Innovation Shapes the Future of Taiwan’s Mobility
In 2019, Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) selected Metropia to create its Open API Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform for the entire nation. The platform, UMAJI, was publicly released in May 2023.
UMAJI was designed to promote the growth of diverse 2B2C mobility services while seamlessly integrating existing and upcoming Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The objective was to enhance efficiency, safety, quality of life, and social fairness through the creation and development of the MaaS industry.
MOTC aimed to establish this MaaS infrastructure as a foundation for future MaaS services offered by both public and private service providers. These services span areas such as tourism, Private MaaS, and City MaaS.
Approach
The UMAJI MaaS Open API platform met specific user requirements set forth by stakeholders and users, including:
Comprehensive trip planning
Flexible payment integration
Innovative shared/pooled services (from livery service companies to commuter ride-sharing)
Integration of leisure and tourism information
Reducing driving emissions
The following highlights a few of the UMAJI platform’s modules.
Intermodal Trip Planner. Metropia expanded the platform beyond urban commuters to include business travel, leisure excursions, and homeward journeys. The platform integrates a multitude of local first and last-mile services with Taiwan’s extensive public transit network which is comprised of 8,800 public transport service routes, 65,000+ stops; and facilitates 200,000 daily trips. This integration plays a pivotal role in connecting dense urban transit networks with remote rural communities and tourism destinations. The Trip Planner is highly personalizable allowing the user to set planning objectives between cost and travel time, minimal transfer time, and walking and biking speeds. The diagram below shows distinct search results consistent with varying objectives.
Transportation Service Provider (TSP) Integration. The trip planner extended its reach well beyond public transit to include public and private service providers, such as rental cars, shared micro-mobility options, and shuttle services reaching remote regions and tourist attractions. This ensures that users benefit from a seamless connection to an array of transportation choices, enhancing their door-to-door travel experience.
Deep-Link Cross-app Integration. To accommodate a wide range of integration scenarios among MaaS service provider partners, the UMAJI platform offers a deep-link integration framework and API capabilities. This deep-link integration enables “loose-coupling” with data exchange and call-back capabilities between various Transportation Service Providers through the platform without the need for complex direct native integrations, requiring extensive modifications to both backend systems and front-end applications.
Since its public release in May 2023, the UMAJI API platform has attracted more than a dozen mobility service providers and serviced more than 1.2 million API calls.
Summary
The UMAJI MaaS Open API platform is a driving force in redefining transportation dynamics in Taiwan. It harnessed collaborative momentum among stakeholders to propel Taiwan's transportation ecosystem towards heightened efficiency, accessibility, and a resoundingly user-centric experience. Metropia is proud to work with MOTC to create endless future MaaS opportunities.
For more information, please visit the official website: www.umaji.com.tw