Sampo Hietanen: Lessons and the Future of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

This month’s episode of Transit Voices delves into the intricate world of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) with Sampo Hietanen, the visionary behind the travel app Whim. Coming on the heels of MaaS Global’s bankruptcy filing in Finland, Sampo shares invaluable insights from the two-decade journey of all-in mobility innovations.

Sampo and host Ben Whitaker unravel the essence of MaaS, debating whether its core lies in journey planning or payment functionalities, and draw parallels to the evolution of the telecoms market in terms of subscriptions and roaming.  

A significant portion of their discussion focuses on the competitive landscape, with Sampo pointing out that different public transport modes should not see each other as rivals but should work together.  “For MaaS to actually start thriving, we'll have to define kind of the competitive landscape in a bit of a different way,” he explains.  “20% of household costs go now into mobility, [and] 76% of that money goes into the car, and the car ownership. Now within the services industry, if we would all consider changing the paradigm of what is my competition, and if the competition is car against everything else, we would see it in a different format where it makes sense to actually collaborate in order to tap open that three quarters of the market which is blocked.”

The conversation also touches upon various subscription models tested by MaaS Global. When people are offered unrestricted MaaS, including access to a car, their car use actually falls in time as they choose public transport: “We tried for seven years with these customers having unlimited - so they have unlimited taxis, unlimited cars, unlimited public transport, everything unlimited.  And surprise, surprise, their modal split was always going up with public transport.”

Despite differing views on the importance of a single payment system within MaaS, Sampo and Ben concur that investing public funds in city-specific MaaS solutions, which compete against established transit planners, may not be the most effective use of resources. This episode of Transit Voices offers a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities within the MaaS ecosystem, providing a comprehensive look at its potential to transform urban mobility.