Growth in mobility services is likely to happen when the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic begin to fade, according to fleet software firm Epyx.
It argues that while the pandemic has meant a drop in take-up for the sector, it has also paved the way for more imaginative future thinking.
Commercial director Debbie Fox acknowledged that with a large proportion of mobility concepts requiring asset sharing, concerns about risk of infection had affected user interest.
“However,” she added, “that situation will probably change relatively quickly once populations have undergone vaccine programmes and meanwhile, the pandemic has made businesses much more open to the possibility of considering a wider range of transport solutions, we believe.
“The ways in which car usage patterns have been affected, the growth in home working and the widespread adoption of video conferencing are all likely to make mobility solutions appear more viable to a wider range of potential users.
“The crisis has also created a pause where vehicle leasing companies, manufacturers and others who have been moving towards becoming mobility providers have been able to refine their ideas and their product offerings. Our view is that, as soon as the new normal becomes established in the wake of the pandemic, we are likely to see a definite boost to the mobility sector for these reasons.”
Fox said that vehicle leasing companies in particular had been working on how to integrate their mobility offerings into two other major trends of the moment – EVs, and increased digitisation of services.
She said: “We work with nearly all of the 50 largest vehicle leasing companies in the UK, and many of the conversations that we are having with them are about the ways in which these three elements will fit together in the future.
“Our involvement in these dialogues is very much around the digitisation aspect. As probably the fleet sector’s leading provider of online solutions of all kinds, there is a recognition that we have a track record of making processes work effectively.
“Certainly, this is an area we have been looking at as a company for some time, and we have a range of ideas about how mobility providers should be approaching their service delivery in this sector from a technological point of view.”
Fox added that there was a realisation that the technology supporting mobility solutions would be crucial to their success.
“For widespread adoption, mobility services need to be easy to access and to operate seamlessly. The right technological infrastructure is essential to making that happen.”
