Kyyti Group Ltd. (Kyyti) is one of the largest Finnish MaaS players starting their operations in 2016. During this project, Kyyti developed a new improved application, a new service offering for employers with special mobility needs, operated by shared taxi service in major Finnish city regions (Oulu, Turku, Tampere and in the Capital area) and expanded internationally (figure below). Although this project cannot be credited for all of this, this chapter looks at the period when these development efforts were made with resources from this project and from other sources.
The development effort started with Tuup MaaS application and objectives to develop tailored service offerings to corporate customers and to international markets based on the early application. At that time, the application and MaaS services were operational in two cities, Turku and Hyvinkää, and all the actors in MaaS sector in Finland eagerly waited for the new possibilities that a new transport code (see Deliverable 3.1 Current socio-technical regime in the chosen regions for more information) would open up. In June 2016, Pekka Möttö became the new CEO of Kyyti, bringing in valuable insights from OnniBus.com, which is a high-quality inter-city express bus service in Finland with a dynamic pricing and a strong branding. In March 2017, Kyyti on-demand ride service was added to the application, and the application won the best mobile service award in Finland in the Utility and Infotainment category of that year.
Kyyti on-demand ride service (figure below) was introduced into major Finnish cities in 2017. In a very short time, the application got tens of thousands of downloads, and the on-demand service was well received by the users. The service is dynamically priced, and customers can choose from three service levels and receive a lower price by being flexible in waiting and/or travel time. The affordable pricing of the service is based on shared capacity and optimised use of the fleet. Kyyti service is designed to complete the demand-responsive service spectrum and replace/supplement existing fixed route service, especially in hard to serve areas[3].
In this respect, Kyyti also proved to be the gateway for corporate customers into the era of intermodality – with first B2B customer starting to use the service in 2017 (see Kyyti storyline). The needs of these corporate customers and the viewpoints of Swiss stakeholders, explored further during the second General Assembly, became the focal points of these development efforts from the perspective of the project. Together with the announcement of collaboration with DemandTrans (USA) and Mai Linh Group (Vietnam) in 2017, the start of 2018 saw a concrete pilot project in Brugg, Switzerland with the name of Kollibri.
Next: The Growth Corridor Finland
[1] https://www.kyyti.com/team.html
[2] Möttö, P. (2017) Tuup’s approach to Mobility as a Service. Presentation held at the “Reboot Finland – D.Day for Transport and Mobility” event, 20.6.2017, Espoo, Finland. Available at: https://tapahtumat.tekes.fi/uploads/8b4061090/21_Pekka_Mtt_Tuup_-4662.pdf (Accessed 15.10.2018)