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ACCEPTBicycleTrain“MANY TAXI APPS KNOW WHERE I AM AND WHERE I WANT TO GO… BUT IF THEY KNEW WHY I WANTED TO GO THERE, THEY COULD OFFER ME FAR MORE VALUE” MaaS PROGRAMME LEAD JAMES DATSONinfrastructure (anything from vehicles to parking and road charging schemes); and, of course, end-user demand.Greater engagement by business, regulators, policy makers and transport operators ‒ who also count as ‘customers’ in the MaaS paradigm ‒ is also key. There is a potential upside for all, and the sharing of customer insight can help transport providers and policy makers make more effective policy decisions. Meanwhile, for technology companies, data providers and transport operators, there’s the potential to access new markets. The UK MaaS market alone is estimated at running into billions of pounds per year, while the global market is expected to be worth more than £1tn by 2030.“Policy makers have to be on the front foot with MaaS business model innovation,” says Datson. He also recommends that transport operators stop thinking of themselves as the head and tail of the travel ecosystem. Instead they should focus on their comparative strength in the market. One medium-term opportunity is for highway authorities to use MaaS to sell highway capacity. He cites the airport model as inspiration. “An airport can be seen as a ‘mini’ highway authority; it has a ‘road’ ‒ a runway ‒ and they use pricing and landing fees to optimise that asset, so they run at 98 per cent efficiency. Currently I’m not aware of highway authorities or councils exploring how they could use a similar model once MaaS becomes mainstream.”Ultimately, though, the future belongs to MaaS providers who understand why people want to make a journey. “Many taxi apps know where I am and where I want to go,” Datson says. “But if they knew why I wanted to go there, they could offer me far more value. It’s about enabling lifestyles. It depends on how far MaaS providers are able to use Big Data and analytics to understand what we want before we request it. It won’t be long before our MaaS provider becomes far more than just a supplier of transport.” MOBILITY AS A SERVICEIMAGINE23