New Mobility Services: Time to Integrate Them, with an Eye to Customization

ABROAD THERE ARE ALREADY APPS THAT ALLOW YOU TO PLAN FOR AND PURCHASE DIFFERENT MOBILITY PACKAGES AT ONCE, SAYS ALUM TOMASO AGUZZI, SALES DIRECTOR OF ARVAL BNP PARIBAS. IN ITALY WE HAVE TO START IMAGINING HOW TO MEET VARIOUS NEEDS OF TRANSPORTATION WITH DIFFERENT INTEGRATED MOBILITY SOLUTIONS

Cars, bicycles, mopeds and scooters, either shared or rented, plus the subway, trams, buses and all the other means of public transportation: today there is an embarrassment of choices when it comes to decide how to move around the city without your private car. However, since a varied mobility ecosystem already exists, it is time to integrate the many services into common digital platforms that allow you not only to choose a vehicle but to plan the entire trip, whether it is the cheapest, fastest, or greenest, for example by combining the use of car+metro+scooter and paying in a single transaction. "Abroad there are already cases of apps that allow you to purchase different intermodal travel packages at once," explains Bocconi graduate Tomaso Aguzzi, sales director of Arval BNP Paribas Group. "And to further enrich the consumer experience, another step is being taken: investing in the personalization of commercial offers. In the current experimentation phase, there are car sharing services for whole buildings, family subscriptions to car rentals, and the provision of a virtual credit pool that rewards users, especially if they are employees of a company, who have a lower environmental footprint".

What is the Italian situation in the international scenario that is shaping the future of mobility?
In Italy, I am not aware of any applications that offer a good user experience to integrate different mobility systems around a single transaction, including public transit. Usually these are solutions that refer to individual web environments of the various modes of transportation. Yet, an accomplished model of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) would meet the needs of the population, distributed between large cities and small towns, people who are often in smartworking mode, while the head offices of companies remain in the metropolis. We have to imagine different needs that are satisfied by diverse integrated mobility solutions. For example, looking at provincial cities, car sharing is less likely to spread and a rental system is more likely to be created. Or thinking of those who commute for work, when in the city, they need to cover the last few kilometers to get from the bus stop to the office.

Will private car ownership disappear?
No, the private car will remain. Even now it remains the primary mode of transportation. But the reasoning is how to learn to use it more sustainably. Creating new forms of travel, and perhaps giving up the second car, can help reduce pollution and costs for families. The idea is to progressively move from the concept of ownership to that of use. Legislators,  in particular, have a role in this evolution both in terms of infrastructure and giving a clear direction.

And what can be the proactive role of companies?
Auto manufacturers and companies specializing in mobility are already taking steps to implement and better segment services. I believe that in the coming years, there will be more and more groups of companies joining forces to create integrated digital platforms, composed for example of automotive, insurance, fintech and real estate companies. Without forgetting the municipalities and regions that govern the territory.

In short, a very articulated and technological kind of mobility awaits us. Will it be within reach of the older demographic?
The target audience of this revolution are certainly people that are young and/or attentive to digital innovation. But we do not neglect senior citizens, for whom learning to use hi-tech tools is less complicated than you’d think. Above all, they don't know whether they will continue to stay in the city in the medium term or move to the countryside. For them, as for many other Italians, the new forms of mobility also respond to the uncertainty among consumers about what types of internal combustion vehicles will be allowed to circulate in the future.
 
Bio
Tomaso Aguzzi is sales director of Arval, a company specializing in long-term rental and mobility services of Bnp Paribas Group. He graduated in Business Administration  at Bocconi University in 2000 and, before becoming interested in mobility, he worked for 7 years in consumer goods, within the Marketing department of Unilever Italy. In Arval he took on various roles, in the development of the Retail business and then in the launch of the Arval Mid Term and Car Sharing business unit.
In Arval he took on various roles, in the development of the Retail business and then in the launch of the Arval Mid Term and Car Sharing business unit.
Of his university period and his transition to the working world, he remembers “the progressive awareness of knowing how to combine academic studies with many practical aspects of corporate life," says Aguzzi. "When this ability begins to be cultivated in the university it becomes an excellent decision-making accelerator in the complexity of business choices".

by Camillo Papini