The next big thing in micromobility - MaaS

The next big thing in micromobility - MaaS

The more help we expect from technologies, the more we should pump it up with data. For example, if we want to know precisely when public transport will be the most crowded or at what time a particular street will have the heaviest traffic, we have to provide algorithms with as much data as possible about people’s movements. If we have enough data sources and information that can be easily shared, then it’s not a problem. Data will help to make our lives easier. 

Vehicle sharing and micro-mobility solutions are becoming more popular each year while expanding in more and more cities and countries all over the world. All these platforms and solutions create a certain amount of data. When used properly, it can help to improve everyday life in the city. 

MaaS solutions collects data from several service providers

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) providers are a perfect source of data. MaaS solutions integrate various forms of transport services into a single mobility service accessible on demand. These different transport forms include public transport, as well as ride, car, and bike-sharing. In some cases, this might include data about taxis and car rental services. 

Source - https://www.trafi.com/jelbi-tender

Source - https://www.trafi.com/jelbi-tender

The idea behind MaaS is that everything is available inside a single application. So there is no need to pay for each service separately. Moreover, there are different payment plans available – a monthly subscription model with a fixed monthly fee or “pay-as-you-go”, where each leg of the booked trip is priced separately.

In 2021 several interesting and significant MaaS partnerships were announced in Europe. One example is the partnership between the public transport company Arriva Nederland (part of Arriva Group, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn), and Moovit - the MaaS solutions specialist owned by Intel. This collaboration has made a new nationwide MaaS solution available to employers in the Netherlands with the chance to provide their staff with a mobility budget for their commuting, business, and private journeys. The MaaS app is called Glimble and it is planning to expand in Belgium, as well as in parts of Germany. 

Earlier last year, Swiss Federal Railways - public transport operators in Zurich, Basel, and Bern - created a MaaS solution yumuv. It is the first regional MaaS with subscriptions and is powered by Trafi. In less than two months, yumuv was downloaded by almost 1,000 individuals who made nearly 2,000 rides in Zurich alone. Almost 200 subscribers opted for different subscription packages.

https://www.polisnetwork.eu/article/zurich-basel-bern-bring-new-maas-solutions

https://www.polisnetwork.eu/article/zurich-basel-bern-bring-new-maas-solutions

This graph by the yumuv app shows how much information can be obtained from one source of the MaaS solution. It is possible to follow people’s movement, the most popular routes to get from point A to point B, as well as the choice of the vehicles along the way. So this data is indispensable.

The more the user is willing to share data, the more he gets in return. This case is no exception. With the development of MaaS, users of the solution get more freedom to choose while moving in the city. Basically, the user can decide on its own terms without the need to switch apps or platforms. Various vehicle options and different service providers are available on one unified interface. The choice between the fastest or the cheapest option is behind the user. As everything is integrated into one app (citymapper, Moovit), it is efficient and fast to also include public transport in the trip. 

Google Maps and Moovit - on their way to becoming MaaS?

Recently all the biggest players in the micro-mobility market have moved to where most people are looking for commuting solutions. It all started with Bird, Lime, Waybots (Skip), and Spin joining Transit app in April 2018. Afterward, In Europe, CityMapper added the two biggest bike operators Ofo and Mobike in June 2018. Soon after, CityMapper announced several integrations for bike, moped, and scooter operators, such as Jump, Lime (at that time separate), and Nextbike; Spin, and Bird scooters; and Cooltra, Coup, and ZigZag mopeds. 

The next big thing that happened was the exclusive partnership between Google Maps and Lime that started at the end of 2018 and lasted 2,5 years. It was the integration for short-distance trips, only eight months after Lime started to provide e-scooter services. The company announced that the app shows scooters and bikes nearby in the “transit” tab, as well as via “walking” and “cycling” tabs. The app displays information about each vehicle - distance, price, and battery range. 

Moovit was the first MaaS company to add routes for cyclists and it happened back in 2018. The company started its partnerships with GoTo, Donkey Republic, Mimoto, Mobike and Bird, Circ, Hive, and several others in 2019. Moovit added more partnerships in 2021 - Beryl in February, Beam in May, and Voi, Tier, Spin, and Getaround the following months ending with Lime in July. This latest deal affected 20 countries and 117 cities including the United States, South America, Australia, and Europe.

FreeNow started first with the integration of its own Hive brand (now defunct), as well as VOI, BOND, Emmy, and MILES in 2020. In the first half of 2021, it continued with adding Tier and Cooltra, in 2022 - Zipp Mobility. 

With big players constantly joining Google Maps and Moovit, these platforms have become MaaS trip planning solutions. The only difference is that it is not possible to pay for the trip via these services so they are not classical MaaS solutions. However, they offer a huge benefit in the form of an extensive user database, as well as users’ habits to plan their trips via these platforms. More reach means more customers. And another important benefit for micro-mobility service providers using MaaS solutions is cross-promo possibilities.

GBFS data - future of city planning 

It is in the interests of many parties involved to make micro-mobility data available, so there are organizations that focus on that. What this means for you as a service provider - you can spend weeks integrating with each app-aggregator such as Google, or you can use the standard approach by GBFS. This offers the opportunity to join any app aggregator (Google, Movit, city apps) in a few days with no coding at all. And it doesn't matter what micro-mobility service you are providing.

What is GBFS? It is a leading global initiative created by NABSA - North America Bikeshare and Scootershare Association. GBFS is General Bikeshare Feed Specification. A team of bike-share system owners and operators, application developers, and technology vendors developed GBFS and it was later adopted by over 600 bike-share and scooter systems worldwide. The latest version was released in April 2021.

GBFS defines a common format to share the real-time status of a shared mobility system. The purpose of data specification is to enable the exchange of information between multiple parties in a manner that ensures that all parties agree on what the information represents. The GBFS format allows mobility data to be used by a range of software applications for trip planning, research, analysis, visualization, and regulation. This publicly available data allows regulators, researchers, and community members to gain insights that have helped municipalities meet their goals.

GBFS includes information about vehicles (bicycles, scooters, moped, and cars), stations, dock locations, and availability. There is also information about vehicle characteristics including their type of power and the distance that can be traveled on the remaining charge. Geofenced areas are also included in this set of information, i.e. data about rules related to speed, parking, and prohibited zones.

So what's in the data available for the city? If we specifically talk about information about cars, it is now possible to quickly convert car trips to electric vehicle trips. Questionnaire data in the US shows that this occurs with approximately 30% of all rides. If this is too specific for you, bear in mind that any insights are potentially going to provide the opportunity to optimize the city’s infrastructure and help to make the city more user-friendly and sustainable. And as we all know, this and any other innovations will most likely help to grow the city’s reputation worldwide. 

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Ride-hailing vs ride-sharing – what's the difference?
Ride-hailing vs ride-sharing – what's the difference?

🚗 🛴 🛵 Ride-hailing, ride-sharing, carpooling, car-sharing, on-demand rentals, micro-mobility rentals, shared transportation, Mobility-as-a-Service… It's a bit much, isn't it? No wonder people prefer using and verbing brand names, e.g. “Uber to the airport” or “grab a Bolt”. 🔦 But, don't worry – we'll help you find your way in the mess that is the mobility industry's terminology. Understand the difference between ride-hailing and ride-sharing, discover what is MaaS, and learn a fun fact about Uber in our latest article 👇

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It's easy to get lost in today's mobility landscape. It feels like every year a new type of vehicle hits the streets, and with it comes some weird new term or category adding to an already deeply confounding list – ride-hailing, ride-sharing, carpooling, car-sharing, on-demand rentals, micro-mobility rentals, shared transportation, Mobility-as-a-service,...

No wonder people prefer using and verbing brand names, e.g. “Uber to the airport” or “grab a Bolt”. 

In reality, it's not that complicated. Virtually all of the terms listed above are self-explanatory and by the end of this article you'll have a firm grasp on the industry's terminology. 

Understanding the distinction between these various concepts is important for entrepreneurs and anyone else looking to set foot in the industry, as using the correct terms:

  • Ensures everyone is on the same page, 
  • Is relevant for regulatory compliance,
  • Matters in all your business endeavors from market research to strategy development. 

Since the two terms that people get most hung up on are “ride-hailing” and “ride-sharing”, we'll take a closer look at those, and then follow it up with a disambiguation of the other terms on our list. 

What is ride-hailing?

Ride-hailing is – surprise, surprise – the hailing of a ride. Much like with a taxi, it involves hiring a person with a car to pick you up and take you to your destination. 

So why don't we just call it a taxi service? 

When mobility startups like Uber came to prominence in the early 2010s, they did so by disrupting the cab industry through digitalizing the hailing experience and introducing transparent pricing. 

Read more: Uber's company history.

In other words, you could now hail a ride through an app on your smartphone and see exactly how much it would cost. Whereas previously, you had to call a taxi service or try to hail one on the street. 

So the term “ride-hailing” was coined to distinguish this new type of on-demand app-based taxi service from the more traditional one. However, over the years, the ride-hailing service portfolio has evolved beyond just taxi-like operations and includes things like hiring drivers for moving, or even taking your kids to school. Traditional taxi companies also increasingly make use of a ride-hailing app

Accordingly, the meaning of ride-hailing is the hailing of on-demand transportation services via an app. Most often it's used in the context of taxi-like services, but it's an umbrella term that can include other services, too. 

Fun fact: did you know that Uber was originally named UberCab? Its founders dropped the “Cab” part since they didn't see themselves as a traditional cab service.

What is ride-sharing?

Again – the hint is in the name. At the most basic level, ride-sharing is sharing a ride. But, as with ride-hailing, there's some nuance that's important to understand. 

Today, ride-sharing typically refers to multiple passengers sharing a single private ride on a route that passes their various destinations. You can think about it as on-demand carpooling. 

Let's unpack this. 

Though there are many similarities between ride-sharing and carpooling, they generally differ in terms of ride organization and journeys. Carpooling often happens informally, in the sense that a group of neighbors or coworkers traveling or commuting on the same route will agree to share a ride to, for example, save on gas. Carpooling can also be very sporadic and is primarily organized through private channels or local bulletin boards. 

On the flipside, ride-sharing allows a person to carpool with others by simply finding an available seat through an app – drivers digitally share their route and seat availability and passengers can hop into a suitable ride for a small fee. 

Notably, ride-sharing is often most popular with busy routes and times of day, as that's when there's highest demand. 

There's a reason why a lot of confusion arose regarding the difference between ride-hailing and ride-sharing, namely, the terms were used interchangeably early on. To this day, “Ride-sharing” is sometimes used as an umbrella term for all app-based mobility solutions, though this is going out of fashion, given the clearer differentiation between solutions. 

So, while both ride-hailing and ride-sharing are app-based on-demand mobility solutions for getting to a destination in a private vehicle, they differ in passenger count, cost, route, availability, and popularity. 

Other terms commonly used in the mobility industry

Though ride-hailing and ride-sharing are categories you'll hear most often, it's almost inevitable that you'll encounter other terms, which may sow further confusion. 

Let's avoid that – here are some quick explanations of other popular terms.

Car-sharing

Car-sharing or vehicle-sharing is most often confused with ride-sharing, but despite sounding similar, they mean completely different things. Car-sharing refers to the app-based short-term rental of cars. The easiest way to remember it is that with ride-sharing people share a single ride, whereas with car sharing people share a single car – again, it's all in the name. 

On-demand rentals

On-demand rentals is a category describing vehicles that are instantly available for rent, usually through an app. This includes both micro mobility solutions, like scooters and bikes, as well as larger vehicles like mopeds and cars. For those following along – yes, car-sharing is a type of on-demand rental! 

Shared transport

As mentioned in the previous sections, “ride-sharing” is often incorrectly used as an umbrella term for all on-demand app-based mobility solutions. The correct term is shared transport or shared mobility. Shared transport is a broad category that includes both multiple people sharing a vehicle simultaneously (i.e. ride-sharing), as well as individual people sharing a vehicle over time (i.e. car-sharing/on-demand rentals). 

Ride-hailing and other on-demand services related to mobility are also often categorized under the shared mobility umbrella. 

Mobility-as-a-Service

Mobility-as-a-Service or MaaS is an approach to urban transportation that seeks to integrate a variety of mobility options (both public and private) into a single super-solution that answers a traveler's every mobility need. Often, MaaS solutions are sought out by local municipalities to provide effective alternatives to car use and minimize a city's carbon footprint. 

Is the terminology really that important? 

As you can see, a lot of the confusing mobility terms are simply categories and categories of categories – don't worry if you can't remember them all. If you know the difference between ride-sharing and ride-hailing that's already plenty. 

Anyone in the mobility industry will tell you that it's perfectly acceptable to ask for clarification when talking specifics, as it's common for people to interpret these terms differently, and language barriers can be particularly troublesome for getting on the same page. 

That said, you SHOULD pay close attention to the terminology if you're doing research for your own mobility business. A ride-hailing business is completely different from a ride-sharing one, and it's important not to compare apples to oranges during market research, as it can undermine your business from day one. 

Other than that, all you have to remember is that ride-hailing is hailing a ride and ride-sharing is sharing a ride. Simple as that.

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New feature that will boost your fleet uptime and client satisfaction – vehicle damage management
New feature that will boost your fleet uptime and client satisfaction – vehicle damage management

New feature alert! Say hello to vehicle damage managemet 👋 With this solution, you can boost your fleet uptime and improve client satisfaction by: 🔎 Learning about necessary repairs more quickly 🔧 Easily managing the repair process ⭐ Turning a negative customer experience into a positive one

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Is there anything more frustrating for a mobility user than needing quick access to a vehicle and having none available nearby?

Yes – finding a vehicle on the app, making your way to it, and discovering that it's broken. 

Vehicle damage comes in all shapes and sizes from broken scooter kickstands and headlights to damaged moped QR codes and car engine issues. Even minor damage to a vehicle can severely affect its usability, putting it out of order until a ground operations team catches and resolves the issue.

Worst of all, it's often the customer who first encounters the problem and does so during one of the most sensitive parts of the user journey, namely, when they have an acute need for transportation. 

As a result, unresolved maintenance issues are not only directly hurting your bottom line by taking one of your vehicles off the road, but they may severely negatively impact client satisfaction, too. 

That's why the ATOM Mobility team has added a new solution to the vehicle-sharing and rental modules – vehicle damage management

Let's take a closer look at this new feature, explore why it's important, as well as understand how it works from both the user and operator perspectives. 

Vehicle damage reporting – a better experience for everyone

In the simplest terms, the new feature allows users to easily report any vehicle issues through the app – and for your operations team to effectively respond to and manage the reports. This helps your mobility business in several ways. 

ATOM Mobility's vehicle damage reporting feature:

  • Increases the speed at which you receive information about necessary repairs for your fleet,
  • Enables you to respond to this information in an organized manner, as it streamlines operator tasks through the Dashboard and Service app,
  • Equips users with a clear communication channel for reporting issues.

In unison, these help you ensure maximum uptime for your fleet, as well as offer various other benefits. These include:

  • Identifying issues that routine maintenance might miss, e.g. a trunk stuck shut, 
  • Resolving customer anxieties by letting them report problems, e.g. people might be hesitant to use a damaged vehicle in case they get blamed for the issues,
  • Giving you better control over the customer experience, e.g. turning a negative encounter with your brand into a positive one through communication,
  • Easily tracking maintenance history for your fleet, e.g. discovering which vehicles fail often and require replacement. 

Simply put, this new feature is a positive for everyone involved. All you need to do is set it up – let's find out how. 

How does vehicle damage reporting work? 

On the surface, it's simple – the customer reports some damage and you fix it. But underneath the hood, it's … still simple. Here's how the new functionality works from the perspective of your customers and your operators. 

For your customers

In the user app, anyone can report an issue by clicking the “Report” button found on the vehicle card. For the Sharing module, it's located in the “More” menu, whereas for the rental module, the “Report” button is visible directly on the vehicle card. 

After pressing the button, your customers will be able to indicate the faulty part, include a more detailed description in the comment field, as well as add up to three images of the issue in question. 

The tags that the user sees can be customized in the Dashboard

Your customer can complete the damage report process quickly and painlessly and it wraps up with a friendly thank you message that lets them know that your team is ready to resolve the issue. The system will highlight previously approved damages for user convenience.

For your operators

Once a user submits a report, it will appear in your Dashboard. You can find “Damage reports” under “More” in your left menu. 

Here the operator can verify, approve, and/or modify the reports. Once a report is checked, the operator can approve the report and then it gets passed onto the maintenance crew and their Service app. The admin can also add damages manually via the dashboard, for example if they notice any additional issues in the user pictures. 

In the Service app, the approved reports appear as a task. When your team is done with repairs or maintenance, they can mark damages as fixed by clicking "Mark as done". 

A highly useful feature is the ability to track damage reports and fixes, as well as who fixed them and how quickly – all of this data can be easily exported. This allows you to gain a broader understanding of the health of your fleet and its individual vehicles and make data-based decisions, e.g. about which vehicles to choose/avoid when growing your fleet. 

ATOM Mobility – future-proof your mobility business

ATOM Mobility is a mobility superapp that equips mobility businesses with a robust solution for all their tech needs – from a modern user app to a functional platform for fleet management and more. This allows you to launch and scale your mobility business incredibly quickly, no matter the vehicle type. 

More than that, a chief reason why many mobility entrepreneurs choose ATOM Mobility for the long term is that they benefit from the on-going improvements to the app – like the feature discussed in this article. Alongside our own continuous developments of the app, our team frequently receives requests for various custom additional features, and when we see broader applicability, we also make it available to our other clients. 

But don't take our word for it – hear it from our clients in our latest case study.

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