How can companies cope with changes in mobility after containment?

Click on the link to see the full article: How can companies cope with changes in mobility after containment?

Since mid-March 2020, several European countries have been confined. Indeed, the spread of the covid-19 virus being so rapid, governments have found a solution: total containment for all citizens. Cafés, restaurants and all other non-essential shops have been closed for almost 2 months.

This crisis created a real break in our everyday life, people were locked in their homes all day long and most workers learned to work from home because many companies were closed. So, mobility came as a big shock as travel came to an almost complete standstill.

So we wonder about the future of this mobility and are curious to find out how this deconfinement or rather this return to “real life” will take place. Over the last few weeks, we have been exchanging with our prospects and customers to find out their opinion on this subject. In this article, we therefore offer you advice based on these testimonials to help you cope with these changes in mobility in the aftermath of this lockdown period.

• Possible changes in mobility after lockdown
• Solutions to cope with changes in mobility

Possible changes in mobility after containment

a. An increase in the demand for parking (cars, motorcycles, bicycles, etc.).

After this long period of confinement, the trend shows that it is highly possible that many citizens may no longer wish to use public transport or at least reduce their journeys with this type of transport as much as possible. Indeed, even if we are now entitled to leave our homes, the virus has not disappeared and it is important to continue to protect ourselves against it.

We therefore believe that many people will favour private transport (car, motorbike, scooters, bicycles…) and therefore that the demand for parking will strongly increase.

Also, the government strongly encourages citizens to travel by bicycle. For example, in Brussels and Paris, kilometres of cycle paths are made available to users (40 km in Brussels and 650 km in Paris) in order to increase the desire to use this mode of transport. Moreover, in France, a 20 million euro government plan has been put in place to encourage the use of bicycles. In addition, in Paris, municipal representatives have decided to double the number of spaces in car park and ride facilities.

b. Teleworking and staggered working hours for some companies

During these 2 months of confinement, the vast majority of workers were teleworking. But even after this period, the government still advocates home office and encourages as many companies as possible to continue like this. The mobility of some of them will therefore not quite resume right away.

Some employees might tend to still work remotely for their own safety or ask for at least 1 or 2 days of teleworking per week. Employees might also ask to modify their work schedules to avoid road traffic between 8:00 and 9:00 am and to avoid having too many employees in the office at the same time.

The following are some hypotheses as to possible changes in worker behaviour in the aftermath of containment. But what are the solutions to deal with these new habits?

Solutions to cope with changes in mobility

a. Adopt a parking management platform for :

i. Enable employees to reserve a space in a company car park according to their needs and different work schedules.

One of the most practical solutions would be to allow each employee to have a company parking space for his or her car, motorcycle or bicycle. Staggered working hours could be a real advantage as the company would not have to have as many parking spaces as employees.

By using their personal means of transport, employees would take less risk of spreading the virus and enjoy a better mobility experience.

ii. Allow parking managers to modify parking policy and access to the car park in line with the changes.

Car park managers could find here an opportunity to change their parking policy and access to the car park. The aim would be to give parking users more flexibility.

More users could have access to the car park because there will be more turnover, i.e. there will be more drivers but on different schedules. This would be a real advantage for fleet managers.

iii. Open the car park gate without leaving the car or touching anything outside.

Some parking management software offers the possibility to let you open the car park using your mobile phone, or by automatically reading your license plate. This way you will be able to access the car park without having to touch and tap a machine outside to open the car park or use the badge to put it on the machine to open the car park.

b. Prepare for deconfinement as soon as possible

Let us now take the example of companies that do not have parking spaces for their employees or that have too few vacant parking spaces. It is essential that those responsible for the mobility plan in companies (general services, human resources, etc.) think about this before the end of this particular period so as not to be faced with too many mobility problems when deconfinement takes place. Here is how you find additional parking spaces near your company)

Our behaviours have changed a lot during this period of confinement. We have learned to live differently, to move differently than usual and we are convinced that these changes will really impact our future attitude. This is why it is essential for companies to prepare this return to community life as well as possible in order to preserve an optimal mobility experience.

Originally published at https://blog.bepark.eu.