The MaaS Alliance, a public-private partnership creating the foundations for a common approach to MaaS, hosted by ERTICO – ITS Europe, has published a White Paper entitled “Guidelines & Recommendations to create the foundations for a thriving MaaS ecosystem”. The White Paper is the result of the work done in the MaaS Alliance working groups, which focus on addressing the good practices, as well as identifying the gaps, barriers and opportunities related to emerging MaaS schemes. The White Paper summarises the first results of this work and gives recommendations for the next steps to be taken to foster the development of a MaaS ecosystem in Europe.

The development of the MaaS market relies on access and openness of data, open APIs and more flexible transport and mobility regulations. Currently, the transport sector is mode-specifically regulated, which does not always favour the implementation of MaaS. When defining regulatory principles for a digitalized transport system, it is imperative to encourage the participation of all market players – both existing and new players – and avoid stifling innovation. Open IT architecture and standardised sub-element features, such as payment, ticketing, authentication and security, will be enablers to maximise the development of the MaaS market. In addition to open standards, an imperative requirement is a high quality of the data being exchanged.

MaaS constitutes the integration of various forms of transport services into a single mobility service accessible on demand. MaaS is to become the best value proposition for both private and business users, by helping them meet their mobility needs and solve the inconvenient parts of individual journeys, as well to improve the efficiency of the entire transport system. While establishing the MaaS ecosystem, the principles of openness and inclusivity should be fully respected. In order to build attractiveness and public acceptance for MaaS services, the whole value chain needs to be carefully designed to meet the high expectations related to ecological and financial sustainability as well.

The full text of the MaaS Alliance White Paper is available here.