It is something the Netherlands is good at, talking about MaaS. After two days of attentively following the MaaS conference, we can take stock of the state of affairs. There is still a long way to go to MaaS. Perhaps one of the most striking things was a phone call from a concerned entrepreneur after the conference. He asked himself why during the days of the congress and after attending all the sessions, he barely heard the word taxi?
questions enough
Is MaaS a distant vision? Is MaaS too far from the taxi sector or the taxi sector too far from MaaS? Is MaaS a power game of public transport companies? Is there really a chance that the car will be used less? Is MaaS only intended for the - first and last mile - of the journey? Is MaaS a new marketing model?
MaaS stands for Mobility as a Service and combines everything that has to do with your trip. From water taxi to shared bike, from train to your own bicycle, public transport, and even parking spaces and charging stations must be available. It is a comprehensive mobility service where you can plan, book and pay for your trip in a MaaS app.
marketing model
In any case, there are developments to be detected. Recently, the app 9292, which is well-known to us all, came with a valuable addition. The sharing scooter is part of the travel advice. Nice is not it? It's just a pity that if you really want to use a sharing scooter, you still have an app from it scooter company must download, create an account in it and after further checking you can only travel. And there MaaS would serve the convenience, namely one app for everything, from booking to payment. What this development shows is that 9292 has taken a close look at the Google marketing model and now shows travel products from partners they work with. So no MaaS but 'ordinary' advertising.
Do not call this a MaaS application, because before you know it, the consumer will start to think that MaaS is again looking out for unsolicited advertising for a 'different' means of travel.
overheid
Governments are also struggling with the role they can and must play in the MaaS landscape. For the government, MaaS is about planning, booking and paying for all possible transport via apps. For example, the shared bicycle, car, scooter, train, tram or (water) taxi. Maybe later also your own car or bicycle. But why later? We are already using the company lease car. What about the tax authorities and the company car if we also use more MaaS? MaaS should mainly be combinations of all these types of transport. So that tailor-made travel is possible according to the wishes of the traveler. But also to improve the mobility system.
learning environment
Before the traveler sees all the information in a MaaS app, a lot of data has to be shared at the back of the system. The government plays a role as an active intermediary in the development of MaaS. This is important for standardization, security and privacy. The Learning Environment for the national MaaS pilots is preparing to receive and analyze real travel data from MaaS Service Providers.
From the moment the first MaaS app goes 'live' and data flows to the Learning Environment, we can use this data for a smarter and more sustainable mobility policy. Our expectation is that MaaS can become a tool for optimizing our mobility system and, above all, that through MaaS we can ensure that the traveler becomes even more central to our mobility policy.
Within the learning environment, various data sources are available to perform analyzes. The most important is 'power data'. These data provide information about passenger flows within MaaS. Power data is anonymous and goes directly from the MaaS service providers to the learning environment.
With MaaS we work on public values such as accessibility, sustainable mobility or affordable transport for everyone. These are social challenges that you can never solve on your own. It is therefore important for MaaS that all parties involved work together: the ministry, the regions, the transport providers and MaaS service providers. This does not create a single platform or a winner-takes-all situation, but an open ecosystem with standardization and low barriers to entry.
The traveler is central in the MaaS apps. His travel details are anonymous. These are bundled and analyzed together with those of other users. But is the traveler really that central and do we really know what the consumer wants? Or is MaaS a piece of technical ingenuity devised by technicians that travelers will soon have to get used to? In short, there are plenty of questions, so the Netherlands can continue to talk about MaaS for years to come.
Also read: New joint venture to operate MaaS platform
