Consulting group Connector conducted their most recent M15 Mobility seminar by webinar on the 25th June. AfMA’s Executive Director Mace Hartley was fortunate to be a guest speaker presenting on Beyond Covid – Australia from a Global Perspective. The M15 series are regular events hosted by Connector around the world and are conducted as a small session, focussed on a single country. APAC Director Shane Curran said that the webinar format was still focussed on the Australian market but allowed for a wider audience and international presenters.
“Australia evolves at a different speed than Europe does in the area of mobility delivery and requires its own solution. Nevertheless, from a tech and policy perspective, the European experience of Connector can benefit the Australian Fleet Manager,” he said, “so the webinar format allows us to bring in people like Vaigo, one of the world’s leading mobility aggregators who are based in Belgium.”
A centrepiece of the event was the launch of CMaaS (Corporate Mobility as a Service) for the Australian market. CMaaS is a product that combines the offerings of three different companies to deliver “out of the box” mobility solutions for corporate and government fleets. Curran explains that “We brought together 3 separate best-of-breed organisations to deliver a complete solution from one provider. We’ve entered a time where collaborations between companies are essential to deliver innovation; the client wants integrated solutions and is hesitant to buy pieces of the puzzle instead.”
He continues, “The buzzword is mobility, but the real need is for flexibility. At this point in time, it’s dangerous for business continuity to think cars can be replaced by mobility solutions. Nevertheless, relying on the company car as a default solution, is denying the reality that’s surrounding us: sustainability, flexible benefits and smart city transformations are happening.”
“With CMaaS, we’ve brought together a complete package, from advisory and HR management, through to provider aggregation and even internal fleet software for management and sharing of owned cars. This means that we’ve extended the scope from “dedicated car” to shared asset and mobility integration”
CMaaS is currently the only offering of its type in the world and has had considerable success in Europe already. Managing Director Yves Helven says there were initially some doubts about launching in Australia. “We cannot simply copy the European model into Australia. We considered for some time whether we could have a market in Australia and in the end there were three factors that swayed us.”
“First, micromobility offerings like bikes and scooters are getting traction in Australia and are being implemented today by corporate fleets and governments. The transition and the admin however – and not the solutions themselves – are slowing down the uptake of micromobility. CMaaS can play a role here.
“The second point is the interest we’ve seen from corporate fleet managers. There’s an understanding that mobility offerings fit really well for companies and government organisations who are looking into flexible benefit schemes or need to achieve environmental objectives.
Finally, savings are on top of the agenda. Procurement people know that company cars are doing less kilometres than before and have started to look at asset utilisation as the next big savings potential. Combining “cars” with “other solutions” can reduce the fleet size and/or the cost of the lease contracts without affecting the ability of the employee to move from point A to point B.”Helven says that anyone interested in the offering can contact CMaaS directly through [email protected] or, for APAC based corporates, contact Shane Curran on [email protected]
