We have big news to share: we won the Jelbi tender! Berlin’s public transport authority Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) selected us out of 10+ competitors to power and scale their platform.
With around 45,000 vehicles integrated into the platform, and being used by approximately 8% of the city’s population, Jelbi was the first and is now the largest multimodal Mobility-as-a-Service platform in the world.
Those of you who follow us online might already associate Trafi with Jelbi. (Maybe you’ve checked out our webpage or read our case study.) We built the Jelbi platform 2.5 years ago, and we’ve been developing and maintaining it in close collaboration with BVG and the Jelbi team ever since.
We were originally approached by BVG in 2019 and asked if we were interested in building a new MaaS platform that would connect the city’s growing number of private mobility services with local public transport services and a journey planner. Naturally, we said yes, and with BVG’s help, we built the platform and launched it a few months later.
Since launch day, Jelbi has expanded to include a wide variety of mobility modes, along with Jelbi “stations”, which are vehicle and service hubs located near high-foot-traffic areas throughout Berlin. (The Jelbi stations are very popular with Berliners.)
In addition to all public transit, the platform has integrated around 45,000 vehicles, including bikes, scooters and mopeds. We’re also proud to say that the App Store rating for Jelbi has never gone below 4.0, and currently has a rating of 4.7, the highest of any available MaaS platform.
Even though we were selected for the initial building of Jelbi, we knew from day one that we would be up against many other industry players when it came time to officially compete for the Jelbi tender. After going through a competitive process, we’re pleased to have been selected to continue with the project.
“We’re proud to continue our mission of decarbonizing mobility and encouraging the shift to sustainable transport. Now that we’ve been selected to scale up the Jelbi platform to a never-before-seen size and level of complexity for MaaS, it paves the way for similar initiatives in the future.”
Martynas Gudonavičius, CEO of Trafi
The selection criteria were varied, but we were chosen mostly for our user-friendly and practical app design, our previous experience with city tenders, and our uniquely deep integrations.
Our mission is to create solutions that can help the world move towards sustainable mobility and away from carbonized private transport. Now, as we look to scale the world’s largest MaaS platform in Berlin, we’ll stick to what we know best: building flexible, accessible mobility products that people love to use.
Check out the official Jelbi website or learn how we help cities build and maintain their own mobility platforms.
The final part of a commute or journey is often the trickiest for travelers. Whilst a mainline train or metro service might get them into the city, getting to that station from their homes in the first place can prove difficult enough that they simply opt to drive instead.
Even in the city, with access to more public services and shared micro-mobility options, it’s not a seamless experience. Whilst travelers may easily start a trip on a public bike or e-scooter, ending it can involve having to go out of the way to find a designated parking bay. Though some cities allow ‘free roaming’ where scooters and bikes can be parked anywhere, this risks leading to eyesores and public nuisances with sidewalks cluttered and paths blocked.
To overcome the challenge of convenience, better enable the last part of travelers’ journeys, and increase the appeal of shared mobility in the process, cities are turning to a new, innovative solution: mobility hubs, such as those that BVG has opened up in Berlin and integrated into their Jelbi app.
Placed at designated points on streets and near major transit stations, mobility hubs bring together a selection of shared mobility options in one place. Depending on the size of the hub, these can feature anything from some scooters and bikes right through to larger shared mobility options like mopeds, cars, or vans. With convenient access to this menu of mobility, travelers can more easily find what they need and quickly switch between transport options.
An added benefit of mobility hubs is their highly visible presence in public spaces. They’re usually situated close to stations or placed in strategic spots along the street. In reclaiming space from private car use, cities can present shared mobility as a new, viable alternative travel option.
But their appeal doesn’t stop there. Advanced mobility hubs have other beneficial features such as covered communal rest areas, charging points, and informational points (e.g. digital screens with real-time public transportation information).
In Berlin, BVG is leading the charge on mobility hubs having successfully deployed several hubs across the city, near to S-Bahn and subway stations. Integrated into their award-winning Jelbi App (powered by Trafi), the mobility hubs come in two varieties: Jelbi Stations are larger mobility hubs that include cars and vans, and smaller ‘Jelbi Points’ offer access to micro-mobility options.
Since mobility hubs exist to bring shared mobility services together, integrating different mobility offerings is key to success. It’s not enough to just have the options available in one place. Even with a selection of mobility options available, a mobility hub’s appeal is limited if a different app and account are needed for each mobility option. Giving travelers an option that doesn’t involve time-consuming app-hopping is a much better alternative that encourages the use of MaaS.
The Trafi MaaS Suite powers mobility within major cities around the world. Boasting the largest network of deep integrations with mobility service providers, we make it effortless for users to switch between mobility options with just one app.
Our users can find, book, travel with and pay for all the services in their city with just one app. At the tap of a smartphone screen, they can view real-time transit information, unlock vehicles, buy tickets and customize their travel experience. Fully white-labeled, our solution can be tailored with your company’s brand details like logos and colors, making it truly a part of your existing transit network for users.
Book a demo or reach out to sales@trafi.com
These days it’s nearly impossible to talk about mobility data without mentioning data protection. Mobility users, businesses and governments alike are rightfully concerned about how, by whom and for what purposes the data they generate is being evaluated. At the same time, existing regulation surrounding data protection – a sector still in its infancy – is often not only unnecessarily burdensome or confusing to users, but also blocks innovation.
That’s where well-organized data governance comes into play. The European Commission recently released a communication outlining their mission to “put EU transport on track for the future.” Like Trafi, the EC also believes that “digitalization will become an indispensable driver for the modernization of the entire (transport) system”. The communication goes on to highlight the importance of exchanging and giving access to data and ensuring “key digital enablers” are in place across the transport industry.
At Trafi, we applaud these developments. In fact, by building upon the EC’s vision and incorporating additional recommendations from the European Data Protection Board, we believe it’s possible to go even further in addressing the tradeoff between protecting individual privacy and ensuring that value can be extracted from mobility data. As such, we’re proposing a user-centric solution.
This framework is based on:
Following these main points would let users gain unprecedented transparency and control over their data and help to build trust. After gaining trust from users, organizations are poised to be in a better position to innovate and drive sustainable change. Defining the privacy/innovation tradeoff, something no one has effectively managed to do thus far, is made possible under this framework.
We’re excited to announce that at the beginning of 2021, we’ll be publishing an in-depth white paper that examines our proposed framework in detail.
We hope the white paper will provide insights that change the way you think about mobility data sharing in a future context.
Check out our blog and follow our Linkedin to stay tuned or contact us.
We’re very excited to announce the launch of our Mobility Impact Series!
The words “sustainability” and “mobility” are often mentioned in the same breath. As an industry, mobility is defined by innovations that claim to be based on the common goal of creating a more sustainable and healthier future for our cities and our planet.
But these “green” future visions often leave watchers of the mobility space scratching their heads: what does the term sustainable mobility really mean, anyway?
At Trafi, we’ve been helping cities build and enhance their mobility systems for over 10 years. We’re often approached about the sustainable impact of shared mobility, which is why we’ve decided to delve deeper into the topic with our new Mobility Impact Series.
In upcoming articles, we’ll be discussing “car-topias”, pedestrian-friendly cities, travel patterns and a variety of other subjects. Stay tuned to our LinkedIn channel and check our blog regularly for updates.
Without further ado, read on to learn more the roots of car-centric societies – and why the mobility landscape today is in need of an update.
If anyone still has doubts about cars being a hurdle on the road to sustainable mobility, there are numerous shocking statistics in circulation that could change their mind, as seen below.
There are plenty more:
These numbers aren’t new – scientists, activists and some industry players mention them frequently. However, sustainable mobility is rarely considered in its historical context. Seven decades ago, car manufacturers were selling the cutting-edge dream of a convenient, liberating and comfortable life, finally available to the middle classes for the reasonable price of one automobile; today, digital mobility innovators are disrupting old mobility habits with promises of greener, safer, friendlier cities.
In essence, the core of their sales strategies are very similar: new, exciting mobility solutions have the power to transform our lives for the better. A myriad of solutions on the market today are aimed at improving bits and pieces of the system, but rarely tackle the root of the issue itself. Which of these promises are truly constructive waypoints on the road to liveable cities, and which are just bells and whistles distracting from bigger issues at hand?
Back when the VW Lemon (recognizable as the VW Beetle today) hit the American market in 1960, the advertising campaign surrounding its launch caused an incredible stir. “Think small”, the campaign’s slogan, was revolutionary, changing advertising forever and helping the tiny and somewhat odd-looking VW Lemon cruise its way into the luxury car market in the US – and permanently changing the way people perceived cars in the process.
Up until that point, cars were shiny, large, and loud; the compact, rounder Lemon offered a stark contrast to American muscle cars and appealed to an entirely new segment of car owners. It made simpler cars fashionable, democratizing cars and making them accessible to everyone.
Of course, advertising agencies aren’t the only ones responsible for societies and cities designed around cars. The entire urban planning system in the US encouraged car ownership and viewed automobiles as a convenient, modern transport solution. In the meantime, however, the American transit system was being rebuilt with the goal of linking suburbs to city centers, rather than linking suburbs with other suburbs or more rural areas.
Add cheap gasoline, large investments in highways and a whole range of car-friendly consumer services like drive-in cinemas and drive-through restaurants to the mix, and you end up with an obvious conclusion: cars were practically destined to become the ultimate symbols of a comfortable, modern, convenience-driven lifestyle. The rest, as they say, was history.
Between the end of WWII and 1955, the number of cars on US roads doubled from 25 million to over 50 million. The trend quickly shifted to Europe, where new industry needs and changing economy led to skyrocketing mass production of individual vehicles. During the decade of 1950 to 1960, European car manufacturers launched some of their now-legendary models – Citroen’s 2CV stayed in production until 1990! – and the streets of the continent were quickly filled with motorized status symbols.
Transport demand is expected to grow all across the world in the coming decades as the global population increases, incomes rise, and more people can afford cars.The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that global transport (measured in passenger kilometers) will double and car ownership rates will increase by 60%.
Even as everyone from impassioned teenagers to conservative politicians are demanding more sustainable solutions, further construction on the “car-topia” we’re living in continues unchecked. Hollow value propositions promote electrification and autonomous technology as the path to a better, sustainable future, without telling consumers and investors what that means in explicit terms.
At Trafi, we believe in cities without privately owned cars. We have a different approach to mobility, and we think that genuinely effective and accessible mobility should be viewed as a service and a system that gets its strength from a diverse group of collaborators, leaders and city planners. The good news is that there are plenty of cities who have also pledged to work towards more cohesive and comprehensive mobility services for their citizens, and many have already implemented groundbreaking strategies – Berlin, Zurich, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris come to mind, but the market for Mobility-as-a-Service is growing in Latin America and Asia as well.
This vitally important shift to sustainable mobility – one based on concrete data rather than shiny new technology – simply can’t be achieved without the help of multiple mobility actors and particularly without the collaboration of the private and public mobility sectors. Governments, corporations, innovators and architects, and to a lesser degree consumers all have an important role to play. If we unite under the banner of protecting our planet, our cities and the people living in them, sustainable travel habits and a new way of thinking about mobility will become the norm.
Learn about how the Trafi MaaS Suite is enabling global sustainable solutions here or contact us for more info.
By BVG Jelbi and mobility institute berlin
At the peak of the coronavirus crisis, the mib published the study Beyond the lockdown. This study analyzed the pandemic’s impact on urban mobility and public transport (PT) in the medium and long terms.
Since then, Europe has entered into the second predicted phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the calibration phase, a lot has happened. One notable trend has been a relaxation of restrictions established during the crisis phase. However, in many regions, the number of cases is rising rapidly again. As predicted in the previous study, this is accompanied by renewed, stricter containment measures in the affected regions.
Given the renewed increase in infection numbers and the uncertainty it causes, it is crucial to take a closer look at how the pandemic has impacted mobility over the first few months of the crisis. This paper focuses on multimodal mobility offers and its changes during the early months of the pandemic.
Multimodal offers can help keep customers connected to the network of PT operators. This is particularly important during the pandemic, as risk perceptions can sometimes change quickly, leading to general volatility in transportation choices.
Mib, together with Jelbi, dove into the data to explore this hypothesis. To do so, booking behavior was analyzed in the multimodal app Jelbi and compared to booking behavior in the purely PT apps of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) (FahrInfo and Ticket app).
▪ During the lockdown, booking patterns of PT and shared mobility offers on Jelbi reversed. In pre-pandemic times, around 80% of bookings were for PT services, and during the peak of the crisis, it dropped to 20%. Meanwhile, four out of five bookings were for shared mobility services.
▪ Customers switched to short-term PT tickets. After the lockdown, the purchase of short-term tickets recovered much faster than longer-term tickets.
▪ Customers returned faster to short-term PT products using multimodal platforms. Compared to other BVG apps (FahrInfo and Ticket app), bookings for short- and medium-term tickets in Jelbi recovered significantly quicker.
Jelbi, the BVG MaaS project, integrates Public Transport (PT) and shared mobility options, including the BVG ridesharing service BerlKönig into a single solution for Berliners to find, plan, book, and pay for all their trips with one account.
In April, the purchase of PT tickets in the Jelbi app fell by 88% compared to January. At the same time, bookings of shared mobility services increased by 6%.* The latter have increased significantly compared to PT bookings during the crisis period (see Figure 1).
In the pre-pandemic period, PT tickets accounted for about 80% of all bookings within the Jelbi app. During the peak of the crisis, this figure dropped to 20%. At that time, four out of five bookings were for shared mobility (calendar week 16 from April 13th to 19th).
By the beginning of July, as the effects of the pandemic had eased up, the share of PT bookings recovered However, shared mobility services remained at 40% of all bookings.
After the peak of the crisis passed, PT ticket sales recovered. However, an evident change in the type of tickets sold was observed. The sale of single and 4-trip tickets recovered significantly faster than medium- and long-term products such as daily, weekly, and monthly tickets (see Figures 2, 3 and 4).**
Looking across the different BVG apps – FahrInfo, the BVG Ticket app and Jelbi – sales of short-term tickets recovered by 62% by calendar week 26. Medium- and long-term ticket sales recovered significantly slower during the same period (39% and 37% respectively by calendar week 26***). These findings suggest that customers choose to buy more flexible products as the situation develops.
The comparison between the multimodal Jelbi app and purely PT apps provided by the BVG is striking. In the mib study Beyond the immediate crisis, it was argued that multimodal solutions like Jelbi could strengthen customer loyalty by keeping users in their PT-centric app environment, even through volatile periods. If the number of infections was to increase, users could quickly and easily switch from bus to shared mobility services within one mobility ecosystem. More importantly, when the number of infections drops, users can return to buses and trains just as quickly.
The comparison of booking figures across the BVG apps supports this hypothesis: After lockdown restrictions were relaxed, booking figures for short-term products through Jelbi recovered faster than through the purely PT apps (especially from week 20-26, see Figure 2). Bookings of day tickets, tourist products, and 7-day tickets also recovered faster on Jelbi from May to June (week 19-23, see Figure 3). Only the bookings of monthly tickets recovered slower in Jelbi than the other apps (see Figure 4).
The numbers show that multimodal solutions like Jelbi provide customers with flexibility in times of crisis and make it easier for them to return to PT. In the long term, the trend toward higher flexibility could become even more critical for any PT company, especially in the next few months, after passengers have gotten used to more flexible modes of transport.
Therefore, it is crucial that multimodality is consistently considered by authorities and PT companies when planning their mobility services. As the example of Jelbi shows, the model of multimodal integration into one single platform is particularly attractive. Customers are kept in the PT ecosystem and tend to return to their services faster.
However, a fully integrated multimodal platform solution is not always required. For example, ridesharing providers like BerlKönig**** and MOIA***** offered night-time traffic in German cities during the crisis. In another example, the owners of longer-term PT tickets had the opportunity to use kick-scooters at a discount. Even on this smaller scale, multimodal offers can help ensure mobility in times of increased risk of infection.
mib | www.mobilityinstitute.com
Dr. Jörn Richert | Head of Consulting & Policy | jri@mobilityinstitute.com
Samuel Schrader | Business Development Manager | sas@mobilityinstitute.com
Jelbi | info@jelbi.de | www.jelbi.de
© mib and BVG Jelbi, 2020
* mib (2020). Beyond the immediate crisis- The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and public transport strategy. Available at: https://mobilityinstitute.com/en/blog-en/new-sars-cov-2-strategy-paper
** The zero mark represents the sale at the crisis low point (CW 13, 2020) and 100% the sale at pre-crisis level (CW 8, 2020). The calculation formula for the recovery factor is as follows: (time of consideration – crisis low point) / (pre-crisis level – crisis low point)
*** The figures represent the average recovery across the three considered BVG apps.
**** MOViNC (2020). Corona: BerlKönig fährt Gesundheitspersonal – und das kostenlos. Available at: https://movinc.de/carsharing/corona-berlkoenig-faehrt-gesundheitspersonal-und-das-kostenlos/
***** MOIA (2020). MOIA verstärkt Nachtverkehr im Auftrag der Stadt Hamburg. Available at: https://www.moia.io/de-DE/presse/moia-verstaerkt-nachtverkehr-im-auftrag-der-stadt-hamburg
At Trafi we are excited to be the first MaaS provider to introduce personal bike routing, available in all our global rollouts, and as a stand-alone bike routing engine.
Bicycles have quickly won a more significant role in our daily commute in the past years. Between 30 and 40% kilometers a person rides on a bike are on home-work trips. Cycling brings significant benefits, not only personal ones to the cyclists like moving faster through the city and being healthier because of the active moving, but also environmental ones. According to the EU Cyclist Federation, cycling saves emissions equaling more than 16 million tons of CO2 equivalents per year in the EU. This corresponds to the total yearly CO2 emissions of a whole country like Croatia.
Moreover, cycling is getting more attention and encouragement from the government; for example, Utrecht in the Netherlands opened the world’s largest underground bicycle parking lot to support commuting by bikes. The COVID-19 pandemic has incentivized many cities worldwide to invest in infrastructure for biking & scooter options to support people’s shifting needs. In 2020 alone, almost 900km of new bicycle lanes have been created across the EU.
Planning a journey with a bike. In Trafi rollouts bike routing information is found on the “nearby” screen or the “route search” window. When a specific public transit stop is selected, a new icon in the “nearby” screen denotes which PT vehicles allow private bikes. In the route search results window, there is a new section dedicated to bike routing options. An intermodal routing option (a route showcasing the connected bicycle and public transit route) is displayed regularly within search results.
Bike routing algorithm. To provide the most-up-to-date bike routes and as accurate arrival time to the destination as possible, we use a combination of complex proprietary routing algorithms, real-time traffic information, OpenStreetMap, and NASA elevation data that is updated regularly. To calculate the routes, Trafi’s bike routing algorithm takes a number of criteria into account – available bike lanes, regular roads, side streets, incline, and elevation along the path, to name a few. Soon riders will be able to choose which route they prefer: the shortest (probably a bit steeper), flattest, or bicycle lane exclusive options. Road data changes fast, and we are working hard to provide the newest and most accurate information.
More and more people opt for biking, which is good news for cities, the environment, and personal riders’ health. We are here to support and incentivize their trips with a best-in-class experience.
Founded in Vilnius, Lithuania, Trafi has been revolutionizing urban mobility since 2013. Our MaaS platform is designed to run even the most complex transport systems and has been trusted by Berlin (BVG), Brussels (STIB), Portsmouth & Southampton (Solent Transport), Munich (MVG), and Zurich (SBB).
Trafi’s mission is to empower cities with state-of-the-art MaaS solution that helps to tackle their mobility challenges and to achieve ambitious sustainability objectives. Our white-label product offers all the features and components needed to launch your own-branded MaaS service. With more than 50 existing deep integrations to mobility service providers and payment facilitators, we help to reduce risk, cost, and time-to-launch for new services.
As public life starts to move into the post-COVID-19 phase, the question remains how urban mobility will adapt to this “new normal.” From today’s perspective on the weeks and months behind us, the trajectory for the future becomes clearer.
The urban mobility ecosystem adapted quickly and flexibly to changing customer demands. This ability to match the overall supply of mobility modes with individual preferences on the demand side will be a key success factor for cities from now on. The modal split will look different in a post-COVID-19 world and will be even more fast-moving.
In this paper, we use the example of Berlin to compare the direct implications of the pandemic on urban mobility behavior, especially the relative use of different modes of transportation before and during the lockdown phase). Moreover, we will analyze the indirect consequences of a changed mobility behavior such as changes in air quality and in the parking situation. We present four different scenarios analyzing in which direction future mobility might shift.
Our findings are backed by data from the public transportation provider in Berlin (BVG), Mobility as a Service platform provider Trafi, as well as mobility analytics companies MotionTag and Bliq.
Founded in Vilnius, Lithuania, Trafi has been revolutionizing urban mobility since 2013. Our MaaS platform is designed to run even the most complex transport systems and has been trusted by Berlin (BVG), Brussels (STIB), Portsmouth & Southampton (Solent Transport), Munich (MVG), and Zurich (SBB).
Trafi’s mission is to empower cities with state-of-the-art MaaS solution that helps to tackle their mobility challenges and to achieve ambitious sustainability objectives. Our white-label product offers all the features and components needed to launch your own-branded MaaS service. With more than 50 existing deep integrations to mobility service providers and payment facilitators, we help to reduce risk, cost, and time-to-launch for new services.
When we launched Jelbi in Berlin last year we were faced with a challenge to handle radically different mobility services within a single European city. Now we can say with certainty that it was a huge achievement not only for all of us at Trafi but for the mobility industry as a whole. Nevertheless, the only way for us to top it was to take on an even more complex, multi-city mobility network and make it even better. This week we are presenting you with yumuv – world’s first regional Mobility as a Service with subscriptions. Owned by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), public transport operators (PTOs) in Zurich (VBZ), Basel (BVB), and Bern (BERNMOBIL), and powered by Trafi.
Of all countries embracing public transportation as the backbone of urban mobility, Switzerland stands second to none. From their synchronized scheduling of all forms of public transportation to their unified ticketing system, this mountain nation is an example where even the most affluent people rely on public transportation every single day. Thus, when we took the task of launching yumuv, we didn’t flinch in basing the whole product experience in public transportation. It only makes sense when you have such a firm ground to stand on.
However, using public transportation to move between Zurich, Basel, and Bern is not the same as relying on shared mobility inside the cities. Our lives are too chaotic to expect public transportation to cover all our use cases. Nevertheless, instead of falling back to owning private cars, the younger generation is getting their driver’s licenses later, if at all. According to one study done in Geneva, the home to the world-famous auto show, driver’s licenses issued to people under 25 years went from 75% 18 years ago to 65% in 2017. It shows a trend that younger Swiss citizens want to incorporate shared mobility services into their daily lives. For us, this was a clear confirmation that we had to completely integrate well-known micromobility brands like Tier, Voi, and BOND into a single, holistic multimodal service.
So, the takeaway here: no single provider, operator, or solution could have made all of this happen. Moreover, it would be impossible to have a successful Mobility as a Service without taking the already excellent public transportation backbone and enhancing it with trusted mobility service providers (MSPs). And for a project like yumuv to work at all, you have to have a single joint regional entity to orchestrate Mobility as a Service for and between three Swiss cities.
A multi-city approach
For a country the size of Switzerland, where you usually commute to work, school or university from another city or village, can reach your downtown in mere minutes and have immediate access to the Alps, we chose a different focal point: a completely regional, multi-city experience is more important than integrating complete intracity mobility of just one city.
Micromobility supplements public transportation
We still hear hypotheticals how micromobility should complement public transportation. Meanwhile, yumuv is pushing the envelope from day one and connects these modes seamlessly: there can be no first and last-mile solutions, if electric bikes and kick scooters are not readily available in the same place you plan your public transportation trips, and vice versa.
Mobility subscriptions
Most Swiss citizens have public transportation passes, and this suggested that extending them with mobility subscriptions for micromobility was the natural way to go. With yumuv, people can pay a flat rate for rides with electric bikes and kick scooters. This mechanism ensures that they can have a cheaper and smoother exploration of new mobility options.
Taking data privacy seriously
With yumuv, we also follow our own principle of personal data privacy being a human right. There is no better way to deliver on this deeply held conviction than to create a product that is fully functional even if travelers don’t want to share their location data either with our platform, or our partners. Certain features become less helpful but people can still effortlessly look for options that make the most sense for their situation.
Customizable off-the-shelf solution
Finally, for us at Trafi it’s very special that yumuv is sharing the same robust technology we use to power Jelbi and our other MaaS cities. Of course, we had to adjust and customize for Swiss regional specifics. However, our core functionality remains intact and is shared across other Mobility as a Service solutions, allowing for easier rollouts of upcoming features.
In other words, with yumuv, Mobility as a Service is entering its Act II. The launch of a completely integrated holistic multimodal service for a single city was exciting, but it was only the setup. Now, focusing on a multi-city regional approach and creating a single payment option like subscriptions opens new, yet to-be-explored avenues.
Founded in Vilnius, Lithuania, Trafi has been revolutionizing urban mobility since 2013. Our MaaS platform is designed to run even the most complex transport systems and has been trusted by Berlin (BVG), Brussels (STIB), Portsmouth & Southampton (Solent Transport), Munich (MVG), and Zurich (SBB).
Trafi’s mission is to empower cities with state-of-the-art MaaS solution that helps to tackle their mobility challenges and to achieve ambitious sustainability objectives. Our white-label product offers all the features and components needed to launch your own-branded MaaS service. With more than 50 existing deep integrations to mobility service providers and payment facilitators, we help to reduce risk, cost, and time-to-launch for new services.
Navigating cities has become an extremely complicated task. MaaS promises to guide travelers effortlessly through the so-called jungle of the urban mobility network. One of the severe challenges that stands in the way of living up to this promise is disruptions, which happen on a daily basis, especially in larger cities. The majority of urban dwellers can relate to being extremely frustrated by being late to work because of a disrupted line. In these situations, what travelers need the most are guidance and reassurance.
At Trafi, we took this challenge very seriously — to provide top-notch real-time disruption updates, to allow travelers to plan their door-to-door trips effortlessly even when disruptions occur. Firstly, we analyzed the currently available disruption services on the market and identified multiple problems, and then attempted to tackle them.
Based on these observations, we designed a solution to tackle these problems heads on.
Types of alerts sent to travelers:
The most granular disturbances on a direction and stop level for planned and unplanned disruptions.
Planned disruption information comes from the official Public Transport Authority (PTA) sources that we receive through API. Trafi’s system sends automatic updates every 5 minutes, checking for the newest information from the PTA source. E.g. canceled bus line, change of route length, etc. Our system indicates not only that there is a disruption per route level, but also indicated it for a particular disrupted direction (track) for each schedule, meaning that users who are traveling in another direction on the same affected route are not bothered or misled by redundant information.
Unplanned disruption updates are derived from real-time mobility situations. Let’s say that there is a major congestion due to a huge storm. As a result, four busses are stuck and have not been able to move for the past 35 minutes. Thanks to real-time vehicle tracking, Trafi will spot this and immediately send a disruption alert.
For example, Berliners are warned about all service disruptions in one place -the BVG Jelbi app-, including U-Bahn, BVG buses, BVG trams, and S-Bahn disruptions, which cover 95% of the total annual public transport passenger traffic. And soon we will reach 100 % of trip coverage.
Trafi prepared a toolset for cities to publish disruptions manually to cover all possible cases.
Official sources do not always provide all the disruption information and sometimes it requires adding them manually. The lockdown situation during COVID-19 proved that changes for public transport were made quicker than updates were available in official sources. E.g. information such as front bus doors won’t be used to enter a bus anymore, or that it is required to wear a mask if a passenger wants to enter the vehicle were not part of official disruptions but yet highly important for people to know.
Our proprietary tool allows MaaS operators to manually post disruption information: not only by writing a message but also marking what lines, schedules, directions, or stops were affected and how.
The disruption function is now live in the BVG Jelbi app powered by Trafi. The ability to provide the most accurate and granular public transport disruption information sets Trafi apart. But we do not stop here, we strive for the best support of the travelers, thus next we are working on:
– Informing users on the way. E.g. if a traveler is on the way and disruption happens that affects their journey, they will be informed.
– Supporting replanning of the trip to navigate around disruptions. In addition to suggesting another public transport route, we plan to help people discover other modes, and intermodal routes to reach their destination on time.
Founded in Vilnius, Lithuania, Trafi has been revolutionizing urban mobility since 2013. Our MaaS platform is designed to run even the most complex transport systems and has been trusted by Berlin (BVG), Brussels (STIB), Portsmouth & Southampton (Solent Transport), Munich (MVG), and Zurich (SBB).
Trafi’s mission is to empower cities with state-of-the-art MaaS solution that helps to tackle their mobility challenges and to achieve ambitious sustainability objectives. Our white-label product offers all the features and components needed to launch your own-branded MaaS service. With more than 50 existing deep integrations to mobility service providers and payment facilitators, we help to reduce risk, cost, and time-to-launch for new services.
Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) is Berlin’s public transport authority. It makes sure that Berliners are on the move — they manage the city’s U-Bahn, tram, bus, replacement services (Ersatzverkehr, EV), and ferry networks. BVG responds flexibly to the requirements of a city in which around 3.4 million people live and which is continually changing. Network density, clock frequency, and operating times are at a very high level, making Berlin’s local transport one of the most complex networks to organize in the world. BVG is an attractive and environmentally friendly alternative to individual transport and part of a flexible transport concept.
At the heart of BVG’s smart mobility strategy, #Berlinsteigtum is an initiative that connects the whole shared mobility offer in Berlin into a single marketplace to provide an attractive alternative to private car usage to all residents.
“With Jelbi, we want to help shape the future of mobility in Berlin by bringing all the pieces of the mobility puzzle together and giving the users an attractive alternative to private car usage. Our solution based on Trafi’s technology platform integrates into one app not only public transport but also all other forms of shared mobility in the city. The people of Berlin can now seamlessly plan, book, and pay on-demand for all their transportation needs with one single app and account.”
Jakob Michael Heider, Head of Jelbi at BVG.
BVG understood that creating such a product from scratch would require a lot of human capital and time. But there was no time to spare. The Public Transport authority, therefore, decided to look for a solution. Thus BVG and Trafi, one of the MaaS solution leaders, started talking to each other. From these conversations, Jelbi was born.
Learn more about the roadmap for Mobility as a Service.
BVG Jelbi was launched in just six months and built on Trafi MaaS Suite. Trafi provided not only a plug and play white label solution that was customized to BVG’s branding, but also a sophisticated MaaS API (backend) system to power it.
BVG Jelbi integrates all public transport and shared mobility options into a one-stop-shop for Berliners to find, plan, book, and pay for all their trips. It covers all rider’s needs such as assistance planning and routes discovery, real-time public transport information and shared mobility vehicle location & availability, a streamlined payment solution for any integrated mobility service, as well as the possibility to compare the duration & cost of each trip.
BVG is responsible for talking to mobility service providers (MSPs) and handling contracts with them. From the start, BVG was strong-minded and aimed only for deep level integrations with MSPs. It means allowing users to access and pay for their services directly through the BVG Jelbi app.
Trafi handles all the integrations and makes sure that they work flawlessly. Trafi’s MaaS Suite upholds all the integrations and communication between the MSP systems. The payments for MSP services booked through Jelbi are managed directly through the integrated Payment Service Provider (PSP). The PSP charges money from users and directly transfers it to the MSPs, ensuring a quick and direct payment to each provider. Neither Trafi nor the BVG plays any role in the payment process.
Trafi has integrated BVG tickets into the BVG Jelbi app, thus ensuring that Berliners can follow the familiar process of ticket purchase. The digital ticket incorporates a QR code that is easily scannable and recognizable. Trafi also incorporated animated security features into the ticket, indicating that the ticket is active in order to prevent fraud.
Trafi’s MaaS Suite does the heavy lifting for all integrations such as payments, ticketing systems, user documents, driver licenses, and phone validations, amongst others. Its proprietary routing algorithms also provide unimodal and intermodal trip suggestions. Static and real-time data is captured and enhanced to guarantee the most accurate ETAs and route suggestions.
“When BVG started to look for a trusted partner to launch a Mobility-as-a-Service solution in Berlin, we were mostly looking for speed, agility, and top-notch customer experience. These are exactly the things that Trafi offered us. As an independent start-up, Trafi brought us the possibility to integrate all partners in record time. And even more importantly, we share the same vision: letting cities orchestrate their mobility networks to drive the push from private to shared mobility.”
Jakob Michael Heider, Head of Jelbi at BVG
Founded in Vilnius, Lithuania, Trafi has been revolutionizing urban mobility since 2013. Our MaaS platform is designed to run even the most complex transport systems and has been trusted by Berlin (BVG), Brussels (STIB), Portsmouth & Southampton (Solent Transport), Munich (MVG), and Zurich (SBB).
Trafi’s mission is to empower cities with state-of-the-art MaaS solution that helps to tackle their mobility challenges and to achieve ambitious sustainability objectives. Our white-label product offers all the features and components needed to launch your own-branded MaaS service. With more than 50 existing deep integrations to mobility service providers and payment facilitators, we help to reduce risk, cost, and time-to-launch for new services.
