Some of the professional talent from Moventis and Movento—the public and private mobility divisions of Moventia— engage in a debate on the future of smart mobility at the Tomorrow Mobility World Congress.
Besides the company’s presence at its corporate stand on the event premises, where it once again demonstrated its value as a benchmark public mobility company and its capacity of growth to sector authorities and stakeholders, the transport services provider brought to the congress its greatest asset: its professionals.
Some of the family-owned multinational company’s specialists were actively engaged in forums, debates and round tables held during the three-day event and put on the table some of the initiatives that the company has undertaken in the field of artificial intelligence and smart mobility in recent years.
The first to speak at the expert forums was Santi Colomer, Managing Director of Movento, who took part in the presentation of the report Evolution of Household Spending on Transport in Spain , published by the Mobility Institute of RACC.
Together with leading professionals in the sector, the director of Moventia’s personal mobility division evaluated the interesting conclusions on household spending on transport in 2022. In this regard, he stressed that “there is an inflationary factor that has caused the consumer of vehicles available to the general public to have a much more limited access to the purchase of a new vehicle. This explains the success of low-cost brands, such as Dacia or MG, and also the interest in buying second-hand vehicles, which have seen a significant upturn in sales in the last two years”.
Regarding the recovery of urban transport after the challenges posed by the pandemic, Santi Colomer reiterated the importance of “making public and private transport compatible” with a view to devising more efficient mobility for the future. “At Moventia, an expert in mobility, it is clear to us that mobility in large cities and their surrounding areas involves promoting the use of public transport, but the private vehicle is necessary to reach those places that public transport cannot”, he explained.
To conclude his intervention in the study presentation, Movento’s managing director stressed that the industrial decarbonisation efforts face two main challenges. “If we want to accelerate the decarbonisation of the vehicle fleet, which is already 14 years old, we must speed up the roll-out of charging infrastructure and we must also promote a fiscal framework that makes buying an electric vehicle not only economical, but also a simple and engaging process for the customer”, he said.
On the second day, Núria Corominas, Head of Planning at Moventis, took part in the solution talk AI: The Potential and the Reality in the Mobility Sector, moderated by journalist Anna Gumbau Martínez. During the talk in which she was joined by Ken Glover, Business Growth & Innovation at Civic Group, Núria acquainted the public with the application of artificial intelligence by Moventis in its activities.
The head of Planning and Research of the group’s collective mobility division used as an example the AI solutions applied to the Shotl on-demand service platform in Sant Cugat. She explained the combination of different types of algorithms and the use of techniques such as clustering and machine learning that have significantly improved the service since its launch.
The expert assured the attendees that “artificial intelligence has boosted demand and helped to offer a better service to users”, which, according to Núria Corominas, is in line with the company’s aim to “supply innovative solutions that contribute to achieving sustainable, connected and safe mobility for all”. She concluded her contribution by stating that “artificial intelligence is already a reality in the transport sector”..
On the same day, Gregory Carmona, General Manager of Moventis Pays de Montbéliard, together with Sebastien Desmet, UITP Head of Membership, gave a presentation on The Role of Operation in a Multi-modal Concession, based on the success story of Pays de Montbéliard.
The experts opened the presentation by examining the history of mobility and how it has evolved from the simplest transport mode—walking—to congested and unwalkable cities for pedestrians. Gregory Carmona and Sebastien Desmet went on to talk about emerging mobility solutions, highlighting micromobility services such as bicycles and scooters. They emphasised the problems brought about by these new modes, namely the fact that micromobility solutions are only introduced in large cities and leave out smaller locations since they’re not profitable for the operators, as well as how these new solutions pervade public spaces.
The General Manager of Moventis Pays de Montbéliard outlined the solution implemented by Moventis by means of integrated concessions in which Moventia’s collective mobility division manages the entire public mobility proposal for a territory: bus, bicycles, trams, on-demand transport services, etc. As the expert explained,
this pioneering approach has been implemented by Moventis in Pays de Montbéliard, an agglomeration of nearly 70 small municipalities, thereby homogenising the public transport system and improving coordination between the different actors.
Carmona concluded the presentation by reflecting that “Integrated concessions enable the development of a much more coordinated service, which is a real benefit for the authorities as their only concern becomes making a budget and defining and designing the type of service they want for their territory together with the operator. From this point on, they can rest assured that a specialised company like Moventis is in charge of day-to-day operations”.
Ramiro Pigem, Head of Tenders at Moventia, was in charge of wrapping up the company’s participation in the Tomorrow Mobility World Congress talks. The expert took part in the lecture The Road of Zero Emission Mobility, in which he outlined the group’s roadmap towards “zero emissions” mobility, one of Moventia’s strategic axes.
Pigem explained to the audience that transport is currently responsible for approximately a quarter of total greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. To this end, Europe aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, a goal that cannot be achieved without a sustainable mobility model. The expert went on to add that Moventis already has a significant success story in Pamplona, where it collaborates with TCC Pamplona, the division responsible for the management of the city bus in the Association of Municipalities of Pamplona.
Since 2011, TCC Pamplona has spearheaded the first pilot projects in the introduction of low-polluting energies, becoming an environmental model in urban mobility. The speaker highlighted the milestones achieved by the company in recent years: the first electric bus in Europe on a regular bus line, in 2011; the first hybrid bus trials, in 2013; the first gas bus trial, in 2016; the bus line with the highest number of fully electric buses in the country, in 2019, and the introduction of the first 13 buses powered by renewable energy (natural gas), in 2022.
Pigem concluded his summary of the company’s achievements with a strong statement of intent on sustainability: “Between 2014 and 2022 we managed to reduce our carbon footprint by 28% and we are firmly committed to making TCC Pamplona a carbon neutral company by 2030”.
The four Moventia experts’ participation in the presentations at the Tomorrow Mobility World Congress was an excellent networking and reputation-building opportunity, both nationally and internationally, for the family-owned multinational mobility expert.
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