Car sharing promotes mobility turnaround in Luxembourg

Luxembourg is the country in the EU with the highest level of individual ownership. Reasons for this are the high level of prosperity, favourable company car practices and a very good road infrastructure. However, the infrastructure could not prevent the high number of vehicles from leading to traffic chaos. This, together with climate protection are the reasons why this country of 620,000 inhabitants, with 200,000 commuters from Germany, France and Belgium every working day, is now focusing on a traffic transformation instead of traffic chaos.

Nationwide car sharing with FLEX

For some time now, CFL Mobility, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg railways CFL, has been setting up a car-sharing system under the brand name "FLEX". The aim of FLEX is to offer nationwide car sharing. Jürgen Berg, Managing Director of CFL Mobility explained: "With FLEX, we want to close the gap between public transport and private mobility so that using public transport becomes an serious alternative to owning a car."

It was launched in 2018 located at 25 CFL stations. The focus for further expansion was on areas with a higher population density. The city of Luxembourg is a particular focus. The demand here is very high, but it is difficult to find suitable parking spaces for the FLEX stations in the densely built-up city with high competition for space. Currently, FLEX operates its service exclusively station-based.

Different business models

The CFL Mobility strategy focuses on three areas. The core area is CFL Mobility’s own FLEX car-sharing stations. Another area is partnerships with municipalities and companies, which then also share in the economic risks and opportunities of car sharing. The third area, which is currently being set up on a test basis, is described by Jürgen Berg as follows: "The company cars, which are available in large numbers in Luxembourg, are to be given a ‚double life‘. During the day they are available for business trips, and outside working hours they can be used by employees on favourable terms. This is not only a win-win situation for companies and employees by saving costs and parking spaces, but can also be a way of reducing the attractiveness and number of private cars and thus car density."

Initially, CFL Mobility will test this concept in-house within its own consortium of companies under the name CFLEX. Jürgen Berg said: "We see a great opportunity in the combined use of company cars for business and private use. As one of the largest employers in Luxembourg, CFL is the ideal company to explore the potential for company car sharing. We are looking forward to the CFLEX project."

MOQO app for ease of use and excellent service

This is where MOQO, the shared mobility platform from Aachen, Germany, comes into play. Jürgen Berg commented: "For the CFLEX project, we need innovative, powerful software that supports our concept and contributes to the success of the project. That’s how we became aware of MOQO."

The MOQO platform digitally maps all processes required for sharing: from rental and invoicing processes to driving licence validations and services, such as cleaning and recording damage or vehicle status, to personnel or accounting systems. Everything is fully digitalised. Moreover, the digital processes relieve the provider of all these tasks.

MOQO also offers simple operation, convenience and transparency for the car sharing customer. First, they only have to download the app and register. Afterwards, when they log in as a customer, a wide range of services are available to him. Via the easy-to-use menu, they can see at any time which vehicles are available for them and where they are located. They can book them spontaneously or reserve them in advance. In the case of electric vehicles, they are also informed about the charge status of the batteries and the driving range. In addition, the system offers them full transparency at all times about services used and their costs.

Quality is imperative

Jürgen Berg also knows that the acceptance of shared mobility essentially depend on the quality of the service and accessibility: "Here in Luxembourg, we have to meet the high demands of the people in the region. High quality and availability as well as comfort and safety are fundamental. Car sharing must not be perceived as a restriction of mobility. On the contrary: customers should feel comfortable, they should have fun, car sharing should be ‚presentable‘. We select our vehicles and design our services with this in mind."

www.flex.lu; www.moqo.de