It has\u00a0been a big week for Birmingham commuters, having welcomed a new online app into the city. With a mission to \u2018transform travel in the West Midlands’, ‘Whim’ offers a fast, convenient way for residents and visitors of the city to arrange transport. Marketed as the next big technology firm, the Helsinki-based company is not just about booking one-off trips. Through the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform, the people of Birmingham can purchase unlimited packages for buses, trains, taxis and car hire for just \u00a399.\u00a0In addition to the Whim Everyday\u00a0\u00a399 package, commuters can also invest in the Whim Unlimited package for\u00a0\u00a3349 a month.<\/p>\n
Although we have seen various apps looking to streamline vehicle hire, never have we seen something that combines public and private transport in this way. With a\u00a0mission to get more people using buses and trains, the app has been credited for its promotion of every corner of the transport industry in Birmingham.<\/p>\n
Sampo Hietanan, Whim founder, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like cars, we\u2019re certainly not anti-car, and we still offer access to cars when needed, via taxis or through hire.<\/p>\n
“But we are showing people that they don\u2019t need to be so reliant on car ownership”.<\/p>\n
While convenience is one of the driving forces behind the\u00a0app’s launch, Whim is equally as passionate about ethical transport, going to great lengths to encourage a greener Birmingham.<\/p>\n
“The benefits are huge \u2013 less traffic, less pollution, less stressful journeys, more space in our towns and cities thanks to fewer cars parked on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhim will also reward people for greener, healthier options such as walking more and having car-free days.
\n“People will also soon start to realise the positive health benefits of walking a little more and driving less – not to mention the time and money freed up by not having to maintain a car or having to sit behind the wheel in a traffic jam.<\/p>\n
“It just makes more sense” Hietanan continued.<\/p>\n
Let us know what you think, will Whim be a UK-wide success?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It has\u00a0been a big week for Birmingham commuters, having welcomed a new online app into the city. With a mission to \u2018transform travel in the West Midlands’, ‘Whim’ offers a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[2568,1522,2561,1618,1015,1025,1151,2562,1517,2570,1022,2563,1966,1213,2569,2567,2566,1106,2565,2560],"class_list":["post-3125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news"],"amp_validity":null,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3127,"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125\/revisions\/3127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3125"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anythingforhire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}