Corporate Carpooling: 2024 Data from Jojob’s National Observatory

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Publication date: March 2024

Italy, particularly in cities, still struggles to make substantial progress in improving air quality: according to the 2024 Mal’Aria City Report by Legambiente, levels of atmospheric pollutants remain far from the regulatory limits that will soon be approved by the EU, scheduled for 2030, and from the values recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is enough to consider that 18 out of the 98 cities monitored by Legambiente exceeded the current regulatory limits for PM10 exceedances (35 days per year with a daily average above 50 micrograms per cubic meter). For this reason, it is increasingly urgent to implement actions and projects that promote sustainable mobility, to reduce traffic, the number of cars on the road, and pollutant emissions in urban, suburban, and rural areas. As is the case with corporate carpooling, a solution that uses already active technologies and does not require additional infrastructure to be implemented, allowing workers to travel safely, save money, and reduce traffic and emissions. Sharing the same route allows Italians to remove 212,410 cars from the roads, save nearly 1 million euros and avoid the emission of 641 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is revealed by the 2024 National Observatory on Corporate Carpooling conducted by Jojob Real Time Carpooling analyzing data from home-work or home-university trips shared throughout 2023. Thanks to Jojob’s platform and app, mobility managers from companies, institutions, universities, and local administrations can promote and encourage the use of shared and low-impact transportation, through the certification of home-work and home-university carpool trips. Jojob users can post listings to offer or request trips, find compatible drivers and passengers, quantify their environmental contribution in terms of impact, economic savings, and benefit from dedicated recognitions and rewards.

Corporate Carpooling: over 641 tons of CO2 not emitted into the air

Thanks to corporate carpooling, commuting workers and students can share their home-work or home-university trips with colleagues and employees from nearby companies: in 2023, this allowed a saving of 4,931,175 km, thanks to 373,767 certified corporate carpool trips that removed 212,410 cars from Italian roads. A virtuous practice that therefore helps reduce traffic and cut emissions, with 641,135 kg of CO2 less in the atmosphere. This also results in significant economic savings: simply by using carpooling, passengers and drivers together saved a total of 986,263 euros during 2023.

Corporate Carpooling: over 641 tons of CO2 not emitted into the air

Jojob’s corporate carpooling service is used throughout Italy, with a higher concentration in the North (63.9% of trips); in the Center 20.6% of trips are made by commuters, while the remaining portion is distributed between South and Islands (15.5%). The region that recorded the highest number of shared trips in 2023 is Piedmont, with 116,079 trips (31.1% of the total), resulting in a saving of 286,839 euros and 186,430 kg of CO2 not emitted. In second place for shared trips is Emilia Romagna, with 57,590 shared trips (15.4%), equivalent to a saving for the region’s commuters of 118,685 euros and 77 tons of CO2. Third place goes to Veneto, with 47,321 carpool trips (12.6%) that saved 95,505 euros and over 62 tons of CO2. Commuters in Lombardy and Lazio were also enthusiastic, with 46,140 (12.34%) and 44,605 (11.93%) shared trips respectively: interestingly, the kilometers saved reach 618,993 and 817,017, leading to savings of 123,619 euros and 163,392 euros, showing how carpooling increasingly represents, especially for the more densely populated suburban areas, a practical and effective mobility alternative that combines the environmental and economic benefits of group transport with the versatility of private vehicles. In the second half of the Top 10 compiled by Jojob’s National Carpooling Observatory, Umbria (12,860 trips), Trentino-Alto Adige (11,458), and Tuscany (9,979) appear. Closing the ranking are Abruzzo (9,296) and Campania (8,901).

The most “shared” Italian provinces: Turin takes first place

Looking more specifically at the provincial level, Piedmont remains at the top: Turin is the most receptive province for corporate carpooling, with commuters sharing a total of 61,098 trips, saving 859,385 km, over 172,000 euros, and 111 tons of CO2. These numbers also include data from the CO\&GO project, the territorial community of the Metropolitan City of Turin, created to promote and encourage shared mobility across all 312 municipalities of the Metropolitan City of Turin. Next is another Piedmont province, Alessandria, with 41,399 shared trips, saving carpoolers 78,788 euros and preventing 51 tons of CO2 from being emitted. The bronze medal goes to Bologna, with 28,555 shared trips, saving commuters a total of 57,919 euros and 37 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Rome ranks fourth with 23,427 shared trips, but stands out for the number of kilometers saved (397,202) and consequently the total money not spent by workers and students thanks to choosing to travel daily, even for longer routes, using a shared private vehicle (57,191 euros). Following is Treviso with 21,166 shared trips, resulting in savings of 29,744 euros and 19 tons of CO2 not emitted. In the second half of the ranking, the case of Rieti is notable, in sixth place for the number of shared trips, 16,084 trips, with an impressive 312,283 km saved, indicating that carpooling is widely used within the province to reach workplaces or schools more conveniently in the absence of direct and efficient public transport connections between municipalities. Seventh and eighth places go to Belluno (14,989 trips) and Milan (12,467), while closing the Top 10 are Brescia (11,852) and Perugia (11,837).

The identikit of the shared crew

Corporate carpooling in Italy involves thousands of workers and students who choose to share their commute mainly for convenience, stress reduction, and chatting with colleagues. More numerous are men, who account for 62% of all carpooling trips, compared to 38% made by women. As for the age of carpoolers, 62% of trips are made by Millennials: specifically, 32.5% of the total are between 30 and 39 years old, 28.3% between 20 and 29 years old, while 21.7% fall within the 40–49 age group. Carpooling is also popular among the over 50s, who represent 17.2% of users. The youngest Jojob carpooler was born in 2005, while the oldest was born in 1946. In the same car an average of 2.32 people travel per trip, and it is interesting to note how this figure has increased even compared to the pre-pandemic period (2019), when the average was 2.27 people per car: this shows how corporate carpooling is perceived not only as convenient and cost-effective but also as a safe way to travel, sharing the ride with people who work or study together every day. In particular, 3 out of 4 trips (75.6%) are made by a crew of 2 people, i.e., driver and passenger, while 18.3% of cars carry 3 colleagues. 5.96% of trips involve a crew of 4 or 5 people, with the car practically full. For commuting, the most used cars are compact cars, chosen by 40.8% of carpoolers, followed by sedans and SUVs (30%), and city cars (20.4%).

The habits of carpoolers

A typical carpooling trip for employees and students in Italy covers an average distance of 26.6 km. The longest routes are recorded in Liguria, where the average is 47.8 km, almost double the national figure, followed by those in the Marche (47 km) and Umbria (39.2 km). The shortest routes, on the other hand, are in Trentino Alto Adige, where the average is 19.8 km per trip.
But when is carpooling used? More than 60% of trips take place on the midweek days, namely 20.1% on Tuesday, 20.3% on Wednesday and 20% on Thursday. Monday (17.4%) and Friday (15.7%) are less “shared” days, probably due to the fact that many companies have introduced remote work on the days before or after the weekend. On Saturday, shared trips account for 4.2% of the total, while on Sunday they drop to 2.4%. As for time of day, one fifth of trips (21.3%) depart at 11 p.m.: a figure highlighting how carpooling is widely used by night workers and shift workers. Trips departing at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., the “standard” office hours, account for 13.9% and 13.5% respectively. November stands out as the best month of the year, with the highest number of shared trips (39,213), followed by October (38,223) and May (37,054).

How Jojob Real Time Carpooling Works, the Carpooling Service for Commuters

Consisting of a web platform and a smartphone app, Jojob Real Time Carpooling allows companies, institutions, organizations, universities, and local communities to promote and encourage the use of shared and low-impact transport especially for commuters, through the certification of home-to-work and home-to-university carpool trips. It is a transport alternative that reduces the pressure of finding parking, saves on travel costs, and allows reaching the workplace stress-free even in case of unexpected events or public transport strikes. Registered users can see colleagues or other citizens on the same route or near a common starting point and easily coordinate their trips. For each trip taken, they receive an exact calculation of CO2 saved and points redeemable for discounts to be converted into coupons or used at partner restaurants, cinemas, and amusement parks. Additionally, carpoolers can split travel expenses directly via the app, thanks to a system based on MangoPay technology, saving money and covering travel costs such as fuel, tolls, and parking. Jojob also provides participating companies and territories with a comprehensive monitoring system, offering data and statistics on the use of the service by their commuting employees and the environmental savings achieved. Companies that choose to promote corporate carpooling with Jojob Real Time Carpooling adopt a CSR improvement perspective and offer an innovative and environmentally sustainable transport alternative to their employees.

Conclusions

The carpooling numbers recorded by Jojob in 2023 are extremely positive and indicate a consistent focus by companies and employees not only on the environment, but also on economic savings and employee welfare: sharing a car means improving and strengthening relationships among colleagues, making the work experience more enjoyable. In most cases, carpoolers travel from nearby towns to the workplace, often highlighting issues related to the accessibility of the company itself, which may be located in areas poorly served by public transport. There are also cases where, with the company located in an area well served by public transport, Jojob complements public transport by encouraging intermodality: corporate carpooling is chosen for part of the journey, such as a stretch of highway or main road, up to a park-and-ride lot from which the crew can take buses or the metro. Carpooling thus becomes a fundamental tool for mobility managers of companies and local communities, who can integrate it into their PSCL, the home-to-work travel plan for their staff or citizens.
Methodological Note
  • The savings data were calculated assuming that each passenger transported gave up using one of the most economical cars on the market (ACI table equal to €0.20 per km). Therefore, the results underestimate the actual savings generated.
  • When generating local rankings, only regions with a significant number of trips were considered; for the provincial rankings, only provinces that recorded more than 1,000 trips were included.

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