Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is an emergent part of the transportation ecosystem. Let’s call this post MaaS 101.
MaaS is a digital platform where you can plan a trip, choose multiple modes – like trains, bus, car, bikes, and pay for the trip. All within one platform.
Three key things: plan, book, pay.
You might compare Mobility as a Service to Movies as a Service, or as normal people might say – Netflix.
Netflix is a platform where you can search for available movies, select one or more genres you want to watch, and pay for it. All in the same platform without having to jump to another app or website.
Imagine if you had to deal with each and every movie studio separately. Dealing with their terms and conditions separately. Imagine some required PayPal, others required Stripe, and others required a minimum rental amount. Bleh.
But that’s how it is when you and I want to access transport services. We have to deal with each production house separately. All the fleets are separate. Airplanes, trains, the local bus, on-demand shuttles, ride-hailing, electric scooters, bikes, loaner cars and rental cars.
Such a pain.
You have to download new apps for each brand, which means you have to even know they exist in order to download them. You’ve got to uninstall apps on your phone to make room for the new mobility apps. Then you’ve got to go through a registration and onboarding process… prove you’re who you say you are… connect a bank or credit card… prove that’s your bank or credit card…
A MaaS platform combines all the steps in one place to give you and me – the customer – a seamless experience.
Uber and Lyft have dabbled with the idea. They each bought bike share companies and integrated the bikes in their apps. So if you open the Lyft app in Washington, DC, you’ll see options for bike share stations nearby, dockless scooters, and ride-hailing cars.
But that’s just the beginning. Those companies only let you see their own brand.
Software development companies are deploying platforms right now – right now – that let users see all the nearby choices, book the type of modes they want, and pay. All in one platform.
So what does this mean for the future of mobility? Dozens of things. So…dozens more blog posts on MaaS.