Exclusive to GovTech Europe, we sit down with Turin-based, government-owned company 5T to discuss the latest ways that tech is fuelling a revolution in the transport sector. The focus is on a concept called MaaS, which the organisation says is a crucial ingredient in increasing collaboration and efficiency.
LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING: WHAT IS MAAS?
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a new concept of mobility, which integrates multiple public and private transport and mobility facilities into a single digital service, accessible via smartphone, offering users personalised and on-demand services for any mobility needs, providing them with all the freedom of choice they want. All of this comes in one single app.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN IN PRACTICE?
Firstly, we all see that nowadays, mobility is changing rapidly worldwide. Any “mobility ecosystem” – be it urban, metropolitan, regional, or even national – is growing with a variety of public transport services, private vehicles and new shared modes, combined with active mobility, like cycling and walking.
But so many options are available to move the same people from the same As to the same Bs. The lack of integration between fragmented, non-optimised services remains an unsolved challenge, and almost everywhere, we have so many mobility options that do not produce value for the ecosystem.
But there is good news, because mobility is going to see a dramatic global digital transformation over the next few years, jumping into the application programming interfaces (API) economy. We strongly believe that MaaS will be a booster to change the way we move, that it will turn our mobility into a digital, multimodal, personalised and on-demand service, wherever we are, whatever we need, whenever we want.
This is the promise of MaaS for the end users; for all of us.
WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR MAAS?
Our MaaS model and vision is all about open and well-functioning mobility ecosystems. An initiative where the public sector sets the guidelines, the standards of quality and transparency, the rules for data access and sharing; and where the private sector and the market provide multimodal digital mobility services to the citizens for a seamless hassle-free mobility experience.
This is much easier said than done, but this is also what we have committed ourselves to.
MaaS transformation takes an overall change, based on digitalisation, API economy and on-demand services. It has already happened in so many other economic sectors (e.g. movies, music and entertainment streaming, shopping, food delivery, hospitality and more), and it’s happening right now in mobility.
WHO ARE 5T, AND WHAT DO THEY DO?
5T is an Italian local government-owned company, aimed at supporting local authorities in the governance of smart and sustainable mobility in the city of Torino and the Piemonte region (North-west Italy). It operates on behalf of its shareholders: the City of Torino, the Piemonte Regional government and the Metropolitan City of Torino.
The organisation’s mission is to enable a public-driven governance process for the future mobility, in order to reach global societal and environmental goals and to promote an enjoyable mobility experience for every citizen. In over 30 years of business, it has planned, designed and managed mobility systems and services in the region.
5T coordinates the local strategic programmes and projects aimed at establishing MaaS within in an open ecosystem for the urban and metropolitan area of Torino and for the whole Piemonte region.
It’s also part of a national and international network dedicated to collaborating and sharing new mobility ideas. It co-operates heavily with the MaaS Alliance – an international public-private partnership creating the foundations for a common approach to MaaS and facilitating a single, open market and full deployment of MaaS services.
WHAT’S YOUR RECIPE FOR THE SUCCESS OF MAAS
It is common knowledge that, frequently, markets can move faster than the governments overseeing them. MaaS is no exception to that, and we have seen this through several MaaS pilots, developed and operated over the last few years in European cities.
The absence of a clear regulatory framework for MaaS did not allow first MaaS experiences to scale up quickly in terms of the services it could offer, the customers it could cater for, and the revenues it could produce.
But over time, most business players within the MaaS industry now strongly claim to move one step forward.
To keep the promise of MaaS, anywhere in the world and at any level (European, national, regional, metropolitan, urban) the public sector should take the lead, with the aim of facilitating, enabling and orchestrating the transformation towards a digital and on-demand mobility ecosystem.
This is our recipe for the success of MaaS.
Only by taking the lead, the governments will be able to set the rules, create trust and facilitate both public-private cooperation and private-private cooperation. This will result in as many flavours of MaaS services as there need to be to meet different needs of the end users.
That will mean growth of the digital mobility economy in a fair, level playing field for the benefit of the businesses. And above all, this will also mean incredible opportunity for the public governance to properly direct MaaS deployment, in order to reach environmental and societal goals like never before.
AND LET’S GET MORE SPECIFIC. HOW DOES THIS ALL WORK?
MaaS aims to switch user behaviour from ownership to “usership”, enabling better design of products and services, more efficient use of existing resources, seamless mobility experience, enabled by technology and digitalisation.
But this is not all. There are many levels of MaaS that we have to consider, and the next level – known in the community as level 4 MaaS – has a lot to do with decarbonisation efforts and the path towards a carbon-neutral mobility ecosystem.
Imagine using your favourite MaaS app for your daily commute or for any other mobility needs. And now, imagine the app shows you information regarding the environmental impact, e.g. your CO2 footprint, and the alternate options to you can take to reduce it. This is good progress, but with MaaS we can do much more.
Imagine that you choose different mobility services each day, depending on the circumstances (the fastest if you are in a hurry, the most comfortable if it’s raining, the cheapest if you have time, etc.). Now imagine that your daily behaviour results in a ‘mobility scoreboard’, based on environmental impact. And finally, imagine you are rewarded and receive financial incentives to spend travelling only with a given mobility service (i.e. bike-sharing), this time according to the sustainability goals set by your local policymakers. The greener you move, the more incentives you receive. At 5T we have called the “MaaS Circular Economy”.
WHAT ARE THE MAAS PROJECTS THAT YOU’RE FOCUSING ON AT PRESENT?
We are coordinating one of the most ambitious projects in MaaS and the digitalisation of transport and mobility services in Italy with the aim of activating the MaaS ecosystem in Torino and Piemonte: the project is called BIPforMaaS.
BIPforMaaS aims to create the conditions for the full deployment of MaaS in the urban and metropolitan area of Torino and in the whole Piemonte Region. The project seeks a digital transformation of our mobility system, defining the framework of rules for the market uptake of MaaS, enabled by a Regional MaaS Platform following an ‘open ecosystem’ approach.
BIPforMaaS addresses multiple issues, such as the user needs, the regulatory frameworks, the role of public governance, the business models, the data and standards. It involves all relevant stakeholders in a collaborative project to achieve this.
5T also supports the City of Torino, operating a MaaS pilot service called the “Buoni Mobilità” project (literally, “Mobility Coupons”). Co-financed by the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition, the project is actively involving over 100 citizens who do not own a car or have given up on it. Testers receive a bundle of different mobility services (public transport, taxi, scooter, moped, bike, car and rental) they can use through the ‘Buoni Mobilità’ mobile app for 12 months. The field trial started in October 2021 and allows citizens to test the opportunities of MaaS in the urban environment. By putting together both bundles of mobility services and societal goals in terms of car ownership reduction, Buoni Mobilità is positioned at that crucial level of MaaS that’s focused on decarbonisation.
At a national level, 5T is also coordinator of the MaaS Working Group instituted by the national intelligent transport systems (ITS) Association, TTS Italia. The group aims to analyse the main conditions necessary for the development of MaaS in Italy and to define general guidelines for harmonised and interoperable MaaS services in the country. In 2021 the working group has published the “Guidelines for the development of MaaS services in Italy”.
At international level, 5T actively cooperate with the MaaS Alliance, a public-private partnership creating the foundations for a common approach to MaaS, unlocking the economies of scale needed for successful implementation and take-up of MaaS in Europe and beyond.
5T coordinates the ‘Users & Rules’ working group, dedicated to monitoring ongoing regulatory initiatives in the sustainable and smart mobility domain. The working group follows, especially in the EU context, anything on the policy agenda that has an impact on the further development of MaaS, supporting new legislation developments promoting user-centricity, sustainability and open ecosystems for MaaS.