Using discounts as a MaaS feature to improve the travel experience

Intelematics – As Australia continues its journey towards more connected forms of transport, governments and organisations are looking for ways to drive behaviour change. Discounts, integrated into Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) applications, present a unique opportunity to facilitate this.

Rewards culture on the rise

When it comes to transport, discounts have been used to drive positive change and increase engagement – commercially and publicly for some time – and this rewards culture is on the rise.

Australian governments have launched incentives to promote greener transport and a return to the CBD. These have included cash back schemes in Melbourne and free ‘city’ buses in Brisbane. Businesses have also incentivised alternative forms of travel to and from the office. Vitamin firm Swisse Wellness was one of the first companies in Australia to launch a Ride to Work Scheme.

MaaS creating new opportunities

MaaS presents new opportunities to deliver this rewards model at scale with broader benefits including the creation of new partnerships.

Intelematics recently developed a fuel finder application for RACV’s arevo MaaS app. This technology helped forge a new partnership between RACV and fuel company EG – resulting in up to 13C per litre discount for customers, increased brand loyalty among RACV customers and an uptick in sales for EG.

The fuel finder identifies the best places to fill up across a range of retailers, allows users to filter results by fuel type, and view 7-day and 30-day price trends. Data is updated every 30 mins to provide pricing confidence – a feature unavailable in many existing fuel finder applications.

This capability has improved customer satisfaction, attracted new customers to EG, and helped RACV stand out against its competitors.

Taking a modular approach

The key to success was the modular design of arevo, which enabled Intelematics to integrate the new fuel finder capability into the existing platform with no impact on broader systems or functionality. This approach can also benefit governments, transport service providers, OEMs, and enterprises.

For example, an OEM may partner with a parking company to offer discount parking – integrated into the vehicle’s onboard applications. Or, governments may partner with a micromobility provider to offer in-app discounts, to encourage a return to the CBD.

Driving behaviour change even further

MaaS has an important role to play in enhancing the future of mobility for many types of organisations, but it can also be used to boost user experience and create new commercial or community partnerships.

Offering discounts to end-users is an effective tool to help governments and businesses meet their objectives, but organisations should also consider how technologies like MaaS can drive behaviour change even further.

MaaS platforms like Intelematics’ Omniway have been designed with co-branding and third-party integration in mind. Omniway brings a convenient ‘plan, pay and ride’ experience together with real-time data, loyalty and rewards. Its modular design also means functionality can be switched on or off – or enhanced seamlessly.

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