The elements behind a well-balanced mobility market
When it comes to urban mobility, we’ve been witnessing many major changes in the past years and current circumstances show us that this is far from over. The cities are transforming yet again and the mobility industry needs to adapt accordingly. The players on the market face the challenge of developing or maintaining a sustainable business model and attracting investments. The name of the game is profitability. This requires, among other things, a balanced market that can accommodate services so they can capture value across four major dimensions: society, environment, economy and value to the individual.
But what is the best way to realistically do it? We find the answer by going back to the four identified values to take into account when considering a well-balanced mobility market. Each of the four dimensions - environment, individual users, society and economy - comes with its own set of challenges that can be turned into opportunities, as seen below:
Getting even closer to the matter and following the outstanding patterns and learning from how the market has been moving so far, we identified fleet optimization as one of the most important pieces of the profitability puzzle.
The building blocks of fleet optimization
Improving a fleet’s efficiency has always been an important element for a number of reasons. Saving money fast and increasing your margin by making small but effective changes would be one of these reasons. And it’s normal to focus on it in a time when margins seem to be pressured by the ongoing changes in the mobility climate. Therefore, fleet optimization might as well be the key to become or remain profitable.
A second reason why fleet optimization plays an essential role is sustainability. For quite a while now, but maybe even more so today, governments are pushing for businesses to increase their environmental performance, and the mobility industry is one of the most important players targeted. So how can fleet efficiency be the key to turn a company into a ‘greener’ one, both ecologically and financially?
Let’s talk about operational demand fulfillment
This essentially translates into getting the most out of an existing fleet so that the supply most efficiently meets demand. In other words, it is about maximising the utilisation rate of a fleet. If the higher utilisation potential of a car is reached, one can easily run the same quality service with fewer cars. Vehicle utilisation certainly has its limits, such as during the night or during maintenance. Given these conditions, increasing the usability rate is possible to the point where it can make all the difference to a company’s profitability. At Ubiq, that’s our main focus. Establishing and meeting demand, as it is in real time, requires knowing where the demand will be in advance. This forecasting can range from basic historical data analysis (looking at demand in a certain place at a specific time), to more complex forecasting models which take into account data such app opening data, weather, holidays, special events and parking regulations. Knowing where the demand will be provides operators with the information to match demand with supply.
What we also find effective and cost-efficient, is encouraging users to position the vehicles themselves. Offering them a reward for leaving the vehicles in zones with higher demands or by encouraging nearby StreetCrowd users to reposition the vehicles, Ubiq utilises the crowd for operational excellence. Through our Streetcrowd Service, mobility providers can benefit from a decentralized operational ecosystem for 24/7 fleet rebalancing.
At the end of the day, high utilisation means increased revenues and higher profitability. Instead of just increasing fleet volumes, operators with a high rate of utilisation can make the most out of existing inventory.
With urbanization and climate change the defining features of our times, mobility is in a significant state of flux, with innovative solutions needed to address this new reality. Shared mobility has the potential to transform cities, making them cleaner and less congested. But despite this great power, most operators aren’t profitable. AI-driven services can address this by optimizing fleet operations for improved fleet efficiency and reduced operational costs, by ensuring effective fleet rebalancing, charging and dynamic pricing. Therefore, shared mobility can be both a great environmental solution and profitable at the same time. And we’re all about that.
Ubiq enables operators to effectively position fleets to serve strategic goals. For more information, contact sales@ubiq.ai
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