Narbonne launches wireless car sharing scheme
The French city of Narbonne has launched an innovative automated car share scheme. It uses wireless technology to activate and deactivate vehicles and monitor their usage.
The scheme uses the MIVEO technical platform developed by Swedish company Pilotfish Networks, a developer of intelligent traffic systems. It closely resembles the Dutch Greenwheels system.
How does it work?
Users make a reservation for a vehicle on the website. A few hours before they are due to collect the vehicle, they receive an SMS text message on their mobile phone. The SMS tells them where the vehicle is, their reservation code and an activation code.
After the user has verified their identity by replying to the text, the car is remotely opened and the immobiliser switched off. Inside, the key is stored in the glove compartment.
Once the user has finished using the vehicle, it is automatically immobilised and locked. A report on fuel use, how many miles it was driven for, etc, is then automatically sent to the central management hub for the scheme.
Let's see if Swedish electronics also speak French! (Photo: John Smith)
Revelation
Narbonne uses the scheme for municipal car sharing, aimed at local authority employees.
Michel Moynier, the mayor of Narbonne, is known in France as an innovator in city development and was keen to find a sustainable transport solution.
“Some go to holy health resorts, I went to Gothenburg in Sweden where I got a revelation regarding sustainable development and met Pilotfish,” he says.
Milestone
“It’s a milestone for us in many ways”, says Per Lanevik, managing director of Pilotfish Fleet, the fleet arm of Pilotfish Networks. “Narbonne is our first international customer for car sharing. With the environmental issues we are faced with today, more cities will implement these kinds of applications, and follow the example set by Narbonne”.
Erik Nordenfelt, managing director of Pilotfish Networks, is hopeful that many more cities will follow Narbonne’s lead.
“Car sharing is a natural evolution of public transport. In the ideal world, people don’t own their own cars, they use public transport for their daily jobs and then for particular occasions they use a car share,” says Nordenfelt.
The project is being carried out in close collaboration with Comox/Veolia, one of Europe’s largest public transport operators, which will manage the scheme and the maintenance of the cars.
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