Mobility as a Service in Türkiye
We can say that public transport and technology in Türkiye have advanced in a way that will lead and carry technology to many countries. Many countries in Europe, Africa and Asia provide public transport solutions from Türkiye. In addition, integrations are being made with many different technology manufacturers and know-how is being offered in the production of solutions. However, there are some technological issues that can get stuck in the criteria set according to the fictions and needs on the business side. First, we need to understand the necessary information before addressing some of these issues. “Mobility as a Service” is briefly known as MaaS. Especially in a busy city like Istanbul, getting around has always been a matter of planning ahead. Getting on the feeder bus, getting off when you reach the intermediate destination, getting on the BRTS, changing to the metro from there, getting off and taking the ferry, that can be one of the solutions, or as another solution, should I go by car, then leave my car in the car park at a place where traffic starts and get on the BRTS. Planning this in advance is the side of the event, we want the system to tell me if I set off with my car, the system should be able to determine the appropriate place after the point where the traffic starts and after that it will slow you down and it will be tiring, the last point before the traffic starts and it is expected to be able to direct you to a car park where you can change to public transport. The planning has been done, but this is not the main part, it is to be able to pay automatically at the end of the journey through a single environment without the need to pay cash in the car park, transport card in the municipal vehicle, credit card in the taxi, mobile application on the scooter, and even by offering fare deductions for transfers in between. This is where MaaS can provide a solution. First of all, I will try to explain what MaaS is.
Let’s focus first on this definition of “as a service”. It is the definition given to the provision of a service that allows you to run software that you normally run by installing it on your server or computer, without the need for any hardware, by sending a request to an endpoint in the cloud environment, so that the whole process works on a server that is not under your responsibility and you get an answer. In other words, Software as a Service, Programme as a Service can now be reproduced. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the integration of and access to different transport services (such as public transport, car sharing, car sharing, bike sharing, scooter sharing, taxi, car rental, ride-hailing, etc.) in a single digital mobility offer, based on active mobility and an efficient public transport system. This personalised service proposes optimal solutions according to the user’s travel needs. MaaS is always available and integrates planning, booking and payment, as well as easy transport to provide route information and can make it possible to get to your destination without having to own a car. In summary, in MaaS, Mobility as a Service, then it should provide you with the following, you have a need related to transport and think that there is a single solution point that provides you with a solution without worrying about this issue. Do you need a taxi or do you want to park your car and transfer to the city bus and then to a bike or scooter? It’s more than just a travel planner, it’s a real service. For example, all members of a family can share an account and top up that account, allowing for shared spending and top-ups (fare media agnostic), as well as the ability to roll over unused credit or services to the next month.
The solution I would most like to see in this solution is the ability to offer public transport solutions to people in different packages. For example, creating packages like Elite, Dimond, Platinium and offering different usage options to users with monthly fees. Let’s imagine that the car parking service is in one package, and for the person who doesn’t have a car, we can think of another package with a monthly usage limit for taxis.
Will and vision are the only obstacles to this in Turkey.
Building such an integrated mobility platform is complex and there are key issues that need to be addressed. In order to create a MaaS, a strong partnership has to be established with the different transport companies that will work as partners and especially with the public authorities responsible for municipal public transport planning. Different partners mean different services and different expectations.
An integrator brand with a positive image, stable enough to survive for a long time.
In MaaS, if things go well and the designed operator and integrations are provided, there may also be scenarios where competitors meet under the same roof. For example, one of the competitors may decide to lower the price or redirect to its own platform instead of the MaaS platform. This would suggest that a MaaS platform should have certain business rules to prevent such unfair utilisation.
The backbone of MaaS is the public transport system
With so many different operators, the question is how to synchronise or share aggregated data for routes, terminals and mobility vehicles. European public data standards (Transmodel, NeTEx and SIRI) and some standards offered by ITxPT can be considered here. Transmodel could be one of them. One of the difficulties is that in this case, the companies to be integrated (e.g. travel application) are not always ready to implement EU standards, so there will be a harmonisation process to overcome in the integration.
My view is that there should be awareness of MaaS and awareness of the results and benefits of standards implementation.
