How sustainable are urban transport services? A comparison of MaaS and UCC

Journal article, 2022

It is believed that a transition toward more sustainable transport will be a cornerstone of plans to reduce global emissions. Two services that show great potential to improve the sustainability of urban transport are Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) and Urban Consolidation Centers (UCC): MaaS is focused on the transport of people and UCC on freight transport. MaaS and UCC both involve a network of actors, present a clear vision for sustainability, can be applied in urban contexts, use new technologies, and are nascent transport solutions that are yet to be fully established and see large-scale implementation as transport services in urban areas. Despite showing significant potential, there are still some questions over how sustainable these transport services actually are. In this paper, we systematically review literature on MaaS and UCC; we analyze 137 papers to compare the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of these two urban transport services. In the review, these new transport services promise to deliver both social and environmental sustainability, but these promises have yet to be fulfilled. Several studies point to problems related to social and environmental sustainability. Similarly, the economic viability of these business models is yet to be proven. Future research topics are suggested.