We visited Traffex – a road maintenance, traffic management and road safety event – with ConeRQ. The show provided an opportunity to reflect on developments in transport and mobility technology, and to consider what’s on the roadmap for the future.
Getting from A to B. Think back to the noughties and this usually involved a select few options: walking, driving your own car or riding your own bicycle, taking a bus, tram or train, hailing a taxi or ordering a minicab, booking a flight. Navigation usually involved pre-planning, roadmaps, paper leaflets picked up from stations, travel agents – or simply winging it. Costs needed to be determined and payments made in person, over the phone, or via clunky websites. Getting from A to B usually took time and money and allowed for little in the way of flexibility.
Today, we’re presented with a vast array of options for every element of ‘A to B.’ ‘Boris Bikes’ (later Santander Cycles) arrived in London in 2010, paving the way for other shared cycle hire schemes across the UK. In the space of a couple of years, airlines like BA, easyJet and then Ryanair unveiled mobile apps. Uber launched in London in 2012 and was followed by numerous other ride-hailing apps. TfL electrified a portion of its Cycles fleet in 2022, adding to the number of shared electric bike and scooter hire programmes in towns and cities across the UK.
Going electric
These developments and roll-outs have been powered by innovations in software and mobility app development, as well as in the transport industry itself. Take electric vehicles (EVs). Thanks in large part to competition from the Chinese market, the cost of EVs is going down, while the numbers hitting our roads is going up.
Alongside this we’re seeing innovations in technology to enable hydrogen production, storage, and utilisation. According to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, almost half of the buses, coaches and minibuses registered last year were either electric or hydrogen, and as a result the UK is now home to Europe’s largest national zero-emission bus stock.
Innovation in one sector encourages innovation in the other. In 2022 Uber, for instance, launched the Comfort Electric feature in the US, which allows app users to request a driver in a zero-emission vehicle. As well as innovation from tech companies, consumer sentiment around sustainable travel is also impacting software developments in mobility apps.
The airline industry, for instance, is one of the worst offenders in this regard and is (gradually) developing its travel and mobility platforms to address this. In 2022, BA, for example, integrated a new tool that allows its customers to understand, calculate and address travel emissions. COllaborate calculates the environmental impact of a flight and allows customers to buy sustainable aviation fuel to act on their emissions, or purchase carbon offsets. The platform can be accessed via the BA website.
Innovations steering the market
This is just one example. We could also point to how innovation in payments technology has made it easier for travellers to buy tickets and pay for services in-app. Devices have also been transformed into tickets and means of payment themselves. This has been facilitated by improvements in ticket scanners in public transit stations and portable devices used by transport staff.
We now have so much choice in how we plan, take, pay for, offset and review how we travel. Unlike the noughties and earlier, we can potentially do this in less time, for less money and with greater flexibility. However, this is dependent on continued modernisation in the market and innovation from app and software developers.
The alternative – falling behind – results in frustrated customers who are unlikely to re-use an app or platform, and perhaps leave negative reviews either in-app (yet another feature now integrated into many platforms!) or on third party sites. Legacy technology and outdated approaches can result in failed payments, complicated user interfaces (difficulty finding customer service contact details will be familiar to many), outdated timetables, failures in updates in ‘real time’ travel information, and so on.
Invest, understand, collaborate
To avoid this, transport companies must continue to invest in mobility and transport platform development. This means keeping abreast with developments in key sectors like green energy and public policy. The launch of new public transport options or local council restrictions, for instance, could create competition or curtail service launches.
It means understanding the needs and pain points of your target customer base – be that commuters, foreign or domestic holidaymakers, keen walkers etc. – as well as wider public sentiment. It requires research, experimentation with and integration of the latest technology and features into your platform or app. This could be new options for cashless payments, AI-enabled personalisation, reward schemes or crowdsourced data.
Finally, it means working with a team that can help you create or update your platform or app. If you want to find out more about how you can stay on the cutting edge of transport and mobility technology – or you want advice about how to get started, get in touch with one of our software developers today.