Carpooling: RCI Bank and Services and the start-up Karos complete a successful test

RCI Bank and Services recently joined forces with the start-up Karos as part of the City Makers program to determine the palatability of short-distance carpooling and multimodal travel to its employees. For ten weeks, some 50 employees tried out the Karos app. The results proved highly encouraging, with 24 minutes and €6 in purchasing power saved on average per trip. In addition, 50% of the employees received at least five carpooling proposals a day.

In June 2017, Groupe Renault and NUMA and their partners, including RCI Bank and Services, launched City Makers, an open innovation program focused on the transition to a more flexible and sustainable urban mobility. Yesterday evening, start-ups and partners presented the result of their collaborative efforts, offering us a sneak preview of tomorrow’s mobility.

RCI Bank and Services and Karos presented the results of their challenge on the simplified use of different means of transport for a journey in Ile-de-France during City Makers Demo Day on January 25th.

The test in figures:

52 test employees
At least 5 carpooling proposals per day for nearly 50% of the participants
An average 24 minutes saved per trip
An average savings of €6 in purchasing power per trip
The equivalent of 345 kg of CO2 saved over the test period
A multimodal travel solution for 95% of employees concerned by the head office relocation

“Following the launch of RCI Mobility and the acquisitions of Yuso, Marcel and Karhoo, the challenge carried out as part of the City Makers open innovation program boosts our expertise in new mobility. Our collaboration with the start-up Karos has brought us a better understanding of carpooling issues,” said Henry Gascuel, Chief Innovation Officer.

Discover the results of 9 experimentations of the CityMakers Open innovation program in details here a snapshot of the entire Open Innovation program below.