News & opinion

  Mobility Matters February 2017 The relationship and role between the public and private sector keeps rearing its head as the mobility world develops. Court cases between public sector bodies and Uber, or the lack of meshing between fast-evolving carsharing operators and London Boroughs make the national press. The subtext is often “cash rich young guns outpace conservative old guard”. However, even though the vast majority of people and things that move do so in “traditional” ways, the new and disruptive operations are all predicted to become major players and are already having major influence on the new mobility landscape.
  If we scratch underneath the headlines, what do they say about the growth pains of “new mobility” and how might these get resolved? Is it possible for the private sector’s profit-led drivers (or at least race to viability) to mesh with the public sector’s responsibility to deliver public good for mutual benefit? What might this world look like?   This raises two relevant concepts – viewing transport as a utility (and hence whether the regulatory and governance models of other utilities might illuminate the future direction of “new mobility”) and the Porter hypothesis. Exploring these together might help us understand some of the questions around regulation and fast-moving disruptive mobility services.   Let’s start with the Porter hypothesis.   In its pure form, this says that strict environmental regulations can reduce inefficiency and encourage innovation which improves commercial competitiveness. When proposed (in 1995), it was seen in some quarters as turning prevailing economic theory on its head. The idea of constraining markets through regulation to trigger growth flew in the face of the predominant economic and political dogma of the time. However, its core idea seems to have survived subsequent critiques and reviews pretty much intact, and its application has been stretched to relative competitiveness of whole countries.   So let’s apply the idea to the relationship between the public sector – via regulation and policy – and the disruptive private sector mobility operators. This leads to a couple of useful questions. Firstly, could more – or better – policy and regulation lead to efficiency, innovation and competitiveness in the new mobility sector? The car sharing sector is pretty much unregulated. Quality assurance is provided by the Carplus accreditation scheme or BVRLA membership, and is used by the public sector to determine whether to enter into contractual arrangements with operators. But if we look at London, there are significant differences in how car sharing is implemented in different boroughs, and this is microcosm of the rest of the UK. This is currently limiting the sector’s ability to realise the scale of potential “public good” benefits that could be delivered.   Secondly – and more importantly for the purposes of this argument – would increased efficiency, innovation and competitiveness in this sector enhance public good?   Brought together, these two questions frame the sort of regulatory constraints that might lead to better outcomes.   Alongside the Porter hypothesis, let’s also look at what we can learn from how utilities are regulated. Might utility regulation contribute to a new framework?   Is it appropriate to consider mobility as a utility? A quick trawl provides fairly clear definitions of what constitutes a public utility as “…a business that furnishes an everyday necessity to the public at large. Public utilities provide water, electricity, natural gas, telephone service, and other essentials. Utilities may be publicly or privately owned, but most are operated as private businesses” .   The ongoing shift to people consuming mobility services – and the subsequent challenges being addressed here relating to regulation – suggest that there is at least some mandate to follow this argument. This is interesting when we consider how other utilities are regulated in relation to mobility.   The UK’s system of regulation means that each sector has its Regulatory Office – Ofgem, Ofcom etc. “Ofmob” might not win any points for graceful branding, but let’s consider it for the new mobility sector. If we look at Ofcom for guidance, its purposes are to “… make sure that people in the UK get the best from their communications services and are protected from scams and sharp practices, while ensuring that competition can thrive.” Furthermore, “Ofcom’s principal duty is to further the interests of citizens and of consumers”. These purposes and focus are shared by the other regulatory bodies, if the way in which they carry out their duties vary.  

Mobility Matters 6 January 2017

Community transport and car clubs have common ancestry in the UK, but have diverged significantly over the years. The emergence of new technology and more widespread disruption in the transport sector now opens all sorts of opportunities to look again at what the future might hold across and beyond these sectors. Here, Kate Gifford develops ideas from the recent Community Transport Association’s (CTA) conference.  
  The recent CTA conference exposed a fundamental conundrum for transport professionals. Those operating community transport on the very smallest scale see very few resonances with car clubs or novel transport providers like Uber, and even fewer with rail and bus operators. The vision of connected transport services and Mobility as a Service seems worlds away from meeting the needs of “those who are otherwise isolated or excluded, enabling them to live independently, participate in their communities and access education, employment, health and other services”.   However, the developments in real time data, booking and payment platforms, fleet management and telematics which contribute to putting public and shared transport services together in Mobility as a Service packages, could transform and energise community transport. It could represent a phase shift in enabling community transport to provide “flexible, accessible and responsive solutions to unmet local transport needs” .   In an environment where the budgets for local transport services are consistently being reduced, community transport has an increasingly important role to play in future provision of local transport services.   Within this same environment of budget cuts, public transport providers are grappling with how to provide smaller scale, lighter, more tailored transport services because it is a better use of their resources. We see that RATP is operating demand responsive shared commuter travel in Bristol. Its ‘Slide’ project using 7 seater vehicles driving between ‘virtual bus stops’ under taxi legislation requires less investment and quickly reconfigures flexible timetables to maximise vehicle use and capacities.   The incredible growth of Uber, whose business claim is merely to ‘offer a platform to allow passengers to connect with drivers’, demonstrates how technology can cut across legislation, reduce the need for investment in fleets and drivers and provide travel flexibility for individuals. Even though Uber is gradually being reined in and given more responsibilities for drivers and passengers, the technology it uses shows a direction of travel for transport that cannot be reversed.   Meanwhile, it may seem like a pipedream to shift the current provision of community transport to all singing, all dancing apps and platforms. However, if community led sectors want to maintain transport provision in these areas, it’s a shift we need to make.   We shouldn’t underestimate the impact of ‘disruptors’ on the future of community transport. In North America, Uber are starting to provide non-emergency patient transport and look at ways to boost demand for their wheelchair accessible vehicle fleet (which many cities require them to have). Uber’s move into providing dial-a-ride services has been somewhat more controversial – with Pinellas County in Florida being the first area in the USA to subsidise rides. With the spread of Uber across many major cities in the UK, it is only matter of time before we start to see similar developments here.   However, the shift the community led sector needs to make may not be as big as first anticipated. We have already seen how technology can be introduced to allow community resources to be utilised to their maximum potential. Even many of the smallest car clubs use telematics and online booking software.   Sharing this technology is already happening in places.   A good example of this is the provision of a wheelchair accessible vehicle as part of the car club offer in Bristol (operated by BCT in partnership with Co-wheels). The car can be booked online using booking software and telematics provided by Co-wheels. This has made the vehicle easier to access as it is available on-street and can be opened using a smartcard.