Get all aboard with your MaaS strategy
Without user buy-in, your corporate MaaS solution is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. So how does your company build a MaaS strategy that motivates your employees to get the most out of all the mobility options that it provides?
Ask three experts, get three very different answers. But different, as in complementary. Combined with a seven-step programme that will get you from Here to Near-Perfect (see box), their insights will help you develop and roll out a corporate MaaS strategy that maximises uptake – which in turn enhances positive results in terms of cost, emissions and efficiency.
Learn by doing
“You learn by doing,” says Jarno Pajunen (pictured, left), Global Category Manager at Nokia and 2019 European Smart Mobility Manager of the Year. “It’s clear that society as a whole is moving to new mobility options – Uber, e-scooters, DriveNow, to name a few. As corporates, we must also evolve, and think beyond the company car. For a number of years already, we at Nokia have been evaluating the mobility market, testing various services and suppliers.”
“Using Nokia Digital’s Open Ecosystem platform, we publish challenges and find innovative solutions. Some fail, but that’s okay: it also allows us to learn. Additionally, our own R&D division, Bell Labs, has developed a mobility platform which we’re piloting in France under the name MoveInSaclay. We’ve introduced bike leasing in Antwerp, and soon also in other cities.”
“For these mobility pilots, we work with the Nokia Young Professionals Network. These employees in the early stages of their career are ideally placed to test the services and comment on them, plus more generally, to share their view on the future mobility offering they would like to have as future benefit users.”
Just add one sentence
“How to develop an attractive MaaS strategy for your employees? Simple: add one sentence to your car policy,” says Sampo Hietanen (pictured, left), CEO of MaaS Global. That one sentence makes a world of difference: “Simply add that if the employee finds a mobility provider, they are entitled to spend an amount on mobility equivalent to the budget of their company car.”
“By that one sentence, your car policy will have an in-built mechanism to adopt mobility innovation – as soon as it reaches a credible, critical mass. It’s certainly a better way than the traditional RFP process, which ends up slowing down the general movement towards mobility as a service.”
A lot depends on the pro-activeness of the fleet manager: “Corporate MaaS solutions work in places where the fleet managers ensure that mobility trials are integrated so employees benefit from them; where various mobility solutions are available; and where mobility policies have been shifted towards using live data to improve performance. When’s the best time to start all this? Do it now. MaaS is a chicken and egg thing. It won’t happen until it happens.”
Nudge them gently
“The first and most obvious step is to get to know the travel patterns of your staff. To find out who uses which vehicles for what purpose, and at which times,” suggests Lukas Neckermann (pictured, left), mobility expert and managing director of Neckermann Strategic Advisors. “Find the answers to questions like: Do they drive alone? Do they live close to other staff? Etcetera. Here, data is your friend - such as that data gathered from telematics and otherwise connected vehicles, as well as travel reports.”
Mr Neckermann provides a concrete example: “One fleet and travel manager found out that every Monday, up to 60 of his company’s employees drove to the same airport separately – very expensive in terms of single-occupancy vehicles, not to mention airport parking fees. To improve the situation, this fleet and travel manager organised a shuttle service for all employees involved. This ended up saving the company lots of money, as well as improving safety.”
“Lots of improvements in mobility can be achieved with so-called ‘gentle nudges’. Place the parking for bicycles and EVs next to the entrance. Remove parking spots for people who live less than 5km from work. Charge for parking. Organise carsharing and carpooling instead.”
In collaboration with NAFA, the biggest fleet management association in North America, Fleet Europe is taking the Smart Mobility Institute to the U.S., with a series of webinars regarding Mobility as a Benefit. The first webinar takes place on Thursday 30 April at 4 CEST and will tackle Mobility Trends in Europe. The webinar is accessible for free for corporate fleet and mobility customers. You can register here. Don't miss this first webinar episode.
Leading image copyright: Shutterstock
