Ridecell
The Shared Mobility Revolution: What It Is and How You Can Take Advantage
The shared mobility revolution is well underway. But what is it, what’s driving it, and how can organizations take advantage?
This eBook explores economic, environmental, regulatory, technological and social factors driving shared mobility and its implications for companies that operate corporate vehicle fleets. We’ll also look at emerging business models that leverage shared fleet vehicles to strengthen customer relationships and create new revenue streams. Lastly, we’ll explore ways they can enhance employee engagement and corporate responsibility, thereby improving quality of life for everyone.
People, especially millennials, are embracing alternatives to private car ownership — and their employers should be, too. When combined, public-transport, micromobility and shared mobility, enabled by technology and easy-to-use apps, together create a credible, more attractive alternative to the classic ‘one-person, one-vehicle’ paradigm.
At the same time, fleets are transitioning from owned and operated in-house vehicles, to shared, automated cars, vans, delivery trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles. Fleet management is changing — the dividing line will increasingly be between the organizations that lead the new mobility revolution, and those that were too slow to adapt.
What’s Driving the Shared Mobility Revolution?
Private vehicle ownership — especially of the internal-combustion sort — is increasingly perceived as ‘unnecessary’. But what comes in its place?
There are a wide variety of factors driving the current mobility revolution. These include not only economic and environmental concerns, but also technology trends, transitory lifestyles, changing regulatory conditions, improved public transport, and the rise of ridehailing and carsharing.
For a variety of reasons, consumer attitudes are quickly shifting. Within the next decade, not owning a vehicle will become the norm — not just accepted, but embraced by a new generation of mobility users (no longer called ‘drivers’). This defines an end of the car industry as we know it, and a rise of new choices for consumers, for employees, and for corporations.
Relative to their combustion-engine counterparts, electric vehicles will be much cheaper to maintain and use. On top of this, sharing vehicles implies a reduced cost-per-mile travelled for both businesses and end-users. Add gradual automation of vehicles (and a resulting reduction in accident rates), and you have a trifecta of economic factors driving a mobility revolution.
The Extraordinary Rise of Carsharing and Ridehailing
Ridehailing and carsharing are two of the most significant and fastest- growing shared mobility services that are enabling an end to car ownership. Carsharing — whereby users have access to a fleet of cars they can (still) drive themselves — is forecast to grow into a US$4 billion market, just in Europe by 2024. Ridehailing — a sector that includes companies like Uber, Lyft, Careem, Didi and Grab — is even forecast to grow from US$1.2 billion in 2017 to US$133.5 billion in 2023, according to Statista and Graphical Research.
Carsharing and ridehailing are succeeding precisely where car ownership is failing: cost and ease of use. The burden of cost and maintenance that comes with owning a vehicle is a yoke that younger generations (and many older people too) are unwilling to bear. This appeal and simplicity is not lost on corporate users. Uber has triumphed over car-rental and taxis on business trips, and has become the single biggest recipient of corporate travel expenses among US companies — ahead of all hotel chains, restaurants, and airlines.
