When we use MaaS as a search term at Google, we see tens of pages of an amazing 950-kilometer-long river in Western Europe, which flows right through the Netherlands. There is still no question of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and this will probably continue to be the case in the coming years when we hear the noise from the various MaaS working groups.

According to general director Hedy Borreman, TCA is already a MaaS provider. 

She dropped this statement at the last KNV Annual Event in Bunnik. Borreman believes he can make this statement because the taxi company from Amsterdam with some 1.500 drivers is already connected to apps such as Whim and Tranzer and is part of a MaaS pilot.

“We also share information with the other parties involved. And you have to keep user privacy in mind, ”says Borreman. Because of this statement, you will not receive any further questions about the 'show-stopper' AVG.

She does not want to give any further explanation about what information TCA shares. Connecting with different apps does not make you a MaaS provider yourself. The commitment of a company goes beyond just working with an app provider, in the hope of receiving extra ride orders in this way.

The basic elements for naming the MaaS are still missing. Payment is still done in the taxi and there is an excessive supply of apps on the market that only answer a small part of the MaaS issue.

Giancarlo Scaramelli believes that Transdev has not yet made it into a fully-fledged MaaS provider. "In terms of collaborations, but not when it comes to data." Scaramelli previously warned at KNV working group MaaS meetings that we should be aware of who will receive the data and what they can or will do with it.

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What must be done in the long term to travel without thresholds?

After the first exploratory phase, the time had come for a concrete next step with the establishment of the KNV MaaS-Lab. Policy officer Sonila Metushi and Arjan Vaandrager of the KNV know better than anyone how difficult it is to bring companies and umbrella organizations together within the KNV MaaS-Lab.

Last year, KNV and the partners in the Mobility Alliance drew up a plan for the development of a MaaS ecosystem in the Netherlands. This ambition is included in the Delta Plan that was presented in June 2019.

In the long term, the MaaS offer must also be integrated into one simple app where the consumer can order his journey from departure to arrival and pay for it within the same transaction.

The economy is digitizing further and faster. The question is not whether digital platforms will have an impact, but what that impact is. Nobody can ignore this development.

“Whether it is a shared bicycle to cycle to the station, a public transport train journey to travel to Groningen and a taxi to drive to the end point on Museum Island, it should not matter to the consumer how the payment was received. order".

Have we learned anything from the past?

The shoe pinches there. In 2012, the OV chip card was introduced on a large scale nationwide, and 7 years later we can use a (partial) scooter or (loan) bicycle with the same card, but we are still unable to pay for the taxi with the OV pass, in on the contrary, many taxi drivers like to see cash in a taxi.

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However, the strength lies in participating in the definition of multimodal standard interfaces, identification authorization and payment processes. The promotion of interests for a level playing field remains important in everything we come up with together.

Group of rescue scooters
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