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Piet Schudde about Univé’s mobility outlook

A nice two-year plan with a framework for long-term choices and support in the organisation.

‘A nice two-year plan with a framework for long-term choices and support in the organisation.’

‘It was inspiring,’ he says, laughing. ‘The As-a-Service concept is interesting. We’re now considering whether we can also use it to achieve our two core objectives, “sustainability and vitality”, for our members,’ says Piet Schudde, HR manager HR at Univé Noord-Nederland. ‘We clicked with Mobinck. That’s important. Cooperation, partnership and the human factor – these are essential values for us as a cooperative. Our business stems from the idea that together you can prevent contingencies from happening. With Mobinck, we have now laid the foundation for more sustainable, healthier mobility.’

Organising and structuring each other’s mobility

1794, Univé’s founder Geert Reinders established the ‘Society of Mutual Assistance’. The idea was that solidarity, or a mutual fund, could save farmers from what were then almost always catastrophic disasters such as fire or cattle disease. Since then, Univé has focused on ‘preventing, limiting and, if there’s absolutely no other way, insuring’. ‘Our main question to Mobinck,’ says Schudde, ‘was: how do we keep everyone permanently employable and mobile, and how do we organise and structure each other’s mobility? This question predates COVID-19, but the growing desire for hybrid working has made it all the more urgent.’

From a purely cost-driven perspective to flexibility

Schudde: ‘At the moment, a fixed travel allowance seems to pin people down to their workplace, whereas flexibility gives them more breathing room and leeway in terms of how they think and act. We’re shifting away from a perspective that focuses purely on cost, and instead, we’re asking ourselves: “How do all these travel movements impact our well-being and environment?” We employ 200 people, about 120 of whom work at our sites. Often, due to historical circumstances, they travel an unnecessary number of kilometres between home and work. Mobinck studied our travel behaviour. Based on their data and best practices regarding travel time and expense accounts, we gained insight into our traffic flows. Together with Mobinck, we have now made policy choices for the next two years and have a solid framework in place for long-term choices.’

Mobinck studied our travel behaviour. Based on their data and best practices regarding travel time and expense accounts, we gained insight into our traffic flows.

Piet Schudde

Towards 40% active, clean mobility

At Univé Noord-Nederland, 83% of the people come to work by car, which is a lot, but not entirely surprising: public transport in this somewhat rural area doesn’t always meet people’s needs. ‘Based on the data that Mobinck analysed,’ says Schudde, ‘Mobinck discovered that 40% active mobility, i.e. cycling and walking, should be attainable. In addition, 8% of people could carpool. We want to encourage that active mobility, also financially. You can do that radically, for example, by cutting travel allowances for fossil fuel cars. We don’t want to enforce that just yet, partly because fuel is still so expensive. However, we will reward people if they come by bike or speed pedelec, for example. But we would rather swap all of our carbon emissions for fresh air as soon as possible.’

Concrete plan with support

Piet Schudde has worked for Univé for 17 years. His work, as a member of the MT and in his advisory work for the Hanzehogeschool and the Gebiedscoöperatie Het Hogeland, focuses mainly on sustainability and innovation: ‘Innovation almost always leads to improvement. And we can still improve a lot on mobility in our organisation and in society.’ The proposal of the working group, consisting of eight people from HR, finance, fleet management and the Works Council, still has to be approved, but, says Schudde, ‘there’s support for the concrete two-year plan with ample framework for long-term choices. Details can always be changed, but I expect: this will work. Indeed, I hope that the seven other Univé branches will build on our partnership with Mobinck.’