Incentives Platform: the MaaS for People

The current context of the MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service) paradigm is complex and multifaceted, characterized by technologies and solutions that primarily originate from the supply side of the mobility sector rather than from user needs, regardless of how it is possible today to move in an increasingly sustainable way in a specific territory. 

Therefore, it becomes essential to thoroughly understand the mobility demand to use the most appropriate tools to encourage a change in travelers’ habits towards the adoption of sustainable, shared, and intermodal mobility forms, thereby reducing the use of private cars, the main obstacle to achieving sustainability goals. To address this need, thanks to the trajectory set by the MaaS4Italy project of the PNRR, the cities of Turin, Milan, Florence, and Bari, as well as the Abruzzo, Piedmont and Puglia regions, have decided to turn to us for the development of a solution capable of ensuring effective and active management of mobility flows through the development of a platform that allows both raising awareness on environmental issues and managing economic incentives.

To address the challenges faced by the involved territorial realities, the “Sticks & Carrots” strategy has been adopted, proposing the so-called Incentive Platform as a solution. Aware that a balance between rewards and penalties can be a strong stimulus to achieve the desired change, in this specific case, the “carrot” is represented by monetary incentives that reward users who use sustainable mobility forms. The “stick,” on the other hand, can consist of various disincentives to regulate the behavior of travelers. Examples of this that we have contributed to implement include:

• The introduction of the access fee to the city of Venice as a deterrent against the phenomenon of over-tourism;
• The access management to areas of natural value such as the Sella Pass, which we describe in this case study;
• The management and limitation of flows to touristic hotspots (such as Lake Braies or the Adamello Brenta Natural Park) through the activation of a platform for parking reservation and shuttle bus services.

Now let’s return to describing the platform we have designed and implemented for managing and delivering monetary incentives. To maximize its effectiveness and quality, it was decided to adopt a user-centric approach based on the expressed and unexpressed needs of travelers to create a product that, by digitalizing the entire travel experience, also plays the role of Traveler Relationship Management (TRM). This term has been coined to capture the evolution of a CRM towards the world of intermodal mobility, to include user profiles, usage and travel data, and the necessary functionalities to model users and their movements in the most diverse mobility scenarios.

Indeed, only with a newly designed tool it is possible to create the “MaaS for people,” which allows for the analysis of travelers’ daily needs with the aim to segment the demand and adapt incentive tools based on the specificities of the rider categories, the territory, and the mobility policies to be promoted.

The Incentives Platform is composed of 3 modules:

1. Backend for the management of the incentive logics, data storage, registration, identity, and service orchestration. It is structured as follows:

• TRM (Traveler Relationship Manager): for user management, monitoring of activities and user behaviors;
• Incentive Tool: for modeling and releasing incentives, and managing gamification logics;
• IAM (Identity Access Manager): for managing identities and access, user authentication and authorization, and data security;
• API Hub (REST): for communication with MaaS operators and third-party services.

2. Web portal for travelers:

• User profile registration and management;
• Travel history and incentives used;
• Incentive wallet visualization.

3. Management and control dashboard for Mobility Agencies to supervise and manage the mobility system:

• TRM: for monitoring and managing user activities, profile management, and customer support;
• Incentive management: for configuring incentive logics and monitoring incentive effectiveness;
• Business Intelligence: for demographic analysis of users (segmentation and profiling), distribution and usage of incentives.

Given the highly diverse traveling public, characterized by different behaviors and needs according to the urban context, there is no “one size fits all” solution. Instead, distinctive and personalized approaches are necessary. To address this aspect, the involved cities and regions have tracked and compared travelers’ habits before and after the introduction of incentives. Specifically, through the completion of an “ex-ante” questionnaire, data was collected to understand the traveling public’s habits in a specific territory, thus adapting incentive strategies based on defined rider categories. Once the trial is concluded, an “ex-post” questionnaire will be administered to assess the impact and effectiveness of the incentives on the involved traveling public, and to adopt any corrective measures to manage mobility demand.

Different strategies were chosen for managing the incentives based on the target users:

• Ad hoc monetary incentive strategies for specific groups of travelers (e.g., residents, people with disabilities, commuters, etc.);
• Gamification strategies to encourage modal shift, such as giving the most virtuous users – those who frequently use public transport – access to more substantial incentives;
• Ad hoc strategies for specific events: stakeholders, not necessarily transport operators, can also promote sustainable travel within a broader context beyond just mobility.

Looking at the individual projects, despite sharing basic elements, each one has its own peculiarities for the reasons mentioned above. 

For some cities and regions, the experimentation focused on providing “flat” incentives that could be available to all citizens, distinguishing, in some cases, specific rider categories in the university and corporate environment. This allowed some local areas to incentivize the use of public transportation by workers and students.

The projects also involved various MaaS Operators offering different modes of transport to ensure intermodal travel options for the users. Another characteristic of these projects is the provision of incentives in the form of monthly cashback based on how much the user traveled during the previous month: this gave an additional boost towards the use of sustainable mobility services by the citizens, stabilizing their behavior in the medium term.

With the aim to strengthen the user awareness regarding the benefits of shared and sustainable transport options, important gamification logics were introduced in some areas, rewarding those users who most frequently use these services. Additionally, in order to manage the significant traffic flows characterizing cities on weekends, reward logics were introduced to encourage the use of public transport during weekends, with the aim of mitigating the M-shaped curve and optimizing city mobility.

Another distinctive feature of some projects is the strong clustering of experimental users: five profiles (Tourist, Student, Vulnerable Categories, Commuters, and Shoppers) were defined to meet different local transportation needs.

Within the MaaS landscape, the Incentive Platform represents the first solution that pays appropriate attention to the environmental and social needs of traveling users, enabling the deployment of tailor-made incentive logics that best fit the contexts of application.

The platform is thus configured as an enabler for MaaS Level 4, which involves the integration of social goals. At Level 4, the MaaS service goes beyond the mere connection of the supply and demand for mobility and aligns with the rules defined by the public governance. The added value of this level is that MaaS is characterized as a digital tool that allows for the pursuit of political, social, and environmental objectives. In the case of the Incentive Platform, the benefits are numerous:

• At the environmental level, there is a reduction in emissions and a lower level of pollution—both air and noise—thanks to the reduced use of private transport modes. 
• Social benefits arise from the increased livability of cities in every aspect, reducing road traffic and creating urban spaces that are increasingly inclusive, resilient, and sustainable, in line with SDG 11 of the 2030 Agenda. The benefits, therefore, extend not only to citizens who use their own car but also to those who prefer to experience the city by bicycle or on foot.
• Economic benefits are represented not only by a reduction in mobility expenses for citizens but also by the possibility of optimizing the mobility offer within a territory. These economic benefits, with political implications as well, are achievable through the proposal of various forms of mobility, increasing the effectiveness of the public service on one hand and promoting intermodal solutions on the other, which duly consider private cars (such as park & ride solutions).

Since such ambitious and diverse goals vary over time and based on context, it is essential that the platform is flexible and adaptable. 

From a technical perspective, the platform has been designed with a headless architecture, allowing it to interface with existing front-ends and be integrated into ongoing projects via APIs, a best practice we have described in this blog article.

The foundation also is based on real-time data management, which is a crucial requirement in a modern mobility scenario. This allows for continuous and dynamic mapping of citizens’ travel habits, providing critical support for urban and transportation planning, as well as optimizing operational management. The continuous and real-time updating of data enhances the platform’s ability to respond immediately to the changing needs of users and urban infrastructures.

Among the flexibility elements, as mentioned in the introduction, is the possibility of introducing nudges, defined as such when no economic incentives are provided to influence individuals’ choices. Although current incentives are predominantly monetary, there is nothing preventing them from becoming real nudges. For example, integrating further gamification logics, adding features aimed at increasing users’ environmental awareness, and reinforcing social norms for sustainability are all elements that could gradually complement or replace monetary rewards. Moreover, thanks to the large amount of collected data, it will be possible to develop dynamic nudge logics, functional to the implementation of effective and personalized behavioral interventions in real-time.

On one hand, the solution goes beyond the boundaries of public transportation and provides users with the necessary incentives to modify their daily mobility choices by offering a so-called “Mobility Account”. Through the adoption of gamification logics, a true user loyalty is achieved, while the introduction of new metrics – such as CO2 consumption and savings – helps raise citizen awareness about the environmental and social impacts of their behaviors. In particular, carbon credits and white certificates will increasingly become essential tools for quantifying, monitoring, and incentivizing actions aimed at reducing emissions and improving consumption, thus becoming crucial metrics in the global landscape of environmental policies.

Cities, on the other hand, have an active mobility governance tool that allows them to shape mobility patterns thanks to innovative CO2 validation and gamification logic. Overall, given the substantial change in travelers’ habits and the effective management of mobility flows, there is a progressive improvement in the quality of life in cities.

How can we ensure concrete and lasting change, even after the initial budget has been exhausted, making the distribution of incentives for sustainable mobility affordable in the long term? Thanks to the OpenMove platform’s ability to manage both incentives and disincentives, it is possible to create a sustainable business model that intercepts revenue streams – such as the congestion charge, access fee, and entry into premium areas – to distribute them as rewards and discounts to virtuous users who use shared mobility forms or travel during off-peak hours.

Ultimately, thanks to the “Sticks & Carrots” strategy, it is possible to shape mobility flows by reducing the peaks of the M-curve, through a model that is sustainable not only from an environmental but also from an economic perspective.