Modern life is changing and so are all the industries surrounding it. The world is currently entering what many consider to be a fourth industrial revolution and along with it come many changes to city infrastructure and the way all our lives work. With that being said, one of the major industries facing change is the travel sector, and it has become very apparent which aspects of the current model are outdated and in need of development.
Due to the introduction of new concepts such as Mobility as a Service, we are given the opportunity to develop a number of optimisations to all forms of travel, ranging from leisure to business. These new concepts allow us to pinpoint the specific reasons why the current travel model is outdated.
Poor Management
One of the biggest issues with the current business travel model is the failure to account for all the necessary costs, overlooking expenses from what we know as micro-journeys.
Micro-journeys consist of the smaller journeys in between major trips, such as the taxi from your home to the airport. Due to the nature of these trips being considered less important than their major journey counterparts, many business travel bookings forget to include these within their recorded expenses and over a long-term basis, this can account for a sizeable amount of money being spent unknowingly.
Thankfully, newly developed Mobility as a Service platforms such as Mobilleo account for all these costs when planning and booking travel using its Smart Mobility Engine. Meaning that managing your business travel on a fleet or individual scale has been made significantly easier leading to a notable amount of money saved or at the very least accounted for. A newly developed Travel industry holds the potential to be increasingly more cost-effective compared to the current industry standard.
Lack of Sustainability
Data is becoming a treasured resource. It is quickly taking over as one of the most important parts of technology and is responsible for allowing services to become personalised to the user. If the current travel model were to continue as it is now without capitalising on all the benefits that the correct use of data presents, it would become apparent to many that the standard of travel is incredibly outdated and far from being optimised.
However, with the introduction of technologies (MaaS) that will allow travel to incorporate the use of data into its services we will see vast improvements to the experience of travel for all its users, and when considering that most people travel every single day for work the development of the experience will be welcomed by most (if not all) commuters.
Without the travel industry maintaining relevancy and staying up to date with our adapting city infrastructure, it cannot possibly hope to sustain alongside the Smart Cities that are close to being implemented in the near future.
Environmental Damage
A recent wave in greener initiatives has recently appeared due to both governments and communities alike becoming more environmentally aware. It comes as no shock to know that travel makes up for an alarming amount of the pollution levels in the modern world, therefore many of these initiatives are targeting the travel sector to correct and hopefully stabilise our emissions.
The current travel model is not at all as efficient and eco-friendly as it could be in its current state and can even be considered guilty for making it more difficult to be environmentally conscious. The private hire of cars and the use of corporate fleets are largely responsible for this.
The concept for a newer travel model using Mobility as a Service incorporated the idea of eco-friendly travel by providing alternative options to the standard corporate fleet, allowing the booking of services such as car clubs or public transport as opposed to privately owning a vehicle and wasting valuable fuel and space.
Specifically, Mobilleo even provides estimated CO2 emissions for each journey for companies looking to get an accurate idea on their emissions and how to reduce them accordingly. Even companies who do not hold reducing their emissions as an urgent priority may still want to consider adapting their business travel routine as the government continue to develop greener initiatives such as Clean Air Zones in cities.
Lack of flexibility
Within the current state of business travel, it can widely be considered as restricting to the average commuter, many are forced into a small number of options for their daily commute. yet with a revolutionised travel system where MaaS is the dominant platform plenty more options are available to the user. Platforms such as Mobilleo provide a range of choices for travel based upon both convenience and practicality, being presented with alternatives such as car clubs allows for much more flexibility and control for the user. Flexibility in travel is key towards making journeys more appealing for the commuter and more effective for the industry.
It is clear to see that we are continuing to develop our technology at an incredible pace, even more impressive is how we are beginning to understand how to efficiently place this technology within the infrastructure of our cities, allowing us to confidently rely on these new forms of technology to improve our quality of life. However, we need to ensure that all industries incorporate this new technology in the best way they can to improve upon them, the travel industry specifically is ready for an overhaul towards making it more enjoyable and less of a chore. Commuting does make up a large portion of our day after all.