Corporate shared mobility not taking off in Belgium

The Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB) published a report on corporate mobility sharing schemes. The results indicate the uptake of such schemes remains very low.

The report is based on a survey among 262 employers in Belgium held between 20 June and 30 August 2017. As the sample is not representative, the results are merely indicative.

Belgium faces major mobility challenges, says the FEB. The roads are congested and the OECD estimates the economic loss due to congestion at 1 to 2% of GDP. Around a quarter of all employers encounter problems related to congestion.

At this moment, the share of the workforce that uses carpooling or car sharing to commute to work is minute. Nevertheless, a growing number of companies is taking initiatives to promote such alternatives.

Carpooling

37% of the respondents has taken at least one initiative to promote carpooling. Most often, this is limited to sending out information and organising carpooling among employees. Carpooling is often met with reservation as a large part of employees cannot reconcile their flexible work times with a fixed carpool schedule.

Car sharing

33% of all employers promote car sharing, most often by sharing pool cars. Only 7% of the responding companies use the service of external car sharing companies. The main motivation for offering car sharing is limiting transport costs. Few companies encounter problems with the administrative side of car sharing.

Recommendations

In its report, the FEB drew up a number of recommendations.

• The fiscal and parafiscal framework for all transportation modes should be harmonised, particularly in terms of the mobility budget.
• Carpool initiatives should be made more flexible to address the required flexibility in terms of working hours and taking into consideration intermodality.
• Carpooling and car sharing should be promoted
• Initiatives are required to reconcile company cars with car sharing.
• Co-modal infrastructure needs to be developed, allowing for transfers from one mode of transport to another.

Image: congestion in rue de la Loi, Brussels