techUK represents the companies and technologies that are defining today the world that we will live in tomorrow. The tech industry is creating jobs and growth across the UK. Over 950 companies are members of techUK. Collectively they employ more than 700,000 people, about half of all tech sector jobs in the UK. These companies range from leading FTSE 100 companies to new innovative start-ups. The majority of our members are small and medium sized businesses.

Summary

techUK believes that Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is creating opportunities for innovation in the transport industry and has the potential to deliver benefits to UK citizens and the national economy. The transformation of transport services to be increasingly citizen-focused and demand responsive could lead to optimised, cleaner and more inclusive transport for citizens.

As it stands, a holistic transformation of transport services in the UK is somewhat constrained by a lack of strategic leadership for the sector in terms of policy development, a limited empirical base, and local level policy and capability regarding the testing, trialing and implementation of services.

techUK has identified a need for stronger and clearer governance from all levels in order to address the practical challenges, such as testing and trialing in real-world environments, and ensuring that MaaS creates a transport system that is accessible to everyone regardless of where they live in the country.

Role of Central Government

techUK supports the role that Central Government has outlined for itself – as a high-level, strategic leader for the transport sector. The Grand Challenge, “Future of Mobility”, and the associated objective of becoming a “world leader in the way people, goods and services move”[1] demonstrates that this sector is a priority for the Government. techUK welcomes this effort but believes that Central Government’s role should be more robust than this. Specifically;

• Defining what MaaS may look like for the UK’s transport sector
• Leading the development of an evidence base for MaaS
• Providing strategic direction and practical guidance to Local Authorities who are ultimately responsible for the practical implementation of MaaS

Central Government’s Role in Defining MaaS

As it stands, MaaS is still a rather broad term that encompasses a wide range of transformative changes that may or may not occur in the short to medium term future. techUK believes that Government should work together with industry to outline the desired or key characteristics of MaaS. This could also provide a clearer ‘framework’ and ‘roadmap’ for implementation that suits the nature of (de-)regulation across the UK transport ecosystem, for example indicating how close integration can be achieved between public and private transport operators in the short term, and how increased autonomy will be incorporated into mobility and transport in the future.

In particular, the Department for Transport is internally structured and manages policy in modal silos. The DfT should look to create cross-cutting policy leadership in MaaS, which sits across the Departmental teams and need to address common challenges for MaaS such as open data, standards, interoperability, ticketing/payments etc. This should seek to work with existing and successful initiatives such as the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.

Development of an Evidence Base for MaaS

As it is still relatively new, MaaS has a limited evidence base for implementation principles, characteristics, user behaviour, impact, and for its success as a holistic transformation.

Central Government is well placed to lead the development of an evidence base and coordinating various actors who could contribute to or conduct evidence gathering exercises to ensure that MaaS is an empirically supported transformation of UK transport and mobility systems. In particular, the Government could commission a report from the Government Office for Science, building on their Future of Mobility foresight work, or work with InnovateUK to develop evidence from programmes funded via the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge.

Provide Strategic Direction to Local Authorities

Industry actors have identified local level policy and regulation as a point of frustration for testing and trialling new technologies. As a result, there are instances where Local Authorities run the risk of hindering innovators looking to test, trial or deliver new solutions. Outdated policies and regulations, and the pace at which Local Authorities operate are two primary concerns. techUK believes that Central Government is well placed to act as a guide for Local Authorities by identifying key policy and strategy changes, raising awareness of common challenges, opportunities and best practice in implementing MaaS. This could fall under the remit of Department for Transport with support from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

techUK intends to bring together an industry-wide view on the key issues that such a guidance document should incorporate.

Overcoming concerns about digital exclusion

techUK believes that for MaaS to be successful in the UK, due consideration must be given to mobility challenges and opportunities relating to rural and regional communities, which differ significantly from cities and larger urban areas. MaaS must be a nation-wide transformation initiative that is accessible to all users.

techUK notes that there is a potential risk that Local Authorities are ill-equipped in terms of capability and capacity to identify, procure or implement tech products and services to support the implementation of MaaS. The digital capacity of Local Authorities may therefore operate as a way of excluding some areas from implementing aspects of MaaS and reaping the benefits of an optimised and efficient mobility system. techUK has identified a need to support the improvement of digital maturity in general within Local Authorities around the UK. We are playing our own part in providing these solutions through practical and action orientated guides for local authorities.

Overcoming barriers to implementation

A multi-modal system requires significant input from the various (and at times, competing) actors within the system, as well as efficient and seamless coordination of resources and services. It also needs to be capable of accounting for and adapting to changes in user preference and behaviour. Examining the practicalities of this raises some questions, for example:

• Multi-modal transport platforms require access to service providers’ data from across the industry landscape. The challenges outlined in the joint report between Deloitte, Transport Systems Catapult and the Open Data Institute on data sharing in the transport sector largely remain[2], although we note the welcome development of the Intelligent Mobility Hub. If the ability or willingness to share data remains low, how will it be managed, and by whom?
• How will Government regulation (central, devolved and local) adapt to a multi-modal future? Many current regulations are defined in silos and a new approach will be required to regulate a new generation of services. For example buses and taxis/private hire are now behind the curve to adapt to the emergence of ride-sharing and demand-responsive ‘minibus’ transport.
• Are local authorities expected to be the final implementers of MaaS initiatives as they become increasingly available and attractive? Currently Local Authorities are the ‘gatekeepers’ as such, particularly regarding local level policies and regulations, which, as noted earlier, have been identified as a challenge for innovators. How will this be addressed going forward?

April 2018