The daily commute on a subscription app?

New technology for the daily commute.

With the rise of subscription services such as Netflix and Spotify, could your travel choices and daily commute be the next thing you pay monthly for? Finnish company, MaaS (Mobility as a Service) have launched a trial of their app, ‘Whim’ in Helsinki.

The Whim app aims to make all your travel options easily accessible through a mobile based platform. Offering an intelligent journey planner for a monthly fee, journeys around Helsinki can be made by public transport, taxi or car rental (depending on subscription level). For a monthly charge, you receive points which can then be used against your journeys by whichever means you select. Currently a three tiered service is offered starting at €89 per month increasing to €389 per month. There is also the option to ‘pay as you go’ which could make it more suitable for tourists or short term visitors. Whim has also designed to help you make the easiest travel option to get from A to B.

During 2017, Whim UK is set to launch a pilot in the West Midlands, running for 12 months in total with 500 users. Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) and MaaS have partnered up with companies such as National Express to bring this trial over. Pricing for the tiered service has not yet been released for the UK.

Whim is planned to be launched in the West Midlands metropolitan area in early 2017. You can pre-register now on their website at www.whimapp.com/uk.

Here at Smarter Travel, we are particularly excited to see how the trial works out in the West Midlands and will be watching closely to see if this changes the way people make their travel decisions.

Update:

‘Whim’ has now been launched in Birmingham with introductory offers available. Find out more: https://whimapp.com/uk/