How multimodal mobility can save your freelance business € 10K a year in transport costs
Tags: Belgium, Mobility, Freelancers, SaaS, Sustainability

How multimodal mobility can save your freelance business € 10K a year in transport costs

Car circulation in the Belgian capital is painfully slow and congested. As a freelancer, you pay a heavy price for sitting in traffic, in terms of both time and money. Carolina Follow Mar 4, 2020 · 4 min read

With more and more public and shared mobility options available in Belgium, it’s time to ditch the car and start taking the train, metro, bike or scooter to work. Or even better: how about a combination of all of the above? We’ll explain why you should consider alternative mobility, and how we simplify your path from A to B.

Driving isn’t always worth the expense

Figures from three universities in Brussels show that nearly half the workers in the Belgian capital commute into the city every day. No wonder the city ranks poorly for traffic congestion! During peak times, the average speed on roads in the capital region slows down to a crawl, causing people to spend up to 95 minutes on their commute each day. That amounts to roughly 195 hours (eight days) of precious weekday time a year! And as we know, time is money. Based on the official average income of €52/hour , freelancers like you lose over €10,000 a year to traffic. So when it comes to commuting by car, the math just doesn’t add up.

“Brussels has seen an astounding 259 percent increase in bicycle commuting over the last 15 years”

There’s no question that we have to use alternative means of transport: studies show that if we reduce the number of cars on the road by 10 percent, it improves the flow of traffic by 40 percent. Luckily, there are other ways to get around. According to a recent federal study on commuting habits, more and more Belgians are getting to work by bike or public transport. Brussels has seen an astounding 259 percent increase in bicycle commuting over the last 15 years. Meanwhile, train commuters have almost caught up in numbers with those who go by car. So we’re definitely making progress!

The road to multimodal mobility

When it comes to transport, people are ready for change. A 2019 online survey on the regional mobility plan Good Move showed that three out of four respondents were willing to give up space for cars in exchange for better public transport, bike paths and accessible footpaths. That doesn’t mean you have to dump your car for good. Rather than making it an all or nothing thing, commuters are taking the multimodal route. According to our own stats, using a car is the best option only about 25 percent of the time. A quarter of the population wants to combine different means of transport during rush hour: a mix of shared scooters, bikes, public transport. The possibilities have become endless, especially in Brussels.

Infrastructure in the city is shifting towards alternative transport: every year you see more car-free areas, wider bike paths and more low-speed areas. This ever-increasing transport offer is creating a growing range of ways to get around.

“Multimodal route planners propose different transport options for the same route”

This means it’s also getting more difficult to get a complete overview of the information on the different modes of transport out there. Luckily there are new apps to help us see the big picture. They’re called multimodal route planners, and they propose different transport options for the same route. Indicating travel time, the different modes used and the connections, they give us the detailed information we need to plan our journey.

Your one-stop mobility shop

Thanks to Skipr, your co-pilot for multimodal mobility, you don’t compromise on comfort: our app combines all the options and calculates what you need to reach your destination, so you can travel with ease. Your route could be a combination of a shared scooter, public transport and a Poppy car. The national railway company NMBS/SNCB, bus company De Lijn, car-sharing provider Poppy and ride-hailing giant Uber are all integrated in Skipr, and you can book them directly through the app.

By making so many options payable via our app, we make multimodal travel even smoother for you. Out of cash or forgot your bank card? We’ve got you. On top of that, all your expenses are neatly stored in our app. No more messing with individual receipts: each month you get an invoice with all your combined mobility costs, which are 100 percent tax deductible.

Multimodal mobility really pays off! So what are you waiting for? Travel without compromise: give Skipr a try today!