Integrated Mobility Services and Contractual Structures

Abstract

Mobility as a service (MaaS) is an emerging concept in passenger transportation which has caught the enthusiasm of transport regulators, operators and customers alike. Best defined as a personalised, one-stop travel management platform digitally unifying trip creation, purchase and delivery, MaaS provides total integration across public, private and shared modes of transport. Though it remains a novel concept, the promise of MaaS has seen a steady increase in the number of implementations around the world. However, to date there exists limited empirical research on MaaS, its impacts on travel behaviour, commercial interest in the form of mobility brokers/aggregators and the business models (including contract designs) best suited for service delivery. This research brings clarity to some of these issues by survey-based market testing MaaS with respect to customers (or end users), mode-specific operators and non-mobility providers, and in doing so offers a range of review, theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions. The thesis transcends the hype and rhetoric by bringing greater clarity to the definition and rationale for MaaS, motivated by a changing transportation landscape as new mobility services, technologies and businesses come online. A theoretical framework for how MaaS might improve the urban realm by integrating different modes across spatial and temporal dimensions is developed, together with alternative service delivery models for bringing together relevant stakeholders as part of this future MaaS ecosystem. A crucial consideration in developing a MaaS future lies in exploring the key unknowns that surround the mobility broker/aggregator interface; specifically, what are the conditions under which interested businesses might like to invest or supply in the MaaS entrepreneurial model? To tackle this issue, an extensive interview and participatory research program with key MaaS stakeholders was carried out, from which the idea of mode-agnostic mobility contracts was proposed to quantify this relationship. These mobility contracts were then incorporated as part of a stated choice survey, and taken into the business community to test the response and viability. Data was collected over a six month period from 202 senior executives in business based across 28 countries and territories. Mixed logit models were estimated to identify the importance of contract attributes such as modal mix, role of government, return on investment expectations, branding and equity contributions on respondents’ interest to partake in a MaaS business model. Indicative willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates were then derived to identify the potential value proposition of a mobility broker/aggregator to the business community. Key findings include the importance of public transport in garnering support for MaaS, the preference for government to take on a ‘light touch’ regulatory role, as well as the heterogeneity in preferences and behaviour depending on a business’ organisation type (mode-specific operator versus non-mobility provider), and whether they chose to invest or supply in MaaS. These results, together with qualitative feedback from the data collection process offer a unique evidence basis informing the potential future development of MaaS. The contributions in this thesis not only provides important research implications for the academic community, but also policy guidance for government to nurture an ecosystem which the business community will likely support. This has the aim of ensuring that MaaS delivers a future which not only endures, but is also consistent with broader societal objectives. The results also offer a practical application in helping candidate businesses refine their attitudes towards future mobility, and to leverage the opportunities presented by an emerging transport paradigm. By investigating a future vision for MaaS in terms of its implementation, this thesis offers a first view on the topic and a preliminary evidence base with which the research community may continue to build upon.