What are rivals BMW and Daimler spending nearly £1bn on creating in the transport market?

London road and pedestrian traffic at night

BMW and Daimler are investing nearly £1 billion to combine their mobility solutions around the world.

Delegates to this year’s Fleet Live will hear how the rivals joint mobility venture, Share Now, will fit in an increasingly electric, autonomous and on-demand future.

Tony Douglas, BMW Group Mobility Services head of brand marketing and communications, will give more detail on why the automobile giants and historic rivals are investing nearly £1 billion to combine their mobility offerings across the globe, including markets like the UK.

BMW’s DriveNow and Daimler’s Car2Go mobility services will work together to take on the likes of Uber and Google to avoid being left behind by the tech giants of Silicon Valley.

While BMW and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz brand will very much still be rivals in the automotive manufacturing space, both partners have decided that when it comes to mobility services, they are “stronger together than separately”.

The companies currently have a combined mobility customer base of 60 million. Share Now is one of five services within the new mobility joint venture and platform, together with ParkNow, ChargeNow, FreeNow (the ride hailing offering) and ReachNow (trip planning offering).

Douglas said: “I’ll be giving an overview of the industry dynamics on mobility as a service (MaaS) and will explain why we’re so interested in this.

“We’ll look at the journey we’ve been on, where we’re heading to and why we’re now working with Daimler on this joint mobility venture.”

Skedgo, the mobility services provider, will also present the latest developments on the MaaS market and how it will play a part in future transport strategies. Sandra Witzel, Skedgo head of marketing, leads the company’s strategic partnership with the European MaaS Alliance – a publicprivate partnership that is looking to create a common approach to MaaS.

Witzel’s presentation will look at how MaaS needs to build economies of scale for successful implementation and take-up in markets like the UK. This will allow more businesses to rapidly create their own MaaS offerings, including parking, booking and payment and corporate mobility solutions.

The seminar takes place on day one of Fleet Live (Tuesday, October 8) at 11am, entitled Mobility as a Service (MaaS).

Fleet Live will give the fleet management community and decision-makers the chance to face future challenges and opportunities together with two days of learning, sharing and networking on October 8-9 at the NEC in Birmingham.

The event is complementary for fleet professionals and delegates can sign up for their ticket at www.fleet-live.co.uk/online-registration.

Other seminars and speakers at Fleet Live 2019

When: Tuesday, October 8

11.00 Which safety technology is best for your fleet?

Vipul Dave, Thatcham UK global sales manager

Gill Milner, Aviva Technical Account Manager

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are saving lives, but they’re also pushing up repair costs. Thatcham will look at repairability costs for ADAS and how this is affecting option choice and how it may impact on the roll-out of advanced technologies in the future.

This session will also assess how insurers view ADAS technology in terms of reducing insurance premiums for fleets.

Aviva’s session will explain ADAS’s relationship with insurance, what is making an impact today, the technology versus claims debate and what is coming next.

14.00 Smart urban transport strategies

Chris Lane, Transport for West Midlands head of transport innovation

Tom Hayes, Oxford City Council executive board member for A Safer and Greener Environment

Access case studies on how smart transport strategies have been implemented in two major areas of the UK.

This session will look at the Whim mobility app in action in the West Midlands and how Oxford is working with fleets to tackle challenges on air quality and last-mile deliveries in the city’s zero emissions zone.

14.00 Optimise prime: the world’s biggest electric vehicle trial

Duncan Webb, Royal Mail commercial director

Suzanne Phillips, Hitachi Capital head of mobility solutions

Stuart Fowler, Centrica DNO commercial manager An in-depth discussion on the UK’s biggest

Commercial electric vehicle trial. Key stakeholders including Royal Mail, Centrica and Hitachi will discuss in an open Q&A style the objectives they are looking to achieve, what the process has been like so far and the next steps as part of the three-year project.

Optimise Prime looks to bring together learnings from all those involved and explore the up-front costs that are currently holding back many of the country’s biggest commercial vehicle operators from making the switch to EVs.

When: Wednesday October 9

11.00 Mobility strategies for van and truck operators

Dave Phatak, director, Ford Commercial Solutions (FCS) division at Ford Mobility in Europe

Experts in the industry will talk about last-mile delivery, how businesses will operate in the future within cities that are looking to reduce emissions, improve air quality and leverage connected technology to help fleets improve efficiency.

This session will include details on Ford’s Mobility strategy on last-mile delivery.

11.00 How to implement an electric vehicle strategy

Gary McRae, Urban Foresight principal consultant

Fraser Crichton, Dundee City Council corporate fleet operations manager

Simon King, fleet and procurement director, Mitie

Gary McRae and Fraser Crichton will explain how Dundee became a pioneer of plug-in vehicles.

Mitie’s Simon King, Mitie will also present a case study on his company’s journey to switching a large proportion of its car and van fleet to EV.

14.00 Efficient movement of people and goods on the strategic road network

Karla Jakeman, connected transport innovation lead at Innovate UK

Peter Leavy, Vodafone Internet of Things (IoT) portfolio manager connected car services

Innovate UK’s Karla Jakeman will explain solutions which use innovative technologies to leverage smarter, greener and more sustainable future mobility systems for the efficient movement of people and goods.

There will also be a case study from Vodafone on how the road network needs to be technologically upgraded to facilitate the smart roads of the future.

14.00 Clean air zones

Jason Torrance, UK100 clean air cities director

UK100’s Jason Torrance will present an update to fleet operators about a Fleet News/UK100 initiative with UK business and local authority policymakers that seeks to secure national and local support and consensus for the delivery of clean air zones.