underground or tram transport, bus routes, hotel booking, restaurant booking and more.

• Finding, booking and paying for all these elements is often time consuming
• Journey planning may perhaps be less cost-effective versus alternate options
• Managing and storing reservation and booking documents can be unwieldy
• Filing and recording receipts and transactions for financial purposes can be complicated

Mobility as a Service platforms like Mobilleo unify all travel elements and tasks into one simple process. This will lead to smarter mobility for businesses and encourage a better on-demand culture for travel journeys.

Data-learning and personalisation algorithms will allow businesses and employees to understand their ‘total cost of mobility’ to make more informed decisions for business travel. Total cost of mobility analysis will change the way businesses approach decisions around the size of their fleet, company car policies and expense claims for travel.  A simplified and easier method of booking will be less stressful and time consuming for employees, allowing them to focus on their work rather than administration.

What is next for MaaS?

The opportunities to develop Mobility as a Service solutions is endless. As technology continues to improve, we may see further consolidation of payment methods e.g. contactless payment. More insightful data analysis will allow for personalised journeys that remember individual preferences such as favoured seating, times to travel, airlines to avoid. Connectivity with transport networks and environmental data could allow users to discover more energy efficient routes to travel for greener and cleaner travel. Total cost of mobility data could see businesses make decisions to move away from the company car and adapt to shared vehicle ownership/car club models to reduce operating costs.

There is no doubt that with platforms such as Mobilleo, we sit on the advent of a new technological trend that will mean that business travel is quicker, greener and easier.