Daily carpooling on short-distance trips has exploded. There are tens of thousands of new followers thanks to the bonus offered since January to drivers newly registered on a platform, the government announced Tuesday. In March, for the first time, carpooling platforms counted more than a million of these trips of less than 80 km, "twice as many as a year earlier," said the office of the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

The Ministries of Ecological Transition, Energy Transition and Transport announced in December that motorists who would start "carpooling daily" in 2023 could benefit from a bonus of 100 euros (25 euros from the first trip and an additional 75 euros if nine trips are made in the following three months). Since January, 80,000 new drivers have been eligible for this bonus. The operation is financed by the system of energy savings certificates which obliges gas, electricity or fuel suppliers to finance energy saving actions under penalty of penalties.


#Covoiturage | The @gouvernementFR launches the national campaign of daily carpooling to encourage the French to engage in its practice.

Carpooling is good for purchasing power and for the planet@ChristopheBechu @AgnesRunacher @CBeaune #Transport pic.twitter.com/CT8ADIxeBG ⬇️

— Ministries Ecology Energy Territories (@Ecologie_Gouv) April 11, 2023

Access to this content has been blocked in order to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "I ACCEPT", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I AGREE

And to better pay 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our button "I accept for today" in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Policy page.



A majority of trips "with only one person in the car"

The cabinet of Agnès Pannier-Runacher sees a "very positive dynamic" even though the government would like carpooling, "good for the planet, good for purchasing power", to become a "reflex for the French". After a first plan in 2019 and difficult Covid-19 years for carpooling, the government wants to give a boost. It has set itself the goal of going from 900,000 short-distance trips made by carpooling every day (an estimate also counting informal carpooling, without the intermediary of specialized platforms) to three million in a few years.



The goal being "very ambitious", according to the office of the Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune, a communication campaign is launched Tuesday, including radio spots, to encourage carpooling not only to his workplace, but also to the children's school or the supermarket. The government estimates that about 100 million trips are made by car every day in France to work, school or shopping. "The vast majority of these trips are made with only one person in the car," a ministerial source said.

  • Society
  • Carpool
  • Premium
  • Purchasing power