Sydney MaaS trial: Design, implementation, lessons, the future

The MaaS trial in Sydney project, running since April 2019, has concluded, and a final report on the project has been released. That report is downloadable at the bottom of this page.

The project lead on this was IAG, with research run by the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney, and the app used by participants was from SkedGo.

The participants in the MaaS trial were all IAG employees, a Sydney workforce of approximately 8,000. One hundred employees participated to the in-field trial, with eligibility for the trial defined by their ownership of an iPhone 5 or newer, and that they lived in the Sydney metropolitan area.

Project outcomes

The trial, the first of its kind in Australia, had a number of objectives, of which sustainability in terms of private car usage and a test of commercial viability were prominent.

This trial:

• explored appropriate transport service mixes and subscription plans for early adopters of MaaS
• generated first-hand knowledge of actual MaaS experiences
• assessed the readiness of the current public and private transport mix in Sydney to support MaaS
• advanced the understanding of user uptake and willingness-to-pay for MaaS
• tested the ability to influence travel behaviour through introducing MaaS subscriptions
• documented the experience in designing, planning and undertaking a MaaS trial

A new definition of MaaS

As the project rolled on, it become apparent to the research team that a new definition was needed for MaaS. It is:

MaaS is a framework for delivering a portfolio of multi-modal mobility services that places the user at the centre of the offer. MaaS frameworks are ideally designed to achieve sustainable policy goals and objectives. MaaS is an integrated transport service brokered by an integrator through a digital platform. A digital platform provides information, booking, ticketing, payment (as PAYG and/or subscription plans), and feedback that improves the travel experience.

The MaaS framework can operate at any spatial scale (i.e.urban or regional or global) and cover any combination of multi-modal and non-transport-related multi-service offerings, including the private car and parking, whether subsidised or not by the public sector.

MaaS is not simply a digital version of a travel planner, nor a flexible transport service (such as Mobility on Demand), nor a single shared transport offering (such as car sharing). ‘Emerging MaaS’ best describes MaaS offered on a niche foundation. This relates to situations where MaaS is offered on a limited spatial scale, to a limited segment of society or focused on limited modes of transport. The MaaS framework becomes mainstream when the usage by travellers dominates a spatial scale and the framework encompasses a majority of the modes of transport.

Early feedback

We look forward to world hearing more of this new definition, and indeed more about the project overall via the final report (available for download below). There has already been some response to these findings:

This is really great. I’ve been searching for some evidence that a subscription model could actually work for the user, and oddly enough for all the focus in the MaaS industry, there has been very little research with real customers. I hope more MaaS projects do this kind of study to see if this is replicable.

Elliott McFadden, Greater Minnesota Shared Mobility Program Coordinator at Minnesota Department of Transportation

Download the report

Click the button below to download the final report (apologies for an earlier technical issue with the download – you can now download the report directly).