MaaS modelling: a review of factors, customers’ profiles, choices and business models

Abstract Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) system is regarded as one of the emerging solutions to offer integrated, seamless, and flexible multi-modal mobility services as an alternative to privately owned mobility resources. MaaS is expected to change the way users will choose their modes of transport to reach their daily activities, and how service providers will generate profits, cooperate, and compete. To successfully deploy MaaS to reach the intended goals, it is critical to develop feasible and sustainable models that capture the diverse needs of customers as well as the diverse and often competing objectives of service providers. This paper aims to provide a general modelling framework and a critical and descriptive analysis of the relevant literature relating all main actors in the MaaS ecosystem, and identify and discuss all factors that are considered relevant, focusing on the actor’s decision-making processes and their correlations. This review shows the large variety and interaction of factors influencing MaaS adoption and their impact on forecasting MaaS appeal. It is also observed that current travel behaviour and multi-modal transport models are not fully capturing the diverse travel needs and choices of potential MaaS users. Recent advancements in agent-based simulation and discrete choice modelling offer potential solutions to address this gap, and future research should aim in that direction. Finally, the review analyses the interaction between MaaS actors, including customers, service providers, the government, and the MaaS Broker, highlighting the complexity of the modelling process comprising all actors of the MaaS ecosystem. Therefore, it is recommended to prioritise future research in exploring these areas.