Business Design & Innovation

Problem

30% of the working population spends over 30 minutes on the road to or from work. 9% even need more than 60 minutes, according to the Onderzoek Verplaatsingsgedrag Vlaanderen (research on travel behavior Flanders) (OVG 4.4)). For centrally located companies, traditional public transport can often offer a solution. But Flanders has many companies and business parks that are difficult or impossible to reach by public transport.

Solution

The office bus is a vehicle used for commuter traffic on a daily predetermined route. As soon as an employee is on board, his workday starts, since the bus offers the same facilities as a standard office. Thanks to an excellent connection, the employee can read documents in the cloud or even log on to the company server. This turns travel time into work time.

Project Development

A prototype was developed based on a technical and functional analysis. For 6 months, this bus took Colruyt Group employees from Gentbrugge to Halle and back. During office hours, the bus could make other journeys and/or be used as a mobile meeting room.

Advantages

The office bus connects locations that have no interesting alternatives by public transport and also ensures the travel time can be put to good use as work time. Thus, the project offers a solution for the users of the bus, but also contributes to reducing the congestion problem for other car users. The more people use the office bus, the less cars are on the road.

Result

Currently two office buses are used. Colruyt Group will continue to use this service for at least another 2 years, EY uses an office bus for the route Leuven-Liège. Project partner BAAV will continue to expand this new mode of transport to a full-scale network of office buses.

This project had the financial support of the agency for innovation and entrepreneurship