What is BMaaS?

Mobility-as-a-Service, sometimes initialised as MaaS or called Transportation-as-a-Service, is the integration of multiple mobility services and methods into one solution. MaaS is usually delivered via a technology platform or solution such as software, mobile apps or bespoke technology.

‘Mobility’ is sometimes incorrectly perceived as solely transportation, but in fact, mobility covers all aspects of travel or a journey. This can encompass small and large elements such as car parking, Wi-Fi access and even baggage. Mobility-as-a-Service aims to identify all aspects of the journey and bring them into one solution to facilitate journey planning, travel booking and payment transactions.

What does Mobility-as-a-Service mean for business?

The consequences of improve MaaS initiatives are enormous for the business world. MaaS ingredients such as car usership are starting to change the way fleet managers approach their company car scheme. Business Mobility-as-a-Service or BMaaS allows businesses to avoid financial commitments to large fleets of cars or inefficient (And expensive) journey planning from their employees. Instead, BMaaS solutions allow businesses to assess their current mobility expenditure and provide more efficient travel options.

For some businesses this may be reducing travel expenses by improving the time it takes to organise and book a business journey. To others it may be empowering their employees to book their own journeys rather than asking the office manager. Business Mobility-as-a-Service technology can even allow businesses to provide options for the most environmentally friendly journey.

Importantly, all the travel data and cost is captured and analysed. This can allow financial directors the chance to understand their total cost of mobility and make better decisions about how their employees travel.

Where did Mobility-as-a-Service come from?

MaaS has been nurtured in the last decade by the increased investment in technology across the travel industry. New approaches to travel and technology such as car usership, ride-sharing and self-driving vehicles have successfully gained substantial funding to progress their research.

Furthermore, rapid improvements to existing technology combined with a wider variety of open-source software have allowed for greater collaboration on mobility projects. London’s Oyster card system set the norm for contactless comuter payments, Skyscanner provided a simpler solution to sourcing cheaper airfares and tech powerhouses such as Apple and Google have developed stronger smartphone technology that can integrate with most systems.

Mobility-as-a-Service came from partnerships between travel key stakeholders and technologists working together to provide simpler solutions to problems.