Two examples among others:
1. Mobicoop, France
Article based on the article in Reporterre, Covoiturage: Mobicoop, l’alternative solidaire à Blablacar, by Franck Dépretz, September 4, 2019 and the Mobicoop website.
Mobicoop presents itself as an alternative to the carpooling giant, — especially in France,– Blablacar. It takes the form of a cooperative platform, based on free software, which connects carpoolers without receiving commissions. “In November 2018, this company specializing in carpooling services for companies and local authorities merged with the non-profit association that managed the covoiturage-libre.fr site, created in 2011 in response to Blablacar’s switch to paid mode. The mixture of the two entities thus formed Mobicoop …”.
The number of employees currently stands at 30, in different cities of France. And the number of cooperators at 1120. It serves companies and individuals in nearly 1200 municipalities, departments and regions, with more than 500,000 users.
“In 2021, Mobicoop approached Rezo Pouce, another shared mobility cooperative founded in 2010 in Moissac and specializing in daily hitchhiking. It also carries the values of a solidarity and sustainable mobility. Our visions converged, our two structures then decided to join forces to form a large SCIC — cooperative society of collective interest (SCIC) in the form of a public limited company (SA) — keeping the name Mobicoop.” It is not necessary to be a member to use the carpooling service.
2. Som Mobilitat, Spain
Since 2016, the SOM Mobilitat online rental service has already been put into operation in about thirty Catalan municipalities, in 2023 there are 85 vehicles, 3,627 members of the cooperative and 3,740 users. It offers a mobile application to share electric vehicles. Its referent is SOM Energía, a renewable energy cooperative very active with local groups throughout Spain. At the European level, it works with Partago in Belgium and Lochem Energy in the Netherlands. It combines the desire to create a sustainable cooperative model on the tradition of consumer cooperatives and to build community with a shared electric car service throughout Catalonia.
