What Is TaaS Stock?

For many years, the public has been conditioned to accept that there are two common forms of transportation: Private and public. Public transportation, such as buses, trains, and planes, is owned by the state or a transport company and represents a necessity for most people, helping them commute to work or even travel abroad.

Private transportation refers to vehicles (e.g., cars and bikes) owned by people and used for personal reasons.

However, many of us have started making use of TaaS, also known as transportation as a service, or MaaS (mobility as a service). But does it make sense to invest in TaaS stock today, or is it too late to join in?

What Exactly Is TaaS?

Transportation as a Service refers to many different things, but the general idea is simple - using a vehicle you don’t personally own to get around. For example, a ride-sharing service such as Uber and Lyft is a prime example of TaaS.

These have become extremely popular in recent years because they offer people a relatively low-cost method of getting around without public transportation or taxis. It’s often touted as a very safe option, and the convenience of being picked up and dropped off at your location of choice makes it worth the extra cost compared to a bus or train.

However, there are many other ways to use other people’s vehicles as a service.

Take renting vehicles: Some people need vehicles for occasional use, but otherwise rarely drive due to their lifestyle choices or because they’ve started working from home as a result of the current health crisis. Since vehicle ownership can be rather expensive, people can rent vehicles from businesses. This is especially useful when you need a larger vehicle for something temporary, such as moving home, or ferrying friends and family on vacation.

There are also delivery services that can make use of TaaS. One of the most popular examples today is meal delivery services which typically use cars, motorbikes, and bicycles owned by the delivery drivers. Some services, such as Amazon, also use TaaS to offer more delivery coverage.

These are just a few examples of how wide-reaching the TaaS industry is. Now that we know its influence, let’s take a look at TaaS stocks and if they’re worth investing in.

What Is TaaS Stock?

TaaS stock refers to any financial asset sold by a public company in the TaaS industry. Some examples of these companies include Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Avis Budget Group.

• Uber (UBER) is a well-known international company that operates proprietary technologies focused on ride-sharing and meal delivery. They’ve recently expanded to also work with grocers.
• Lyft (LYFT) operates a peer-to-peer marketplace designed for on-demand ridesharing in the United States and Canada. It also offers a number of ride personalization options and on-demand access for mobility options.
• DoorDash (DASH) is a logistics platform that pairs merchants with dashers (delivery people) and consumers. It operates mainly in the United States, but has since expanded to the international stage. DoorDash also operates a marketplace that assists companies with challenges such as customer acquisition and merchandising, going beyond the scope of just a TaaS company.
• Avis Budget Group (CAR) and its numerous subsidiaries provide car and truck rentals, car sharing, and ancillary services to businesses and consumers. It operates the Avis brand, a well-known vehicle rental system for the travel industry, and Budget truck, a local one-way truck rental business with approximately 20,000 vehicles in its fleet.

These are just a few examples of well-known TaaS companies whose stocks have grown in popularity since their inception. It illustrates that the TaaS market is wide-reaching and has many applications still being discovered to this day.

However, it also shows that the TaaS industry can grow from just offering vehicle services to providing logistical support and platforms needed to assist others in growing their businesses, even if it’s not TaaS-focused.

Should You Invest in TaaS Stocks?

TaaS services are available nearly 24/7, depending on the city you live in. Every ride-sharing service is available at pretty much any time of the day. What’s more, there are over 111 million food delivery service users in the United States alone as of 2020. That’s over a third of the entire population of the country and it’s set to continue growing. However, this isn’t the apex of what TaaS is capable of - there are so many more possibilities.

The Rise of Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles have become increasingly popular over the past couple of years due to the promise that they are more environmentally friendly than their fossil-fuel-powered counterparts. While there’s no doubt about the environmental advantages of using electric vehicles, their biggest draw in terms of business is superior technology and convenience.

For example, electric vehicles are much easier to monitor and maintain for a car rental company. Since the vehicle doesn’t need to be refueled in the traditional sense and electric vehicles are packed with sensors to help provide information about their health and status, a company can manage an entire fleet of rentable electric vehicles from a single dashboard.

Driverless Vehicle Technology

TaaS also has connections to driverless vehicle technology. Driverless vehicles have been touted as the next big thing in transport technology, offering benefits such as dramatically reduced traffic volume, fewer accidents, and more accessibility for people who don’t drive.

Driverless vehicle technology is still a very futuristic concept that will take years to realize fully, there’s no doubt that’s the direction the industry is headed in. There are more implications for this type of technology: It could be expanded to driverless freight trucks and even automated drone deliveries.

These advancements are all set to integrate into the TaaS industry. While there’s no such thing as a sure investment, it’s clear that TaaS companies are on an upward trend, and there is still a lot of untapped potential waiting to be discovered.

With the advent of ride-sharing services, people have started questioning whether or not it’s a requirement to own a vehicle these days. Given the changes in lifestyles and priorities, it makes sense that more and more people are starting to rely on ride-sharing as a way to get around.

Conclusion

TaaS stocks are readily available today, and all the major players such as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are listed on the stock market. All you need to do is download an investment app or open a brokerage account, and you can start investing into any of these TaaS giants.

Logistics companies such as FedEx are also starting to invest in future developments to improve their supply chain capabilities using TaaS. Companies such as Tesla are pushing towards a future where driverless vehicle technology is readily available and in abundance.

Again, there’s no such thing as a sure investment with a hundred percent guarantee, but TaaS stocks definitely show promise. As long as the industry continues to innovate, we’ll likely see massive growth in the TaaS sector.