TMaaS web article No 1 - TMaaS notifications for travellers

Most people are already used to their smartphones displaying notifications related to applications concerning news, social media updates or location-based services. The TMaaS project partners have investigated the potentials of adopting notifications for the use of the TMaaS services through a web browser, which provides the ability to receive such notifications at any type of device that has a web-browser (smartphone, tablet, laptop, workstation). TMaaS had already provided the possibility to receive such notifications through SMS or emails. However, this new functionality is practically translated into the ability to receive notifications related to TMaaS services either at home while working on a laptop, workstation or on the go with a tablet or smartphone, through the use of a web-browser.

The use of web-browser notifications for the TMaaS services is very simple. A registered user of TMaaS, https://link.tmaas.eu, can choose to receive such notifications via the settings menu of the TMaaS Dashboard, also with the ability to select the types of notifications to be received.

Let’s take a look at a concrete example, highlighting the ease of use and the value of the web-browser notifications. A user of TMaaS can select a typical route, that she/he is using on a frequent basis, let’s assume it is a daily, Monday to Friday, home-to-work route. This can be saved in the user’s profile within the TMaaS Dashboard.

As soon as this route is saved under the user’s profile, it will be continuously monitored by the TMaaS Dashboard. 15 minutes prior to the user selected departure time, TMaaS will send notifications to the user via the web-browser that include the current travel time for the selected route, indicating clearly possible delays (if any). For the case of delays, TMaaS proposes also alternative routes, to reach the set destination faster.

Further information about the user’s route is displayed on a map, when the user clicks on the displayed notification.