Fleet managers must be “open to new solutions” and prepared to collaborate to develop a mobility strategy, according to Nokia’s global category manager Jarno Pajunen.

Pajunen, who presented the session ‘Mobility and the changing role of the fleet manager’ at the recent Virtual Fleet & Mobility Live, said that the company, which has more than 10,000 company cars worldwide, first looked at the mobility topic in 2017.

It started with car sharing because Nokia had young, environmentally-conscious employees joining the business who wanted to know whether the company offered that type of service.

Nokia ran some pilots and “we realised quite soon that it is not a solution for the need, but it can be part of something bigger”, Pajunen said.

That led him to look at Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which combines all means of transportation into one platform, giving users the flexibility to choose the right transport for their needs.

Pajunen said the concept has become even more relevant due to the Covid-19 pandemic with cars having very little use due during lockdowns.

“Many people question whether they should spend money on a car and have their asset standing by the house for several months with very, very low use,” he said.

“So how about flexible uses? If I need a car then I rent a car or I take a shared car, and utilising public transportation, even taxi services. So all that speaks to the needs of our employees.”

Nokia’s long-term strategy is to take this further and bundle all employee benefits, such as gym membership, insurance, and health products, alongside mobility, in a Benefit as a Service (BaaS) platform.

It recognises that it needs to work with partners to realise its mobility strategy.

“We are very open, we don't have the solution by ourselves,” Pajunen said.

 “We need to partner with other companies to find out a solution and the mobility area is so fast developing now, it is very local. And we need to find the correct partners that are the developers.”

Nokia in has been working with cities such as Helsinki in Finland, where Pajunen is based, as well as collaborating with mobility providers.

Internal stakeholders have an important role to play too. Nokia has a ‘future of mobility’ group, which Pajunen leads, with representative from HR, finance and real estate.

The group frequently looks at what is available and how it would meet Nokia’s needs, as well as considering funding and the impact on the company’s carbon footprint.

 “You have to be open to new solutions,” Pajunen said.

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