Is this the modern world that we imagined?
With globalization and industrialization, new opportunities are introduced for people every day, but they come at a price. As more people from a single household are working now, more than ever, their mobility has taken its toll on the environment. Cities have become congested with cars and it’s taking longer for people to reach their destinations, increasing travel costs and fuel costs.
Additionally, organizations design attractive company car policies specially to retain employees, which they avail happily. As a result, there has been an alarming increase in the number of vehicles stuck in traffic jams every day. This has dramatically increased people’s commute times to work, fuel consumption, total vehicle mileage and carbon dioxide emissions, sparking worries on national levels.
What can be done?
To tackle this, businesses have started thinking about ways to provide better and optimum mobility solutions to people.
Mobility as a service (MaaS) is a modern solution aimed at controlling the traffic flow of cities and simultaneously addressing mobility problems. As the name suggests, MaaS provides a one-stop solution by integrating the different modes of transportation and offering them as a mobility service to commuters. With MaaS, the cars’ reign is about to end.
What is MaaS?
Nearly a 100,000 company cars are known to commute within Brussels every single day, adding to the traffic congestion in the city and making it less biker-friendly. In order to shift people away from personally owned cars and enable them to use flexible modes of transportation, MaaS facilitates everything for them to ensure a smooth mobility experience.
How does MaaS work?
Mobility as a service (MaaS) combines all the different modes of transportation which include, but are not limited to, bikes, public transport, taxis, ride-sharing, car-rentals, and more. It provides value to commuters using a single application that offers multiple modes of transportation. What’s more? It lets you pay using a single payment channel, instead of having to pay for each service, individually.
You download the MaaS application offered by a mobility service provider, such as Skipr. Pick whichever mode of transportation you want to use among the multiple options available. Once you have picked one, or a combination of more, you can pay for both using the same application. Let’s say you want to avail a bike-sharing service in addition to using public transport every now and then. You won’t have to pay the two different service providers individually. The MaaS application lets you pay for both using the same channel.
Convenient, isn’t it? It lets you meet all your mobility needs using just a single digital platform.
Who is it for?
1. Freelancers
Are you a freelancer who has to visit different organizations every now and then to work? Some of these might be close to you and some pretty far. Then surely most of your time is spent on commuting, or to be real, being stuck in traffic. Because all of the world’s financial cities and hubs are congested and stressed out today, costing you a fortune in fuel and travel costs every year. Add to that the time you waste stuck in traffic.
Did you know that an average person in Brussels spends 195 hours a year stuck in traffic?
That is about 8 entire days of your life wasted each year on roads, in an era where time is money. Globally, commuters waste an average of 54 hours a year stalled in traffic. This does not only increase your fuel costs massively but also pollutes the air you breathe in.
Are you panic-calculating the days you have lost to traffic jams all your life?
Worry not!
Because MaaS is a mobility solution that would take care of all your worries. With flexible modes of transportation and easy payment solutions, MaaS allows you to opt for an option that suits YOU the best. You can choose cycling to work in the morning and public transport or taxi on the way back if you want to add healthy habits to your life.
What’s more? You can pre-book your rides, keep track of your commuting records (bye-bye you pesky little receipts) and pay each month all together (no need to worry about those cash changes or wasting those few minutes swiping your card when you are late to work).
2. SMBs
Small and medium businesses (SMBs), that are on a tight budget spend a huge chunk of money in company car policies. While these can help you attract and retain competent employees, they can also add to your yearly expenses. Especially with stricter emission standards, companies are required to buy eco-friendly cars, which are more costly.
Replacing your company car policies by incorporating an MaaS solution to your businesses can help you provide multimodal transportation to your employees, a freedom to choose whichever mode of mobility they want, save costs and comply with emission standards, keeping the environment clean.
Additionally, MaaS can help you provide added value to employees. Have you heard of active traveling? It involves cycling or walking to work to stay fit while commuting to your work. We all know how incorporating daily exercise into your routine can control heart problems and obesity, and help you stay happier.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are almost 3.2 million deaths each year globally, due to lack of physical activity. MaaS lets your employees relieve their everyday work stress and keeps them fit, by allowing active travel.
3. Corporations
Thanks to congested cities and polluted air, cities are developing more cycle and pedestrian-friendly infrastructures to control the number of cars on roads. The future of mobility is already here and more and more businesses are realizing the revolutionary outcomes of mobility as a service (MaaS).
Motor companies like BMW and Daimler are investing billions of dollars in mobility services like ride-hailing to adapt to mobility changes. According to a study, the car-sharing fleet size is expected to expand by 13.2% globally, as a result of shared mobility practices.
Here’s why your corporation should also consider MaaS solutions for good.
a). Goodbye Fleet Management. Hello Mobility Management.
Large corporations bear the monumental expenses of keeping, maintaining, and managing their fleet as the business grows, especially when they are based in multiple cities. Thanks to MaaS, fleet management has become more automated now. Mobility management goes beyond fleet management and focuses on flexible mobility options.
Using mobile applications developed for MaaS, you can quickly act and provide assistance when your employees travel from point A in a city to point B in another. A fast digital solution for all.
b). A Sustainable Future for Your Organization
For employees and corporations who prefer an environment-friendly mode of transportation to leave minimum carbon footprints, MaaS provides greener mobility solutions such as cycling, ride-sharing and scooting. You can achieve your CSR goals by implementing MaaS solutions and ensuring a sustainable future for your organization.
c). Flexibility for Employees
Competitive employees prefer to have a say in their workplaces and some freedom to make decisions, at least the ones that involve them. That is what motivates people to stay. With MaaS, employees get to choose their preferred modes of travel. For employees who like to stay active and keep the environment green, they can opt for active traveling modes. For employees who like to save costs while traveling, they can choose ride-sharing services or public transport to save a few bucks. They will all choose different modes of travel based on their preferences and conditions.
By allowing them some flexibility in the decision-making, companies can make them feel valued for.
d). Reduced Company-wide Expenses
From not having to spend months planning travel budgets and car policies to digitalizing your company’s transportation, you will save tonnes of business travel costs. Using MaaS, you get to make the most cost-effective travel decisions for your business. Just get in touch with a mobility services provider and let them take care of everything from planning to implementation.
Mobility as a Service is Already Here
More and more financial hub cities are adapting mobility as a service to get rid of congested roads and make the cities more breathable. They customize and implement different mobility plans, as per their respective cities. These plans include integrating the search, schedule, and payment functions covering a wide array of transportation modes available in their areas.
MaaS has been widely acknowledged and appreciated by major institutions worldwide because of its efforts towards reducing the carbon footprint and solving traffic problems of major cities.
Want More Info?
Continue this conversation with us about the future of mobility and fleet management. Mobility service providers like Skipr help businesses plan their mobility solutions and formulate travel budgets.
Get in touch with a mobility professional here and let us walk you through the entire process. Take a step closer to the future of mobility!
