Mobility as a Service: A Practical Guide

Executive Summary

Urban transport is facing significant challenges. There is an urgent need to combat congestion, air pollution and carbon
emissions. The impacts of COVID-19 have also led to a rapid reduction in public and shared transport use and consumer
confidence in these modes. To achieve the UK’s environmental targets and build a transport system for the future, public
and private sector bodies must collaborate to develop integrated, convenient and sustainable transport networks. Effective
and well-designed Mobility as a Service is crucial to this.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the integration of transport services into a single mobility service, which is accessible on
demand, allowing the consumer to plan, book and pay for a multi-modal transport journey in one app. MaaS has the
potential to revolutionalise the way consumers travel, providing an unparalleled choice of transport modes and making
journeys significantly more convenient and cost-effective.

It is estimated that the multi-modal travel driven by the adoption of MaaS will replace over 2.3 billion urban private car
journeys annually by 2023. This modal shift towards sustainable travel leads to further positive impacts on carbon emissions,
congestion and pollution. For example, MaaS is forecasted to lead to annual time savings of over 500 million hours by 2023,
through improved connectivity and reduced congestion. MaaS can also satisfy consumers’ post-COVID need for safe and
integrated demand-driven transport services and support transport planning.

In recognition of the benefits of MaaS and the pressing need for its adoption, the Urban Mobility Partnership (UMP) has
established a Declaration that commits its members to good practice principles surrounding its implementation. However,
for MaaS to live up to its potential, public authorities need to incorporate it within a clear vision and strategy. This paper by
UMP is intended to support public authorities by providing insight into the challenges they face when implementing Mobility
as a Service and exploring the different delivery models, regulatory frameworks, operating models and commercial models
they can adopt and the benefits and drawbacks of these.

MaaS adoption is influenced by the role public authorities choose to take in its development and selecting the right approach
for an area is essential to delivering social, environmental and economic benefits. Public authorities can remain passive,
facilitate the development of the MaaS ecosystem, or be proactive and actively incorporate MaaS within their policy and
strategy. Proactive authorities will also support MaaS by ensuring the development of complementary physical infrastructure,
such as mobility hubs, as well as the prioritisation of the most sustainable modes of transport, both in terms of road priority
and investment.

They can even incentivise the adoption of MaaS through a mobility credits scheme where consumers are able to scrap their
old polluting vehicles for credits, exceeding the market value of their vehicle, that can be redeemed on sustainable modes
paid for via the MaaS platform.