Korkia developed a new transport service model serving the mobility needs of the Basque Energy Agency jointly with our local partner B+I Strategy. The transport model helps the Basque government and Basque Energy Agency to shift from old high-emission combustion engine cars, which have been in low use, to low-emission vehicles that are more effectively used. In addition, the model provides a possibility of sharing vehicles with local citizens, reducing the need for own vehicles.
The public sector owns a significant number of vehicles, most of which are usually old, polluting and fuel-inefficient models. Cars are also under-utilized, pose significant costs to authorities and take valuable space in limited parking places within cities. In large cities where problems related to traffic can be seen everywhere, the public sector has a dire need to participate in urban air quality improvement initiatives.
New low-emission vehicles provide part solutions to reduce vehicle per vehicle based emission, but would it be possible simultaneously to reduce the costs of civil servant used vehicles, the need for expensive parking space, as well as providing new mobility services for city residents?
The Basque Government saw the possibility of combining new types of digital sharing economy services and low-emission vehicles in addition while trying to solve the problems brought by the outdated car fleet.
The aim was to develop a new type of transport model serving local civil servants, which would help shift from low utilization, high consumption, polluting, capital-binding, fixed costs, and decentralized fleet management to future proof and optimal solutions. The goal of the new model was to combine low emission vehicles with efficient use, variable costs, usage-based payments, centralized fleet management, new type of data management and utilization of traffic data while simultaneously increasing economic activity.
Based on the objectives set by the Basque Government, Korkia started co-operation with the local and respected strategic consultant B + I Strategy.
Korkia brought to the joint project transport sector’s expertise and the best practices of creating new transport business model models. Best practices are based on Korkia’s previous transport projects (such as MaaS Global, Liikennelabra (Traffic lab), Älykäs sähköinen liikenne (Intelligent Electric Transportation), Virta. Global and others). The local expert was responsible for matching the model to the local context.
“In large growing cities, even small actions reducing problems caused by transportation have a real impact on the quality of life of the people.”
In the past similar kind of desired solutions would not have been possible to implement due to deficits for example within the digital services required for the efficient car sharing models. With the development of technology and digital services, the Basque Energy Agency wanted to look for new solutions to solve traditional problems. Instead of replacing one combustion engine vehicle with one electric vehicle, it was desired to create an operating model that would allow, for example, the replacement of three combustion engine vehicles with a single shared electric or other low emission vehicle.
“In Finland, the true value of new types of transport services and technologies is often not understood, as the problems caused by traffic are still relatively small when assessed from an international point of view. In large growing cities, even small actions reducing problems caused by transportation have a real impact on the quality of life of the people. Authorities can show an example through their own actions in solving transportation related problems by increasing the use of their own vehicles, as Basque country practice has shown.” Says Eemil Rauma, Korkia’s electric transport and new mobility solutions consultant.
The result of the project was the creation of a joint-use vehicle model for the Basque Energy Agency. The model reduces costs and emissions of the Energy agencies own vehicle`s and creates a basis for a more efficient transport system in Basque country. At the same time, a new mobility scenario was explored for Basque country for exploiting wider utilization of the Mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) ecosystem.
Hopefully, we will hear in the near future about the interesting developments of the Basque country transportation system!