Why mobility needs aggregator apps

The challenge of creating mobility solutions for business travellers lies not so much in developing individual modes of transport, but in aggregating several modes into a simple-to-use solution, according to KPMG.

The professional services specialist forecasts that whether it’s car sharing by the hour, renting by the day or ride-hailing a taxi service, businesses and travellers want a platform that identifies the quickest, most convenient way to get from A to B while maintaining tight control of costs.

These mobility aggregators “will offer integrated multi-modal solutions that consumers can access on demand, enabling users to access and purchase transport services through a single point of contact (eg a mobile app), rather than a collection of interfaces,” said KPMG Global Strategy Group’s Mobility 2030 report.

A prime example is the new SIXT ONE app, which integrates the vehicle hire giant’s car rental, car sharing and ride-hailing services into a single app. This enables users to tap into the services of 270,000 vehicles, one million drivers and 1,500 affiliated parties all around the world without having to download and register for additional apps.Partners offering their services through the app already include household names such as Lyft in the USA and Addison Lee in the UK.

SIXT ONE combines SIXT rent, SIXT share and SIXT ride in just one app.

“As existing offers are mostly too fragmented, we decided to offer our customers an integrated mobility platform with our new SIXT app,” said Vinzenz Pflanz, senior vice president corporate cales at SIXT.

SIXT ONE gives the company the benefit of more touchpoints with its customers, and the opportunity to enhance its service by identifying the optimum solution for each individual journey at any time and any location in the world.

“The aim is to offer business travellers the highest availability of vehicles and the appropriate mobility options at the best price, anytime, anywhere,” said Pflanz. “In addition, booking couldn't be easier: not only do users get a mix of car rental days, shorter carsharing trips and taxi for on-demand and airport shuttling, everything is also easily payable via the app.”

Payments for trips booked through SIXT ONE can be allocated to either business or private accounts, depending on the nature of the journey, with companies able to scrutinise their expenditure at a business unit or corporate level in order to analyse their travel budgets.