Economic sustainability
Turnover and profit up in spite of challenges
Despite the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Mobility Cooperative’s red vehicles were well utilised in 2021, which is also reflected in its financial figures. With turnover rising to CHF 80.7 million (+6.8 %), the company reported a profit of CHF 2.8 million (+6.4 %).
Significant increase in customers and customer database cleaned up
Mobility’s customer base expanded by 9 %, thus matching the previous year’s growth rate. The 22’100 new customers pushed the total number of users up to 267’100. At the same time, Mobility also cleaned up its customer database, removing around 25’000 data records which were duplicates of inactive customer data. The bottom line is that Mobility’s total number of customers now comes to 242’300.
22’000 learner drivers using car sharing
Half of households based in major cities in Switzerland do not own their own car, which is why more and more learner drivers are opting to use Mobility vehicles instead. Since the service was launched seven years ago, more than 22’000 people in Switzerland have prepared for their driving test in red car sharing vehicles – and this trend looks set to continue even more strongly. The learner driver subscription is valid for six months. Third-party, comprehensive and passenger insurance are excluded, along with any liability reduction.
A powerful voice for shared mobility
Mobility wants to play an active role in steering the future of shared mobility in Switzerland. To this end, the cooperative founded the association CHACOMO (Swiss Alliance for Collaborative Mobility) in 2021 in collaboration with 12 other providers of shared mobility services. The industry association has been representing common interests in the political discourse since the outset. Its aim is to establish the sharing of vehicles, journeys and infrastructure beyond the familiar lobbies, as a cornerstone of sustainable mobility as a whole.
Mobility wants to join the debate on autonomous vehicles
A diverse array of associations, companies and higher education institutions founded the Swiss Association for Autonomous Mobility (SAAM) in 2021. Mobility is also part of this network, which aims to play a role in shaping the autonomous transport of passengers and goods, as experts believe that the legal requirements for autonomous driving may have already been met in Switzerland by 2025. SAAM is aspiring to help our country take a pioneering role in autonomous mobility.
The Pikmi pilot project confirms customer demand
From November 2020 to April 2022, Zurich Public Transport (VBZ) and other partners ran the “Pikmi” pilot project – an on-demand solution to supplement the public transport services in the Altstetten, Albisrieden and Wiedikon neighbourhoods of Zurich. Mobility provided seven minivans which functioned as normal car-sharing vehicles during the day. But from 8 pm until 1 am, VBZ drivers drove the cars. They operated an on-demand service booked by smartphone. Journey requests with similar destinations were automatically bundled by the system (“pooling”). The customer feedback confirms that public transport supplemented with on-demand solutions is becoming increasingly appealing. The economic viability of this remains a challenge. However, the project partners agree that the idea behind Pikmi should live on. What form it will take is yet to be decided. Now the project has finished, the seven Pikmi minivans are being restored to their original condition and integrated into the Mobility fleet.
