Without traffic jams to work: utopia or a realistic future perspective? With an improving economy and a growing population in Europe in ten years time the first option seems to be the case. Although:’Mobility as a Service (MaaS)’ seems to be the outcome. A revolution is possible – with corresponding opportunities.

This is the first article in a series on Mobility as a Service, in which we extensively focus on the concept, the opportunities, the MaaS ecosystem, examples, barriers for rolling out the concept and behavioral change within the opportunities and challenges of MaaS. With this series, the author wants to draw the attention of MaaS to all relevant parties, because the economic and climate damage by doing nothing will be irreparably large. In this first article the author will explain the concept and the business opportunities.

In the world of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) there will be ‘mobility providers’ that deliver mobility services to commuters:

• planning of a journey linked to your calendar and a clever mix of means of transport (you will travel partly by e-bike to the station, then you will take the train and the last 10 kilometers you will go by cab that is already waiting for you)

• flexibility in emergencies and one monthly bill collector.

For these mobility services mobility subscriptions will be available which can consist of bundles of public transport, taxis, (sharing) cars and bicycles or self driving cars, shuttle vans, car sharing solutions and parking services.

MaaS has already been called the ‘Spotify or Netflix of transport’. The state of the art (availability of big data, anywhere access to the internet with smart phones and therefore real time information, bicycles that can be unlocked using an app) technique makes it possible to really relieve travelers. Travelling relaxed, working while traveling, the certainty of arriving on time: in this way also the employer will have an advantage because employees will be much more productive. It is to be expected that MaaS will also lead to a more intensive and at the same time more diversified use of public transport. And this will lead to a reduction of congestion in cities, an improvement of the air quality and for example a better access to rural areas. And last but not least: all kinds of new B2C and B2B business models will arise.

According to Transport Systems Catapult (Innovate UK) the worldwide market for intelligent mobility is already more than 320 billion euro. In 2025, this market will have grown to more than 1,000 billion euro. The business opportunities are very diverse: MaaS providers that sell ‘bundles of mobility’, software platform providers, various (private) mobility / transport providers (taxis, car rental, bicycles, e-scooters), more users of public transport, ‘smart ticketing' and dynamic pricing, big data processing, multi-modal travel information apps, all sorts of sharing concepts and related market places with underlying software and data, parking solutions combined with retail. In short: plenty of room for intelligent mobility solutions.

Fortunately, there are numerous funding opportunities for such projects. In addition to specific national grant schemes there are also European instruments such as the SME instrument, the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot (FTI) under Horizon 2020, and the Horizon 2020 Work Programme ‘Smart, green and integrated transport'. Within these instruments calls are regularly being published that match the (innovative) developments around Mobility as a Service. Apart from this there are also opportunities within for example the Interreg programmes in which demonstration and deployment are essential. Want to know more about Mobility as a Service? Do you have a project idea or project that meets these requirements and are you looking for funding? The transport experts of PNO are happy to help you. Click here to contact us.

In the following article, the author will go deeper into the MaaS ecosystem, the roles of the government and the private sector, and European funding opportunities.