28
FLEET MANAGEMENT
Is Australia
ready for
MaaS?
The concept of mobility as a service (MaaS) has gained significant traction
across Europe, but would it work for Australia’s largest capital cities?
WORDS BY DANIEL BRAID
A
s we head towards a very different
looking automotive market in coming
years, the term MaaS continues to
bob its head up wanting us to take
notice. In recent times MaaS (or Mobility as a
Service) is slowly making its way outside of
the fleet and automotive industry and into the
general public’s lexicon.
MaaS itself is a relatively new – and perhaps
confusing – term to many people. Transport
industry leaders, Cubic Transportation
Systems, neatly define it as:
… a combination of public and private
transportation services within a given regional
environment that provides holistic, optimal and
people-centred travel options, to enable end-to-
end journeys paid by the user as a single charge,
and which aims to achieve public equity objectives.
The concept of MaaS has gained significant
traction across Europe, but would it work for
Australia’s largest capital cities? A recent study
GOVLINK » ISSUE 2 2018
by ITS Australia sought to get some answers to
determine if such a project has legs.
What transport options does MaaS usually cover?
Transport modes within a MaaS ecosystem
are varied and can include: bus, train, ferry,
tram, ride sharing, bike sharing, car hire, taxi,
on-demand public transport, electric scooter,
and walking. Indeed most people are already
familiar with some form of integrated public
transport offerings, but the aim of MaaS is to
take the concept much further.
Are Australians interested in MaaS?
Well yes and no – depending on who you talk
to. Perhaps the biggest determining qualifier
comes with age, whereby younger users seem
more likely to adopt MaaS.
Probably unsurprisingly, the under 30s
demonstrate a much stronger preference for
MaaS and on-demand services than their older
counterparts (40% versus 14% of over 65s).