Digital mobility services cater for changing conditions in the transport sector

Scania Go is an integrated mobility service covering several types of transport. It is currently being tested in Södertälje. The transport industry is at present undergoing a shift, and the demand for such services is increasing. This is the opinion of Johan Palmqvist, Head of Business Development at Scania Sustainable City Solutions.

The transport sector is currently changing rapidly, partly due to changes in consumption patterns. Many people, especially young people, choose not to get a driving licence and a car, but instead opt for other types of transport solutions. Being able to offer new services therefore becomes an important part of being relevant as an employer and attracting the right skills. The concept of MaaS, which stands for Mobility as a Service, is becoming more common in the industry. This involves providing digital mobility services that make it possible to use different types of transport without necessarily having to own them.

The exact path that this development will take remains to be seen, but Sustainable City Solutions realised that it already had access to its own mobility system, and therefore the ability to connect everything to an integrated platform, in order to test and evaluate the business potential offered by the concept.

“We own and control several passenger transport services, such as the shuttle bus to and from Stockholm city centre and minibuses operating around Scania, as well as a number of internal vehicles that function as taxis. This provides a unique opportunity to build and test a mobility platform from scratch, both from a user and a business model perspective,” says Johan Palmqvist.

There is a considerable need for internal transport services in Södertälje. Scania’s main site has a circumference of approximately 12 kilometres and an area of approximately 4 square kilometres. There is also a smaller site located about 2 kilometres away.

The Scania Go service links the shuttle buses, minibuses and internal taxi service, as well as electric bicycles. A department at Scania monitors the system using a connected control tower system that reads traffic flows in real time and via which information can be pushed out as required. The user interface also provides the opportunity to submit feedback and suggestions, in order to be able to continuously improve the service.

“Scania Go involves creating an attractive and efficient mobility solution for users as well as for the company, and we are also looking into integration opportunities with other systems that can facilitate life for people in the long-term, such as Outlook, SL and SJ,” explains Johan. The availability of electric bicycles will also be shown, and if the control tower detects that there are a lot of bikes at one particular station, but only a few at another, it can proactively balance the system as needed.

He considers there to be many benefits with Scania Go, both for employees and the company. People who do not want to drive or own a car are offered straightforward solutions, and avoid having to spend time looking for parking spaces or looking for information and having to allow large margins when travelling between meetings.

“If Scania Go streamlines transport flows by making available and collecting information that optimises and improves the system, this will give rise to productivity and sustainability gains for the company,” says Johan.

The project, which has got financial support from Vinnova via the strategic innovation program Drive Sweden, also involves two strategic partners; KTH Royal Institute of Technology studying the effects of a system like Scania Go and Veridict, responsible for the back-end system.

We have been preparing this for a year now, and the launch of Scania Go constitutes the start of the next phase. “The exciting work with gathering data, conducting measurements and implementing improvements, as well as exploring business opportunities for Scania, is therefore now starting,” says Johan enthusiastically.

Podcast

Would you like to know more about the work of Scania Sustainable City Solutions regarding smart cities? Then you can listen to SEK’s podcast, with Johan Palmqvist and Kim Rydeheim.