In this fifth podcast of the “Future MaaS” series by the MaaS Alliance, Ruta Mikiskaite (Head of Client Solutions at SwissRe), Ed Axon (SVP of Business Development at TROV), and Justas Petronis (B2B and B2G Product Marketing at Trafi) discuss the role of insurance in the MaaS ecosystem and why MaaS providers need the insurance sector on board. How can the insurance sector evolve to fit users’ need for multimodality, while also serving the needs of service providers? How can insurance products accommodate the multimodality aspect of transit that is distinctive of MaaS?
According to Ruta Mikiskaite (SwissRe), insurance proposition is really important in providing protection especially within emerging markets and technologies. Insurance providers need to make sure that there are no protection gaps and to provide a seamless insurance to the product list of the MaaS service user. The protection provided is needed by all the investors in MaaS to feel secure about their investment but is also equally important for the end users so that they feel protected whilst using their tailored MaaS services.
A trend very much related to the nature of MaaS is linked to regulatory constraints especially when a MaaS service is expanded from one country to another. In this case, MaaS providers need insurance companies also to establish propositions in different territories.
For Ed Axon (TROV), it is not really a question of how can insurers support MaaS services, but is rather that they have to. There is for sure a difference in terms of countries, but also within insurance companies that have “big difference in appetite to support MaaS”. Having an integration of technology players with an insurance proposition is an advantage, especially as most big insurers do not have emerging mobility departments. As a result, we start seeing more and more good partnerships between the sectors. For MaaS to work, a deeper conversation about the integration of insurance must happen, especially about covering the consumer no matter what they do, and as part of their subscription.
Justas Petronis (Trafi) sees that Mobility as a Service itself is a sort of insurance. You have individual mobility providers with their own fleets and you have MaaS providers that aggregates services and options so that as a user you can get easily around without caring too much about the assets or modes. Currently the biggest challenge is how to adequately integrate completely different modes and different operators so that the end user can have that seamless and unified experience. As there is not a single mobility provider who does not have a coverage plan, it is not a question of insurance but more how to inform the end-user and to present them the offer in the clearest possible way.
Here you can read a previous blog post on the topics, by Jacob Bangsgaard.
