France/Porte de DrômArdèche: the community of municipalities pays for your home-work journey
The Porte de DrômArdèche community of municipalities is re-launching the promotion of the Klaxit carpooling application for home-to-work trips and is financing it.
The carpooling application Klaxit had been a bit neglected with the health crisis of Covid-19 and the instructions of social distancing. This fall, the elected officials of the Porte de DrômArdèche community of municipalities around Saint-Vallier are re-launching its promotion: " It answers a triple objective" argues Pierre Jouvet, the president of the intercommunality, "to try to make savings to our inhabitants, by revalorizing their purchasing power with less individual journeysfight against global warming because travelling with 4 people in a car rather than alone to go to work is good for the planet; and then relieve our roads because we have an increase in population."
The Porte de DrômArdèche community of municipalities takes charge of the scheme financially: the passenger pays nothing, and the driver is compensated 2 euros per trip (4 euros when the trip exceeds 40 kilometers). Today, 200 people regularly use the application. The elected officials hope to reach 1,000 active carpoolers.
An argument to help companies recruit?
About twenty companies are promoting the Klaxit application to their employees. The more people use it, the more likely they are to find a ride to share. Claudie Patouillard-Curtil, human resources manager at Revol in Saint-Uze, also sees it as an argument for recruiting: "A large part of recruitment is held back by salary, but indirectly it's linked to distance. The cost of a full tank of gas today means that people are less likely to work more than 10 kilometers from home in the industry. So Klaxit can be an answer to this problem."
In May, when gasoline was over 2 euros a liter, the Klaxit app was widely used. But the objective is that carpooling is regular, that it does not fluctuate like the prices at the pump.
Source: www.francebleu.fr
