Why mobility services in cities are an alliance between the public and private sectors

There is an emerging view of the mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) business model as a business-to-government (B2G) service. Many in the industry – particularly those at the interface between the private and public sector – argue that, in order for the international opportunities that MaaS offers cities and transport markets around the world, it has to be viewed as an alliance of business, government and wider public sector, and consumers.

For Aurelien Cottet, an industry expert and engineer who has overseen MaaS projects worldwide, there is a more precise way to describe how this service will evolve and operate: "The real MaaS will be B2G2C – that is, business-to-government-to-citizen –because mobility is the right of everyone."

In a discussion as part of Osborne Clarke's podcast series on mobility services, Cottet, who is the international sales director at the France-based mobility group Instant Systems that has brought MaaS to cities including Brussels, explained: "When you think about mobility, you have different kinds of cities. In big cities, there are multiple public-transport operators, e-bike brands, taxis and transportation network companies – everybody can have a choice."

However, in medium-sized cities, where there is often more limited choice – with, perhaps, one public transport operator, bike sharing brand or car sharing provider – a public transport authority can better manage its own mobility policies. According to Cottet, this is a more achievable end goal for these medium-sized urban centres.

The public transport factor

His point is that public transport is the backbone of MaaS – and, therefore, MaaS will be an extension of public transport in most of the countries of the world where it is subsidised. In medium-sized cities, there are often not enough businesses for MaaS to operate under a business-to-customer model.

Instead, MaaS, in most cities worldwide, will be B2G or B2G2C, and then business-to-business-to-employee-employer (B2B2EE). He explained: "Employers in a B2B2EE model would have a mobility policy for the employee and would have their application linked with a B2G."

Cottet's understanding of the role of public transport in MaaS systems draws on 20 years' experience in international business development as well as recent work with the France-based international transport operator Transdev's (including as its operational link with Finnish mobility application Whim). He was also on the board of the influential European public-private partnership MaaS Alliance, which addresses the regulatory, governance and business model, technology and standardisation needs of the nascent industry.

Europe first

Identifying the country that are the current leaders in MaaS is difficult, said Cottet. "Each country is different in terms of regulation and each city or region is different within each country," he explained. "When you take two cities in your own country, you're going to see that the public transport operators are not the same: some may have trams, some might not. Each city has different mobility."

Finland was the first country to take the lead in the sector when it opened up public data to the private sector in 2012– and enabled MaaS. This allowed MaaS Global to create and launch Whim in 2017 and develop a B2C mobility service in Helsinki. Although UbiGo's launch in Gothenburg in Sweden in 2013 was the first real operational MaaS ecosystem, Cottet noted that Sweden did not put in place at that time the right set of rules or recommendations regarding the data to enable the deployment of MaaS further.

The Netherlands is another major presence. In 2019, the Dutch government launched seven MaaS tenders in seven cities with different geographical "contexts", including the "big city" pilot in Amsterdam, Rotterdam-The Hague with an international airport, and Maastricht with a university and borders with Belgium and Germany. He added: "The idea was that different sets of MaaS with different contexts would allow enough information to be gathered to create a framework to work in any country not just the Netherlands."

In Austria, a mobility service has been created outside the centre of the capital Vienna. "The established view is that MaaS is the integration of a shared mobility service provider, so most of them are in the middle of cities," he explained. "In Vienna, they thought outside the box and created mobility hubs in suburbs with a bus or tram stop. People are able to park their car or bike and use the public transport to go into the city; those in the city without a car, who want to do something outside the centre, can without taking a taxi. They can take the tram or the bus, arrive at the hub and take a car or bike share and shop and visit friends."

But it was in France that MaaS was first seen as a service that would be regulated at the European level, and its Law of Mobility was developed to anticipate European law. The European Commission is studying and using the Law of Mobility as a reference point for its various MaaS projects, he noted.

Beyond Europe

Although Europe has taken the lead in developing MaaS, there are significant developments across Asia. China and Japan are big players, while Singapore was the first to deploy real MaaS commercial operations in the region. In Australia, Sydney's authorities launched a MaaS project competition in 2018.

In the US, budgets for public transport operators are restricted and it's rare that they have the money to digitalise their operations – but MaaS cannot operate without digitalisation. Consequently, the private sector leads the way in the US.

In Denver, the US mobility provider Uber integrated the ticketing of public transport of the city within its application, which meant that people arriving in Denver and Colorado who are using this application have a choice to go to the city either by Uber or taking the train straight to the centre – and they can pay for either of these through the Uber app.

Although the UK lags behind countries like Finland and France in addressing the regulatory framework for MaaS, as one of the last big countries in Europe to take action on MaaS, it has budgets for several projects. However, this delay has a positive element for the UK, contends Cottet, as it is able to learn from developments in countries like Finland and the Netherlands.

Learning from failure

Transport authorities can also learn from others' failures: the information about good and bad experiences is public. Cottet continued: "MaaS is very much linked with the local context, whether on a national, regional or city level. The regulation in place in the Netherlands or Finland is not the same as, say, in the UK."

The most difficult thing for developing MaaS is to get the right partner to help understand what to do, he added. "MaaS is viewed as an application, but the application is just the interface, he adds. That's a problem: there are different parts that make an engine run."

"MaaS integrates mobility service providers, public transport, buildings, customer service, tax and insurance. Everything is linked together. It's complex and not everyone in the mobility world understands the complexity fully. It's very important for all cities and regions in UK that are developing or launching MaaS projects to have that in mind – and have the right partners."

Legal guidance

Amid this complex nexus, law firms and their advice and expertise they offer are important. He explained: "At Transdev, I saw many MaaS projects that were thought of as needing a technical solution; in fact, we forgot the real operational part and problems in legal, tax, data privacy, data sharing, et cetera. You need to be accompanied."

"We need to remember that we are still on the learning curve, so that's why we have a lot of pilots and not operations. But, for me, it's clear: MaaS is the tool for cities to regain control of mobility in their environment. But success won't come without obstacles."

One of these is that MaaS is a mix between private and public sectors, he said. "The biggest challenge to overcome is how to build trust between both parties that don't have the same interest on the same issue. One is to make money and the other is to serve. It's important to have everyone around the table before launching to make sure that they understand where they can 'win together' for the good of everyone."

Looking outwards

"When talking about mobility service providers, we are talking also about start-ups that are popping up everywhere," he added. "It's great because they offer an additional service for the first mile and last mile. But most of the time they build the system for themselves, thinking that it's going to be used only by the customer."

But there is a need for data standardisation and, in order to share data, it needs to be ascertained what data is available, what is unused and what is useful for MaaS. "And that's problematic. When we talk about standardisation, we are studying data privacy and what kind of data is needed to be shared, what is not and how to make sure that the end user is aware what data is used for the good and the optimisation of the service." But, despite these challenges, there is one certainty, according to Cottet: MaaS is here to stay.

This is part of a series of articles drawn from Osborne Clarke's recent set of podcasts looking at the legal and wider issues surrounding the development of MaaS. The next article will take another international focus on MaaS and look at its development and wider mobility trends in India.