Kapsch TrafficCom AG and Fluidtime Data Services GmbH (Fluidtime) have announced they are joining forces in the area of integrated mobility solutions, with Kapsch buying a 75% stake in Fluidtime.
Kapsch says the acquisition of Fluidtime strengthens its position to act as a platform- and service provider for forthcoming Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) schemes for cities, corporations and transport agencies. Since 2004, Fluidtime has developed and operated software solutions sand user-friendly mobile services enabling intermodal urban travelling. Its mobility softwareplatform acts as the market place for intermodal ticket purchases as well as for booking of all integrated modes of transport.
Kapsch says the Fluidtime mobility platform provides urban travellers with real-time information about transport options and multimodal route alternatives including booking and payment services. This includes information of train, underground, bus and tram as well as car or bike sharing services, taxi and on-demand vehicle fleets. The integrated mobility platform accesses to various real-time data such as timetable data, movement data of car sharing providers or tariff information, aggregates this data, creates intermodal routes and offers the possibility to optimize these journeys according to several dimensions using user profiles in a single app.
It adds that one of the most noteworthy research projects in the fields of MaaS was the 'smile' project managed by the Wiener Stadtwerke (Vienna public utilities) and the Austrian federal railways which is now offered as a commercial service under the brand 'WienMobil Lab'. Fluidtime was responsible for the technical management, the implementation of the mobility platform and the app solution. 'smile / WienMobil Lab' is considered to be an international flagship project for integrated mobility, as it is one of the few projects to completely integrate mobility services for route planning, booking and payment. Therefore 'smile' was recognized as one of the most innovative projects by Arthur D. Little in the market study 'The Future of Urban Mobility 2.0' as well as by the UITP (Union Internationale des Transports Publics).
In addition, Fluidtime is technology partner in various European Horizon 2020 research projects like 'Bonvoyage' and 'OPTIMUM' together with Kapsch. The main focus and responsibility within these projects is on the mobility platform development as well on the interface and app design.
The 'qando' app developed by Fluidtime is the most used urban mobility app available in the five biggest cities of Austria. It is offered to the consumers by the public transport companies and calculates the fastest connection from A to B based on real-time data. More than 1,5 million users have downloaded the app since its launch in Vienna 2009 and its usage exceeds 35 million per month.
