ASP MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECT
FINAL REPORT
GREEN MOVE THE SERVICE IDEA ACADEMIC TUTOR: Alberto Colorni INDACO department, Politecnico di Milano
TEAM B: Jacopo Bonacci Master of Product Service System Design, Politecnico di Milano Roberta Motter Master of Product Service System Design, Politecnico di Milano Merve Murathanoglu Master of Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano Tommaso Taddei Master of Mathematical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano Giovanni Villani Master of Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
GREEN MOVE: THE SERVICE IDEA FINAL REPORT November 2012
Team B
GREEN MOVE PROJECT DEVELOPED BY
AND SUPPORTED BY
Green Move - Team B. From the left: Tommaso Taddei, Roberta Motter, Giovanni Villani, Merve Murathanoglu, Jacopo Bonacci.
We would like to thank Professor Alberto Colorni for giving us the opportunity to work at this project and for what we have learnt by working with him and his team in these two years, all the team of Poliedra, in particular Alessandro Luè, Roberto Nocerino and Valerio Paruscio for the guidance, attention and patience they have shown us, and all the departments and centers of the Politecnico di Milano working on Green Move project. We would like to express our great appreciation to the board and staff of the ASP for the opportunity they offered and for supporting us in these two years. Finally we wish to thank the representatives of the students for helping us in every situation and all the students for sharing this experience with us.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………........ 1 1 / Sustainable Mobility in Milan: motivations and state of the art…...…....3 1.1 / Mobility in Milan: a brief outlook…………………………………………..……......5 Area C………………………………………..…………..………………………………….......7 1.2 / Electric car sharing systems……………..………………………………………......8 2 / The Green Move project: a general presentation………………………………...11 Assumptions of Green Move…………………………………………………………....11 Specific objectives of Green Move…………………………………………………....11 Main features of the system……………………………………………………..........12 Project teams…………………………………………………………………………...........13 Project structure……………………………………………………………………………...14 3 / The conception of the Service: Definition of Alternatives ………............. 17 3.1 / From traditional car rental to innovative vehicle sharing systems......17 3.2 / Analysis of the best practices…………………………….………………….......... 23 Car2go……………...……………………………………………………………...................25 Autolib………..…………………………………………………………………………….........26 RelayRides………………………………………………………………………………..........27 Autoshare………………………………………………………………….........................28 Guidami…………………………………………………………………………....................30 E-vai……………………………………………………………………………………...............31 4 / The Service Idea…………………………………………………………………....................33 4.1 / The methodology: proposals, survey and conjoint analysis…………….37 4.2 / Stakeholders analysis…………………………………………………….................. 43 4.3 / Social Networking……………………………………………………………………………51 4.4 / Credit System…………………………………………………………………………….......55 4.5 / Hypotesis of system’s configuration...................................................57
5 / Design of the prototyping...............................………...................................64 5.1 / Influence graph……………….………………………………………........................ 64 5.2 / Price Analysis..........………………………………………………………………….......67 5.3 / Field analysis and test……………………………………………………….............. 72 Prototyping the Condosharing as tool………………………………………...... 72 The Two Hypotheses of Prototyping………………...................................75 Mapping the interest...............…………………………………………………....... 80 Condosharing Welcome Toolkit……………………………………………........... 82 Estimated budget…………………………………………....................................83 5.4 / Conclusive comments and an outlook on the next steps................ 85 6 / Conclusions................................................................................................86 7 / References................................................................................................ 88
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The present work deals with Green Move, a two-year and a half project developed by eight departments and centers of Politecnico di Milano and funded by Regione Lombardia, which aims at proposing an innovative vehicle sharing system for the city of Milan. The overall project is composed by two different parts: the first one is related to the development of the suitable technological features necessary for the system. The second one is mainly linked to the conception of the overall service and to the analysis of the on-field experimentations. This report addresses the second part of Green Move; more precisely it deals with the conception of the general service and with a preliminary test of a specific configuration. The work is organized as follows. In the first chapter Green Move is introduced in the wide framework as well as Milan, the context of the service and the idea of sustainable mobility. The second chapter is entirely about the conception of the service. By analyzing articles from the specialized literature and collecting the most relevant best practices from all over the world, some “mobility profiles” and “service indicators” will be defined to best describe the operating context. Then, taking advantage of the previous analysis, the main features of Green Move service will be presented and motivated in light of the previous steps. The third chapter deals with specific configurations – among the four that are integrated into the overall system – that has been analyzed in detail and also tested “on field”. As regards the experimentation, some attention will be paid to understand how the results shall be used to provide indications for the general case. The fourth chapter focuses on the field testing of the created service. First an overview of the influence graph is given, creating an understanding of how different parameters affect each other and performance of the service. The main part of the chapter consists of the field test, which is done on the condosharing alternative. All the analysis and preparations done for the test were covered in the report. In conclusion, some comments and final observations together with some proposals for the future will be offered.
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1 / SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY IN MILAN: MOTIVATIONS AND STATE OF THE ART Nowadays making transport sustainable is representing one of the most complex and crucial themes of sustainable development. Especially in Western countries, sustainable transport will require dramatic lifestyle changes that surely will be difficult to accept. In Italy there are 60 cars per 100 inhabitants- the highest percentage in Europe, in Milan and Rome the percentage is even higher, around 70%. The number of cars and the overall condition of the road network determine that our cities are extremely crowded and polluted. According to the data of TomTom Observatory, Milan is the 12th crowded European city: due to the fact that Milan compared to London or Paris is not a mega-city, such result is extremely worrying. On average each Milanese driver spends 75 minutes per day waiting in traffic lines, corresponding to 2 years of one’s life. As regards to the pollution, the situation is even worse: Environment European Agency stated that in 2011 among the 30 most polluted European cities, 17 of them are Italian. In this alarming ranking Turin, Brescia and Milan are present as the most polluted Italian cities.
img 1.1 - Traffic congestion in the Milanese area at 8.00/9.00 am - source: Corriere della Sera
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img 1.2 - Traffic congestion in Cerchia dei Bastioni before introducing Area C - source: milano est blog
Even if politics and in a broader sense the public opinion have started to deal with the problem, at the present time their acts seem to aim at minimizing the short period damages instead of truly facing the problem from a structural point of view. To give an example, in the last years most of the Italian cities have tried some car mobility limitations such as Sunday traffic blocks, ZTL - Zona Traffico Limitato (limited traffic access zones ) - and, for the Milan case, the Area C. Regarding the vehicles aspect, the patterns of personal mobility (mainly fossil fuel based cars, privately owned) are well established and there is a general expectation of a gradual evolution towards vehicles that are more comfortable, cleaner, technologically advanced, safer and more efficient. Moreover, from the citizens’ point of view, owning a car is becoming more and more expensive. The initial cost of the car, the fixed costs of maintenance (insurance, overhaul, etc.), the oil (for which the price is rising up constantly) and all the variable costs (parking, highway toll, etc.) are becoming unsustainable with respect to the purchasing power of the citizens. Compounding all these factors, the difficult compromise between safe and environment-friendly vehicle, the uncertain evolution of the purchas-
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ing power in rich countries, the need to decongest metropolitan areas from traffic and the space occupied by parking, the pollution and the costs related to owning a car, the necessary change has to be seen as opportunity to develop new sustainable scenarios. The approach to these problems must necessarily pass (unlikely except in technology) through three evolutionary directions, especially regarding the urban and metropolitan mobility: • the reduction in size and weight of vehicles; • a drastic reduction of the fuel-based carbon engines and the consequent development of electric vehicles; • a change in the mobility model, moving from the traditional concept of individual ownership to a vehicle model based on articulated vehicle sharing mechanisms. It is also important to note that the trend towards the use of electric vehicles has a strong connection with the aspects of the production of energy: a slow process that will transform the power grid into a giant “collector” and “homogenizing” of countless mini / micro-generators of renewable energy throughout the country (wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, etc.) is already began and goes on. The growth in renewable energy production with low environmental impact should be closely coordinated and consistent with the development of new models of mobility: electric vehicles are to be interpreted in the light of this synergy between the world of energy and the world of mobility. A significant opportunity is thus represented by the vehicle sharing systems that should be redesigned in an innovative way. The project which is presented in this report, Green Move, is such a system: a car sharing system, small, electric and shared.
1.1 / MOBILITY IN MILAN: A BRIEF OUTLOOK The context of the Green Move project is the city of Milan, even if the design and field test are carried on in more concentrated areas within the city. For this reason a brief outlook will be provided on the general characteristics of the city, the modes of transportation and the mobility initiatives started to increase the quality of living by decreasing traffic and air pollution caused by vehicles. The city is positioned on 181.76 km2 on Lombardia area of Italy with a population of 1.332.750 as of 13 December 2010. The average density is around 740 inhabitants per km2 within the city. The population density is given in img 1.3.
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Within the city the public transportation is split into four different modes, provided by ATM group: underground, bus, light rail (tram) and trolley buses. The underground network services in three lines with a total of 82.8 km while the bus network has 881.3 km serviced by 97 bus lines and a fleet of 1.334 vehicles. The trams encompass 285 km with 19 lines and there are 3 trolley bus lines present. According to the statistics kept by the group this network served 682 million passengers in total1. Based on a study conducted by Conduits project (http://conduits.eu/ documents/city-summaries/Milan.pdf) the mobility is “split for Milan is 9.4% walking, 3% cycling, 13.1% bus and light rail, 15.7% metro, 7.1% commuter rail, 46,9% car and 5% motorcycle/scooter�. Also the average travel time in urban areas excluding walking trips are 33 minutes and 7.1 km. The high number of private vehicles creates pollution and traffic within the city. Around 55% of emissions of particulate material (which create atmospheric pollution) in Milan are resulting from the vehicle traffic (Invernizzi et al., 2011). The PM levels are highly present in the city; in 2010 it has been recorded PM levels as high as 75 mg m_3 for 11 days when the levels had been over the regulated limit of 50 mg m_3 for 16 consecutive days.
img 1.3 - Population density in Milano - source: FOCUS ON Milano
1 - source: ATM data
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AREA C Due to these problems there are different initiatives present in the city to decrease pollution and traffic. An important program is the “Area C” which is located at the heart of the city. This initiative, launched on 16 January 2012, puts on place a “congestion charge” to cars which want to enter the designated area in the city center in the week days from 7.30 to 19.30. The charge is not present for scooters, bicycles, hybrid, methane, LPG, biofuel and electrical cars for the time being.
img 1.4 - Delimitation of Area C - source: Comune di Milano
The aim of this program is to decrease the traffic, or at least the more polluting traffic created by the emissions of vehicles, in the area named “Cerchia dei Bastoni”. While doing this Local Administration aspires to encourage the citizens to use the public transportation networks, provide an income to improve and create soft mobility infrastructures like bike lanes and pedestrian zones and improve the quality of life decreasing noise, pollution, accident numbers and unorganized parking. By fulfilling this aims the traffic and pollution problems of Milan is hoped to be reduced.
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1.2 / ELECTRIC CAR SHARING SYSTEMS
img 1.5 - Infographic on car sharing system - source: futureofcarsharing.com
Before starting to analyze the alternatives and components of the Green Move system, similar practices done around the world are examined to serve as a starting ground. A vehicle sharing consists of the use of a shared car, taken from the user in a special parking area and left in the same (or in another) area. The service is close to car-hire but it is distinguished by the short duration of the trips: for this reasons it is well-suited for metropolitan areas. Vehicle sharing systems aim to address a customer that uses the car for unsystematic trips and covers on average less than 10,000 km per year: taking advantage of an appropriate – in terms of costs and accessibility –
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service, he/she can give up to take his/her second car. On one hand this determines considerable economical savings (the annual cost for a private car is around 5,000 € per year) for the user and on the other it determines significant social improvements for the city in terms of pollution. It has been demonstrated that car sharing makes possible for its customers to significantly decrease the use of car: if in addition the vehicles are electric, the impact of the service to the reduction of pollution can be relevant. For these reasons, vehicle sharing can be numbered among sustainable mobility systems in the same way as carpooling, bike sharing and Public Transportation. Car sharing in particular is considered crucial when switching to electric cars (this is also the path followed by Paris with “Autolib”). The electric mobility can only truly kick off with the promotion of some services overcoming the barriers of entry. It is impossible to think immediately of a spontaneous diffusion of electric cars between individuals: it is better to focus initially on car sharing, on sustainable logistics (such as electric vans that can exclusively enter in limited traffic areas), on electric taxis, on corporate fleets. This will create a critical mass that will begin to expand the market and also will have a demonstrative function. After this stage it will be possible to have a mass market, but an investment for public administrations and from electric utilities will be needed to create the necessary charging infrastructure.
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2 / THE GREEN MOVE PROJECT: A GENERAL PRESENTATION ASSUMPTIONS OF GREEN MOVE The limited diffusion of these car-sharing systems may possibly be ascribable to their characteristics. The actual services appear too generic and they often take shape as a simple rental car. Green Move aims to create a flexible service, that can address different targets and offer a significant range of additional services customized to users’ needs.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF GREEN MOVE A key element is the design and the integrated development of an innovative vehicle sharing system, based on light electric vehicles suitable for use in urban and metropolitan areas, from which descend the project objectives: • emissions and congestion: to develop a solution that will not only dramatically reduce the emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases but also traffic congestion; • use of renewable energy: to propose a solution to the problem of mobility by integrating it with the development of renewable energy production systems with low environmental impact; • monitoring and profiling: to provide effective methods and tools for monitoring and profiling, which link the behavior of each user to his actual energy consumption and not only to the path followed; • urban environment: to enable a sustainable mobility system from the urban planning point of view: charging stations only need access to electricity and are not subjects to positioning restrictions even in areas with limited traffic access; • business model: to use primarily information and communication technologies, contextualizing them with non-technological aspects: business model and economic sustainability, urban impact, social networking, behavioral patterns of users; • integrated approach: to develop a fully integrated solution that may have impacts in many directions, even outside of the proposed solution for the project.
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MAIN FEATURES OF THE SYSTEM The project aims at creating a system with the following characteristics: • Broad vehicles portfolio. Green Move is conceived as a multi-vehicle system, not only because it includes several macro-classes of vehicles (motorcycles, cars, etc..), but also for the use of various types of vehicles within the same macro-class (such as motorcycles with two or three wheels). Green Move, in fact, hasn’t the objective to develop a small set of new vehicles, but to allow any vehicle producer to easily adapt and integrate his vehicles in the system, by installing a small electronic dashboard (“Green e-Box “), and a standard “docking” system in the depository stations. The use of FEV (Full Electric Vehicle) leads to a substantial evolution of the sharing vehicle concept. In addition to the pollution reduction due to the sharing of vehicles (including traditional propulsion), the use of FEV maximizes energy savings and provides mechanisms for monitoring and profiling consumption more detailed. This allows to define tariffs more precise and targeted to the individual user, taking into account the actual energy consumption and not only the mileage. • Interoperability. It is the main feature of Green Move. In close analogy to the Internet, each node and each vehicle of the network may be different in size, cost and structure, but must adhere to a shared and standardized system “protocol”, that allows it to enter in the network (sharing system) and ensure full interoperability. • Ownership of the system. Green Move is a distributed system, managed by an institution responsible for coordination, management, standardization and maintenance. The system includes a number of subsystems (vehicles and docking stations) belonging to different organizations and companies. The interfaces (computer, electrical and mechanical) of vehicles and docking stations are “standardized” to the system and then fully interoperable (each vehicle can be attached to each docking station). The electronic management of the service and of the billing, however, permits to manage in a flexible and consistent way all the specific “privileges” of sub-groups of users. • Business model. Within the system various business models will co-exist. For example: vehicles provided by a municipality for its citizens on payment of an annual fee; vehicles provided by a company to its employees for travels between different offices or connections station-company; vehicles provided by a hotel or an exhibition organizer to their customers, etc. Each actor will be free to buy his own vehicles, on which he will impose his own restrictions and tariffs, and
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will contribute to the network by installing his own docking stations. The only constraint will consist in incorporating into the system vehicles “Green Move compliant” and in ensuring interoperability and standardization of their charging stations, which will be linked to the management system. In this way each entity operating in the system will be able to maximize the benefit for the own user / client, supporting only a small part of the whole investment.
PROJECT TEAMS Green move is a project co-financed by the Regione Lombardia, carried out by “Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione del Politecnico di Milano (DEI)” and “Fondazione Politecnico”, with the support of “Consorzio Poliedra” and in cooperation with the departments of: • Architettura e Pianificazione (DIAP) • Industrial Design, Arti, Comunicazione e Moda (INDACO) • Ingegneria Idraulica, Ambientale, Infrastrutture viarie e Rilevamento (DIIAR) • Ingegneria Gestionale (DIG) • Ingegneria Matematica (MATE). In addition there are two ASP teams contributing with them and focusing on different goals. In particular Team A had to carry out the technological part, collaborating with the DEI department. Instead, as the Team B, we followed the work of Poliedra which focused on the service idea and was composed of two challenges: the configuration of the service and the idea of the social network. In details we developed: • Best practices analysis: car sharing and social media • Conjoint analysis • Credit system • Social networking • Design of the prototyping phase In addition, we contributed to the Poliedra’s work in the definition of the system’s alternatives.
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PROJECT STRUCTURE The image below represents the logic diagram for the activities articulation.
4. Technological development
2. Service idea
3. Strategic design
1. Context analysis
6. Testing
7. Final recommendations
5. Detailed design
Communication
Partecipation
Dissemination
img 2.1 - Logic diagram for the project activities - source: Green Move project
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I. Context analysis The context analysis consists in the literature review and the examinations of the best practices in the vehicle sharing field. Results and achievements are shared in a workshop and then systematized. II. Service idea Starting from main characteristics of the service (interoperability, multi-owner, multi-business and green mobility credits), the project vision is conceived. III. Strategic design The strategic design is focused on the specific requirements definition for the full-scale service. The combination of the different identified options about business model, services provided, technological aspects, types of vehicles, etc., will enable to generate the alternatives.
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IV. Detailed design The aim of this phase is the evaluation of the different system alternatives elaborated in the previous phases. Evaluations will be carried out through the Cost and Benefit Analysis and the Multicriteria Analysis. V. Technological development In this step the Green e-Box will be developed, the add-on that allows every vehicle to interface itself with the Green Move system. VI. Testing All the components of the system will be tested on a single area of Milan. VII. Final recommendations Experience acquired during the project is summarized in recommendations for the implementation of the full-scale service. VIII. Communication, Participation, Dissemination The project phases are constantly accompanied by communication activities to society (with the presentation of scientific papers with topics related to the project), participation (of the various actors) and dissemination (towards public institutions in the area). We, as the Team B, cooperated with the group of Poliedra in all these phases, to achieve the presented results. At the present time the first three steps are completed, while the fourth and the fifth are in progress. In particular an external consulting company is leading the demand analysis activity through a web based survey on a sample of 1000 people; while the other groups, including our ASP team, are preparing the on-field test. Unfortunately the testing phase will start at the beginning of the next year and so we’ll not be able to give our support in the conduction of the field test and in the elaboration of the results in order to use them for the full-scale service.
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3 / THE CONCEPTION OF THE SERVICE: DEFINITION OF ALTERNATIVES In this chapter, we will enter into detail about the conception of the Green Move service as it has been performed in the project.
3.1 / FROM TRADITIONAL CAR RENTAL TO INNOVATIVE VEHICLE SHARING SYSTEMS The process can be divided into some different steps: • Analysis of the literature and best practices: at this stage the main references in scientific literature were studied and the most relevant initiatives all over the world were scanned. At this point we defined the typical customer of a vehicle sharing system with respect to his/ her personal attributes (age, income, instruction) and his/her mobility necessities. At the end of this initial step we focused on the definition of some performance indicators for a vehicle sharing service. • Service Idea: starting from the State of the Art analysis, the overall vision of the project was conceived. In order to do that, some preliminary surveys and some workshops about the generation of ideas were really important. • Testing: even if this step is still at an early stage, the main features are now clear. The idea is to test the service in order to evaluate the chosen model and adjust ex post its critic aspects. In each of these steps our team acted with specific tasks. The chapter is divided as follows. In the first section the analysis of the literature and of the best practice are taken into account: some specific mobility profiles are identified and performance indicators are offered in order to evaluate the selected configurations. Then the Green Move service idea is introduced and four target profiles are addressed. For two of them a conjoint analysis (Green and Srinivasan, 1978) is offered. At the end of the chapter, two additional tools - that can be potentially important in the service- will be analyzed: social networking and credit system2. 2 - We point out that the analysis and the data here presented are mainly taken from the project material. See the website www.greenmove.polimi.it for further material.
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LITERATURE ANALYSIS AND BEST PRACTICES As explained in the introduction, our effort in the literature analysis was focused on three different aspects that are fundamental for the definition of the service idea3 • Customer profiling (Steininger, 1996; Shaheen et al., 1998; Prettenthaler and Steininger, 1998; Katzev, 2003; Transit Cooperative Research Program, 2005; Valenti and Mastretta, 2005; Shaheen and Cohen, 2008; The State of the European Car-sharing, 2010): the work was based on the definition of the personal attributes of the typical user and on the identification of the most relevant mobility profiles; • Definition of some performance indicators (Valenti and Mastretta, 2005; Ciari et al., 2008; Shaheen and Cohen 2008; EU commission Niches+, 2010); • Main existing configurations (Shaheen and Bart, 2002):
CUSTOMER PROFILING Here the results of this study are presented. As regarding the personal attributes of the typical car sharing user, several surveys from different countries have been taken into account (see img 3.1).
img 3.1 - Customer profiling - source: Green Move project
3 - We point out that the analysis and the data here presented are mainly taken from the project material. See the website www.greenmove.polimi.it for further material.
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Even if the results depend on the specific characteristics of each service and on the specific local socio-economic environment, it is possible to state that: • the prominent age range for a vehicle sharing service is from 25 to 45 • the schooling level and the income are on average high For the aforementioned mobility profiles, we identified the following ones (Shaheen et al., 1998; Katzev, 2003): • Get to the job site: the customer uses public transportation to reach the workplace (commuter) and uses the vehicle sharing service to make part of the trip. The trips are repetitive both in time and space. • Go shopping in the downtown: the customer uses the vehicle sharing for recreational purposes. The route is in a relatively narrow range with possible several stops. It would be important to enter the limited traffic zone and have some guaranteed parking sites; • Travelling around the quarter: the customer must perform several activities in the neighborhood. The typical trip is close to the departure parking station to which the end user will return. Like in the previous case, several stops may be necessary during the trip; • Tourist in the city: the customer uses the vehicle sharing to visit the city. The route is typically close the city center, but it is not possible to exclude that it is quite far from the departing station. It would be important to have the possibility to move freely across the downtown and have some guaranteed parking sites. Furthermore, the car should allow the presence of more than one passenger; • Live the Night: the customer-who is typically not alone- uses the vehicle sharing for recreational reasons. The typical trip runs between restaurants, pubs and clubs; • Business trip: the customer travels for business reasons and uses the vehicle sharing to reach his/her final destination from the train station or from the airport. He/she cannot forecast prior the duration to the trip; • Travelling around the campus: the customer moves around the campus and needs for a one-way trip. He/she can share the car with other people; • Travelling for the company: the customer is a public/private company that aims at substituting its fleet with a “mobility package”. The trips are mainly motivated by business and the routes are typically two-ways trips.
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PARAMETERS As far as the performance indicators are concerned, we considered the following ones (Ciari et al., 2008; EU commission - Niches+, 2010). • Capillarity: meant as the number of parking stations and their capabilities to cover the customer needs. The capillarity is probably one of the most important factors to increase the customer satisfaction for a vehicle sharing (Shaheen et al., 2008). Adding to this, a high capillarity is capable to attract the potential demand. • Flexibility: meant as the possibility, for the customer, to decide freely the duration and the final destination of the trip. We distinguish between two different types of flexibility: • Flexibility in space: it is said that a vehicle sharing service is flexible in space if one way trips (i.e. trips in which the departure and the arrival stations are different) are allowed. • Flexibility in time: the flexibility in time is related to the possibility to access the vehicle even without having booked it before and to the possibility to make open end reservations (i.e. reservations in which the delivery is not fixed before). • Intermodality: meant as the level of integration of the service with the public transportation. Sometimes, in the following chapters we will distinguish between physic intermodality (i.e. the parking stations are closed to the main metro and bus stops) and operational intermodality (PT and car sharing system can be accessed through the same smart card). • Pricing: meant as the hourly rate for the customer. • Incentives: meant to facilitate the customer in some way during his/ her usage of the service. The typical incentives related to a car sharing service are free parking sites in the downtown or the free access to the limited traffic zones. • Range: meant as the variety of vehicles available. A vehicle sharing service- as we will see- aims at being attractive for different typologies of trips. For this reason the car service fleet must be able to be adapted to a variety of different customer needs. • Easiness to access and use: Vehicles should be available all over the day and should be enough in number in order to allow the members of the service to use them. Furthermore, they should be easy to use to facilitate customers. • Easiness of the payment system: The payment system must be fast and easy not to increase the overall duration of the trip and not to create a barrier to the usage of the service. 20
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• Easiness of the booking system: The customer should be able to book the car in a fast a simple way. • Additional services: meant as collateral services that complete the overall offer of the car sharing system.
TRADITIONAL SERVICE CONFIGURATIONS We briefly address the classification of the main configurations as proposed in the literature. • Neighborhood: it is the most frequent configuration analyzed in the literature and consolidated in practice. The stations are all placed into a small and well-delimited area in order to attract people that live close to the stations. Usually one way trips are not allowed. With respect to the profiles identified in the previous section it mainly addresses the one called “travelling around the quarter”. • Station cars: in this model mainly tested in the U.S., the fleet is placed close to the railway stations and the typical customers are the commuters that need to go home. For this reason the pricing should be competitive, one way trips should be available and finally the capillarity must be quite high. Due to the fact that the model has been promoted by railway operators, it is more focused on the reinforcement of the transit connectivity rather than the sharing of the vehicles. With respect to our profiles, “get to the job site” fits perfectly with the target of this model. • Multi-Nodal: in this configuration, the vehicles are used to move between different centers of interest: for instance, the customer can take the car at the parking station placed at the airport or at the railway station and use it to reach his/her hotel. It is clear that in this case, during the operations, the number of cars can easily tend to become very improperly distributed among the different parking stations. For this reason, it is important that the service provides some tools to maintain the correct distribution of cars among the stations (Massot et al., 1999; Barth e Todd, 1999; Bath et al., 2000). With respect to the indicators described above, the pricing policy should manage the problem of temporary stops during the use of the car –this possibility is particularly attractive for the configuration’s profiles of interest. Free guaranteed parking sites and free access to the limited traffic areas would be extremely relevant. This model can address several profiles: “go shopping in the downtown”, “tourist in the city”, “live the night”, “business trip” and “travelling around the campus”.
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• Business Fleet: in this model the service provides a “mobility package” for the company. This package is thought to be alternative to the usual company fleet (Shaheen, 2008). Therefore, the pricing must be competitive compared with the usual fleet and the range must be adaptable to the company needs.
img 3.2 - profiles vs. performance indicators matrix - source: Green Move project
All the previous configurations are based on business models in which the vehicle sharing operator manages its fleet and turns to pre-selected users. Recently another business model has come out: the so-called Peer to Peer model. According to this model, the private users share their cars and decide the pricing and the basic conditions to use while the operator takes care of providing the required facilities to make the supply and the demand meet.
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3.2 / ANALYSIS OF THE BEST PRACTICES In this section the best practices will be analyzed. All the significant systems from around the world have been mapped with respect to a set of evaluation parameters and then several indications for the GM service were deduced. In the table below we gather the mapped cases. In particular our team has briefly analyzed all of them and then we focused on the most emblematic cases that summarize the main features. N
Name
Country
Link
1
Altcar
USA
www.altcar.org
2
Autolib
France
www.autolib-paris.fr
3
Autoshare
Canada
www.autoshare.com
4
Cambio
Germany, Belgium Canada,
USA,
www.cambio-car-sharing.com Germany,
5
Car2go
6
CiteVu
France
www.citevu.com
7
Citycarshare
USA
www.citycarshare.org
8
Cityzencar
France
www.fr.cityzencar.com
9
eVai
Italy
www. car-sharing-evai.it
10
eE-Tour Allgäu
Germany
www.ee-tour.de
11
E-mobility
Italy
www.e-mobilityitaly.it
12
E-moving
Italy
www.e-moving.it
13
Drive mycar
Australia
www.drivemycarrentals.com.au
14
Getaround
USA
www.getaround.com
15
Go Op
USA
www.go-op.net/
16
Greenwheels
Netherlands, Germany
www.greenwheels.nl
17
GuidaMi
Italy
www.atm-mi.it/it/guidami
18
ICS
Italy
www.ics car-sharing.it
19
ICVS _ Honda
Singapore
www.world.honda.com/ICVS
20
I-go
USA
www.igocars.org
21
London Lifteshare
UK
www.london.liftshare.com
22
Mobility car-sharing
Swiss
www.mobility.ch/de/pub
23
MoveAbout
Norway, Denmark, Sweden
www.moveabout.net
24
Pordenone Birò
Italy
www.comune.pordenone.it
25
Redais
Italy
www.redais.com
26
Relay Rides
USA
www.relayrides.com
27
Sarecar
Spain
www.sarecar.net/es/
28
Spride
USA
www.spride.com
29
Tamyca
Germany
www.tamyca.de
30
Whipcar
UK
www.whipcar.com
31
Yèlomobile
France
www.yelomobile.fr
32
ZEC
Italy
www.parmanetwork.it/zec
33
Zen Car
Belgium
www.zencar.eu
34
ZipCar
USA, UK, Canada
www.zipcar.com
Netherlands
www.car2go.com
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Most of the mapped cases have been developed in Europe (21 over 34) and six refer to Italian projects. In addition, thirteen non-European cases were considered (mostly focused in the United States) because they are particularly interesting for their configuration, or because they represented “historical cases”. Italian cases, in particular, are very heterogeneous between them as projects ranging from “zero-emissions city” in which the vehicle sharing is one of the proposed options to the ICS circuit that puts together different operators scattered throughout the country. Considering now the types of vehicles, the offer is almost always limited to the cars. As regards their traction technology, fourteen cases exploit electric vehicles, while the majority is based on internal combustion vehicles or otherwise integrates only partially vehicles with less environmental impact. However, it is important to emphasize that initiatives based on electric cars are often pilot projects or on small scale. The only project on a larger scale is called Autolib and was launched in Paris in October 2011. Finally, as regards modalities of providing the service, there are several Peer to Peer cases, such as RelayRides in United States and Whipcar in England. In the following part the best practices on which we focused are presented. The first two are examples from main cities around Europe (Autolib and Car2go), which can create a baseline for understanding how a car sharing service can function in Milan. The next two examples, RelayRides and Autoshare, provide some examples “peer to peer” and “neighborhood” configurations, which are part of the defined Green Move service. The last two best practices serve to understand the car sharing examples present in the city of Milan, to better understand the services provided by them (Guidami and e-Vai). As regards the business model adopted, the majority of the foreign car sharing systems is profit-making (private). In Italy, due to the partnership of many vehicle sharing services with the local public transportation system (Guidami, EVai) the situation is much different. This phenomenon is mainly due to the partnership between the vehicle sharing service on one side and the public transportation on the other (Guidami and Evai). Regarding the properties of the vehicles, instead, Peer to Peer initiatives, in which the individual makes available his own vehicle when it is not being used, are becoming increasingly common.
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CAR2GO Car2go is an electrical or eco-friendly car rental system available in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Austria, Netherlands and Germany. Because the service provider gives slightly different services at different locations, two cities have been chosen to take a closer look: Amsterdam and Berlin. These cities are chosen to be examples due to the fact that they are big European cities which can create a base point of comparison to Milan.
Amsterdam The Car2go services in Amsterdam emphasize the mobility concept 2.0 by providing the users with electrical car rental services which are available 24 hours. Their value proposition is eliminating the costs of ownership and parking problems in the city while providing a cleaner, quieter and pollution free solution. They stress the solution is a win-win situation for the user, less costly, easier to use and environmentally friendly. The service provided is projected as without subscription or reservation. After completing the registration with the needed documents, there is no subscription fee; the user pays based on the amount of time they rent the cars. The price of the services includes all costs, the usage fee, insurance, service, parking, tax and electricity costs. Also, reservation is not needed, but possible. The user can find a free car through the internet or the smart phone application and use it immediately for the desired amount of time and leave at any available parking within the city.
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All the users are equipped with a card after registration which enables them to open/close cars at will through a card reader. All cars are equipped with the card reader, and also a navigation system. Car2go in Amsterdam also provides business solutions to companies. They give their services for companies to manage their fleets. Berlin Berlin Car2go presents itself as the “first personal public transport”. Unlike Car2go Amsterdam, they focus on the efficiency of the service in Berlin’s vehicle traffic. Their main proposed value is Car2go’s ability to be an efficient and quick service while decreasing the number of vehicles within the city. They also mention the benefits to the environment in two angles, first the reduction of traffic which reduces emissions and noise coming from the cars and also the stress that is caused to the people. The second part is by providing a micro-hybrid drive, which have low emissions (and not a fully zero-emission vehicle like in Amsterdam). Other aspects of the service, costs, reservation, business solutions are the same with the service provided in Amsterdam. There are no subscription costs and the user pays based on the time spent using the service where price includes all costs. Also, reserving the car is not obligatory; there is a “get in, drive away” policy.
AUTOLIB
The second state of the art chosen to be analyzed is the Autolib service present in Paris area. They have 1740 electrical cars available 24 hours
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a day within the Paris area (the central and the communes around) which they rent in a self-service manner. They position their service as “simple, practical, economical, ecological and smart all round”. The aim of the service is to reach a 3,000 electrical car service which estimates to decrease the emission of carbon by 20% by 2020 and 22,500 private vehicles within the traffic system. They seek to reduce pollution, noise, traffic jams and stress caused by traffic, similar to Car2go. Autolib present its customers with four different offers: Autolib one year, one month, one week, one day and 1-4 people share package. All these packages have different fixed costs and consumption costs based on time. On parking the service enables the customer to park at a different location than the pickup point. However this point has to be a docking station for Autolib cars, the user cannot drop off at any parking they prefer. Autolib provides additional services to enterprises and to individual owners with electric cars. For business solutions they provide different offer packages ranging from 10 to 200 users and 25 to 2000 hours of service a month. For owners of electrical cars, they provide the possibility to use the docking stations for recharging of private electrical vehicles.
RELAYRIDES From the best practice analysis, one of the most evident aspects is surely a tangible evolution of several vehicle sharing services from simple “Station cars” configurations to more complex “Multi-Nodal” and “Peer to Peer” configurations. The following example motivates the claim.
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From the company website: “RelayRides allows you to rent the car of your neighbor starting from 5 dollars per hour. If you own a car, don’t leave it unused: by sharing your car through RelayRides you have the possibility to earn up to 7.000 dollars in all security and simplicity”. RelayRides is vehicle sharing service based on the Peer-to-Peer: the operator has the role of mediator between car owners that decide to share their car for some hours during the day and drivers that need for a flexible and dynamic mean of transportation. Both vehicle suppliers and renters are private. The first define the tariff per hour and the second pay through credit card or PayPal. RelayRides as manager of the service offers the shared platform and takes a fee equal to 15% over each transaction. Launched in Boston in 2010, in 2011 RelayRides made its debut in San Francisco and it has been funded by Google Ventures. According to RelayRides, a car owner can earn from 2.300 dollars to 7.400 dollars per year (clearly it depends on how many hours he/she lends its car). As regards the prices, the average price oscillates between 6 to 12 dollars depending on the model of the car. In practice, the sharing of the vehicle is extremely easy: the renter visits the website and looks for a car close to his/her actual position. After selecting the vehicle and estimating the duration of the trip, the renter can directly unlock the car through a smart card. The payment is done online through credit card or PayPal. As happens with traditional vehicle sharing fleets, all the cars are equipped with GPS systems– that also prevent from thefts – and with suitable remote controls produced by Car2Go whereby disable the vehicles. As regards car maintenance and insurance, on one hand RelayRides offers a full-insurance both for the vehicle and for the renter (1.000.000 dollars), on the other hand the company checks periodically the conditions of the car in order to prevent from abuses.
AUTOSHARE Another important innovative feature is related to the “Neighborhood” configuration: some operators have started to place their parking stations directly inside the apartment buildings. During the project we found two examples: Autoshare in Canada and Immobiliare Redais and Rome mobility agency in Rome. Due to the dimension and the duration, in this report we discuss about the first one.
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Launched in 1998 as a traditional car-sharing in Toronto (Canada), Autoshare changed rapidly to the point to introduce a vehicle sharing proposal specifically suited for great apartment blocks: a number of Autoshare cars are located inside the condominiums in order to be shared among all the company users. The initiative guarantees several benefits to all the actors involved: building constructors have the opportunity to gain some advantages in terms of environmental certifications, the apartment block administrators have the possibility to offer an additional service an so to improve the attractiveness of the condominium and finally inhabitants can use the shared car at an extremely convenient price. We refer to the company website (www.autoshare.com) for further information about the service. More precisely, for new buildings it is necessary to contact the company during the realization of the block, whereas for already built condominiums some requirements related to the accessibility of the parking from outside 24h per day. On the other hand, the installation is completely managed (and paid) by the company. At the present time, more than 30 apartment blocks are involved in the initiative.
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GUIDAMI
GuidaMi is an initiative of Comune di Milano and the Ministry of Environmental. Launched in 2004, in 2007 it was taken over by A.T.M. S.p.a.; in January 2010, through the acquisition of car-sharing Italia Srl, GuidaMi becomes the unique vehicle sharing service in Milan and the largest service all over the country. GuidaMi shows the trademark “IoGuido car-sharing” – i.e., it joins the ICS (Iniziativa car-sharing) circuit, the structure promoted by the ministry of environmental conservation that groups and coordinates the main Italian vehicle sharing services. With respect to the definitions given above, the system is based on the Neighborhood configuration and it owns a number of parking stations dislocated all around the city. The range of the fleet is quite wide: together with the more traditional petrol cars there is number of low-emission vehicles such as hybrid and electric cars. Furthermore, GuidaMi offers some vehicles equipped with a booster cushion. The service is in partnerships with IKEA with significant advantages for both actors: more in details, IKEA customers have the opportunity to use GuidaMi cars at a lower price (50% off the first subscription) and GuidaMi users have 5 euro cash voucher if they reach IKEA with a vehicle of the service.
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E-VAI
e-Vai is an ecological car-sharing service promoted by Regione Lombardia, integrated with the railway system and present in Milan, Varese, Como, Erba and Pavia. Moreover it is connected with Malpensa and Linate airports. The service will be extended in the coming years to other hubs of the regional public transport system. The service has several electric cars and one bifuel. In particular, in the ensemble of vehicles there are cars like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Fiat Panda, both with electric drive, the Fiat Punto EVO fuel or LPG powered and finally the Fiat 500 fuel powered but with the twinair technology. The prevalent service model is based on intermodality, although an initiative aimed at replacing the fleet of the companies has recently started. In particular companies can choose, according to their needs, between two ways of using the car-sharing service: Car-sharing pool: by paying a prepaid rate the company disposes of a dedicated fleet of vehicles. An advanced geolocation system allows remote control of the whole fleet. The rate includes fully comprehensive insurance, assistance full-service and fuel card, eliminating in this way any other management costs and vehicle maintenance. The company can specify days and schedules for vehicle use for work purposes and decide if employees can use vehicles in other schedules for private use, by paying an extra-rate. Supergold company: The company pays a limited prepaid rate and can occasionally access the car-sharing service. Vehicles can be picked up at the e-vai points by previous reservation. For each use the corresponding fee is deducted from the prepaid credit.
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system map IKEA SHOPS
MALLS
information flow financial flow material flow back-office flow
POINTS OF INTEREST
REGISTRATION DRIVE
GET
BOOKING
MEMBERSHIP
LEAVE
INTERACT
PARTNERSHIP
www
USER
EARN POINTS
+10 LEAVE IT WHERE GM NEEDS SHARE THE TRIP
COOPERATIVES
SUPPLIERS
CLEANINGS
MANTAINANCE
REALLOCATION
24h ASSISTANCE
USER ASSISTANCE
INFRASTRUCTURES
SPEND POINTS
I/T MANAGEMENT
PAY
INVESTMENTS
VEHICLES
MUNICIPALITY
stakeholders map
PRIVATES
FIRMS
EXTERNAL
FIRMS
INTERNAL CUSTOMERS
CAR PRODUCERS COMUNE DI MILANO
FRONTSTAGE STAFF INVESTORS SUPPLIERS
REGIONE LOMBARDIA
COOPERATIVES
BACKSTAGE STAFF
RESIDENTS
CONDOMINUMS ATM ENTERPRENEURS
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4 / THE SERVICE IDEA Starting from all the previous observations, Green Move aims at offering a flexible structure and a variety of additional highly customizable services in order to be capable to address several mobility profiles. For this reason, the GM keyword must be inter-operability: like in the World Wide Web, each node and each vehicle can be different with respect to dimension, cost and structure but they share a general protocol that works as an interface between them and the rest of the system. Thanks to the structure of GM, several business configurations can coexist: different customers can find GM attractive by selecting different additional services. Moreover, the vehicles can be provided either of public institutions or of public citizens. The choice of the configurations was made by looking at the following criteria: • Innovation degree and differentiation from the existing initiatives. • Opportunity for Milan. • Capability to satisfy specific needs of Milan users. At the end of the selection, four different configurations have been chosen: • Condosharing: a traditional vehicle sharing service based on the “Neighborhood” configuration. The stations are placed directly inside the apartment buildings: in this way the service has no capillarity problems and the safety of the vehicle is guaranteed. Furthermore, the sharing of vehicle among micro-communities can facilitate some forms of advanced collaborations (i.e. carpooling or peer to peer). • World of Service: vehicle sharing based on the “Multi Nodal” model. Some crucial infrastructures (hospitals, big commercial centers etc.) are thought as central nodes of the system and the service aims at guaranteeing one way trips between them. With respect to the standard Multi-Nodal configuration the mobility service is thought to be integrated with the specific service supplied by each node. • Firmsharing: traditional vehicle sharing based on the “Business Fleet” model. It aims at substituting the company fleet with a specific mobility package that can be adapted to the company needs. Thanks to the special structure of GM, the standard service during the working hours can be coupled with some special mobility packages for the employees during their free-time. • Peer to Peer Plus: the service is based on the idea that private users share their own cars with the rest of the system community. We
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observe that this mechanism can be applied even in the Condosharing and in the Firmsharing where there exists an implicit sharing radius represented by the condominium and by the company respectively. In the tables below the performance indicators for the profiles are set together with a brief explanation.
img 4.1 - Condosharing - source: Green Move project
img 4.2 - World of Service- source: Green Move project
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img 4.3 - Firmsharing- source: Green Move project
As regards the peer to peer, the performance indicators are thought from the viewpoint of the user that shares the car. For this reasons some parameters are not set.
img 4.4 - Peer to peer PLUS - source: Green Move project
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4.1 / THE METHODOLOGY: PROPOSALS, SURVEY AND CONJOINT ANALYSIS At the end of the definition of the macro-alternatives, we proceed to define the micro-alternatives associated to each configuration. The methodology we follow in the project can be summarized in the following points: • Value-proposition definition: it is necessary to define what needs we are expected to satisfy. • Definition of the key activities: definition of the main activities the service operator is going to carry out. • Planning of the core and the extended services: at this stage all the features of the service are detailed with a special focus on performances and technologies. • Stakeholders’ analysis: identification of the key stakeholders for each configuration. For each stakeholder target, forms of participation and possible support must be defined. • Network configuration: definition of the network (possible relationships and collaborative strategies) among actors. In order to define the value proposition and consequently the key activities of the service our Team performed the so-called conjoint analysis that is the theme of this chapter. To understand how the users react to different factors which create the micro-alternatives in the system, the aforementioned parameters were used to asses in the analysis. These parameters are: • Capillarity • Intermodality • Pricing • Incentives • Flexibility (space & time) • Range of vehicles • Easiness of the booking system • Easiness of payment • Easy service access • Added services To understand how the users respond to these parameters a survey was conducted and conjoint analysis was done based on this data. Conjoint analysis is a marketing tool which helps to model customer preferences on a multi-attribute model.
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The model tries to decompose the attributes to understand the construction of the preferences by evaluating sets of alternatives which compose of different parameters. With understanding the alternative which the consumer favors, the weight and importance of the different attributes can be mapped (Green & Srinivasan, 1978). First to obtain the data which will be used on the analysis, we created a survey which aims to be filled by people aged between 20 and 27. We considered only two out of the four configurations, Condosharing and world of service, due to age limitations of the interviewed group. As regards the nature of conjoint analysis, alternatives are created within each configuration varying in factors for the participants to choose from. By this way we could create a weighted score for the attributes which showed us their importance relative to the others. Even though the analysis done is not statistically significant, due to the fact that it considers around 200 participants within a certain age group, it gave our group an insight about people’s preferences over different factors in different cases. In the survey first general questions were asked to get an overall understanding of usage the consumer participants. The results show that 69% of the participants don’t use a car around the neighborhood and 54% are willing to share a car with their neighbors to use. The following part of the study is aimed to understand the attitude of consumers to different micro alternatives in Condosharing and world of services models. For both groups the consumers were asked to choose from predefined alternatives which are composed of three parameters from the list and also to put in order of preference all the parameters available
CONDOSHARING For the Condosharing macro-alternative the three parameters chosen were incentives, price and range of cars. Because in the Condosharing alternative the car is shared among the habitants of the condominium and the trips are always roundtrips the intermodality, capillarity and flexibility parameters were not considered. Among the others the chosen three, incentives, price and range of cars, are believed to have more weight over the other parameters. The created alternatives are given in img 4.5.
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img 4.5 – Alternatives for Condosharing Profile - source: Green Move project
As it can be seen from img 4.5, the incentives were categorized as “high” or “middle” and range has the options as “only a city car” and “city car, family car or mini wagon”. These alternatives were not given more options to keep the models relatively simple and easy to measure. The alternatives 1 and 2 are used to understand the tradeoff between price and range as well as alternatives 3 and 4. Similarly the alternative groups 1 and 3, and 2 and 4 tries to analyze the preferences when the range is kept the same but incentives and price are varying.
img 4.6 - Results of Preference on Condosharing Alternatives - source: Green Move project
When the results are considered 52% of the consumers identified alternative 2 as the best alternative while 60% believe that alternative 4 is the worst alternative. The ratings are weighted on a scale of 1 to 4, 4 being the best, and the rated average shows that alternative 2 has the most weight, thus the most preference. This suggests that the consumer is not willing to pay more for an increase in the range of cars. This belief is also emphasized by the second highest alternative being an “only car” option in the range parameter. Based on the results, it can be said that the consumers are willing to pay a €0.2 per hour higher price for the higher incentives in the system. However for the range of cars, the same cannot be said; the preferences always shows a lower price option is favorable even if it has a lower range of cars available.
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In the second part of the analysis for the Condosharing the users were asked to rank factors from the most to least important.
img 4.7 - Parameter ranks for Condosharing profile - source: Green Move project
As expected, price has the highest rating average, followed by flexibility of service time and availability of parking stations. Parallel with the analysis before, availability of different vehicles is rated as the least important for the consumer. Based on the information obtained from this study, for the Condosharing alternative, it can be said that price and incentives play a crucial role on consumers’ preferences of a service. They are willing to pay a price premium for services which offer a higher incentive while they don’t value as much the range of vehicles, easy payment and booking systems and service access. The low value of the last three points, easy payment and booking systems and service access, can be due to the fact that these factors are now a must in today’s society with the high availability of the internet. Because of this the consumer might not be paying special attention to these factors as he is expecting them to be a part of the system. Also flexibility of the service by time and parking near the service are important factors for the users. However, in the context of this alternative these points do not have a high weight on the system due to the nature of the service. Because the sharing context is the condominium, the shared cars will have designated parking spaces within the condominium which eliminates the need to search for a park. Also the flexibility of the service by time is not present in this case due to the fact that the cars will belong to the condominium.
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WORLD OF SERVICE The second analysis is based on the macro alternative world of service. Similar to the previous case first four different alternatives were created for the consumers to choose from. In this case the three parameters chosen were type of trip, price and capillarity. These parameters where chosen because they are believed to have an effect on the type of service that is provided to the consumer. The type of trip (one or two way) defines the mode of the user, if the user has to return to the pick-up place to leave the car or are they willing to pay more for freedom of leaving the car at a different location. The capillarity parameter is also important as it shows the amount that the user of the service is willing to travel to reach the car. If the capillarity is higher, reaching the car at the beginning or a docking station at the end of the service will be faster than the medium alternative.
img 4.8 - Alternatives for World of Service Profile - source: Green Move project
The alternatives created aims to analyze the trade-off between these three factors within the system. The alternatives 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 shows the price and type of trip tradeoff, 1 & 4 and 2 & 3 focuses on price and capillarity substitution of the service.
img 4.9 - Results of preference on World of Service alternatives - source: Green Move project
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Based on the answers given by the participants of the survey, alternative 1 is the most preferable while alternative 3 is the least. Based on the rated average the list goes as alternative 1, 4, 2 and 3, 3 being the worst. These results show that a one-way trip, which gives the user of the service the possibility to leave the car at the final destination rather than returning back to the pickup point, is an important aspect as both alternatives which have this option are rated the highest. The same is also true for capillarity, the alternatives with high capillarity, 1 and 2, has higher ranks with the alternatives with equal trip types, 4 and 3. This shows that the consumer is willing to pay the price premium to enjoy a service with higher capillarity. The results show that in this case, the best alternative is the one where all the parameters are at its highest, which emphasizes that in this kind of service, the extra capillarity or the freedom of having a one-way trip is desired by the customer regardless of the higher prices. In the second part of the analysis, again, the participants were asked to rank all the parameters in the world of services context.
img 4.10 - Parameter ranks for World of Service profile - source: Green Move project
Price has the highest average similar to the Condosharing service. The second place is the availability of parking stations which point to the capillarity of the system, in line with the conjoint analysis. The flexibility both in time and space are also important for the consumer. The last four parameters are same as the Condosharing case. A similar explanation for easy service, booking and payment systems is also valid for this situation; this ranking can be due to the fact that these kinds of services don’t have the luxury to present “not-easy� solutions to the consumer due to the high availability internet.
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The findings emphasize an important point for the trip to infrastructure service for Green Move. In these kinds of services the consumer values flexibility and availability. They prefer alternatives with fewer restrictions, meaning the freedom to leave the car at the final destination, or denser docking stations which provide fast and easy access. The flexibility of the service over time and space is also important to them when they are traveling to higher density areas of a city.
4.2 / STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS The stakeholder analysis consists in the identification of the key stakeholders for each service configuration. To achieve this goal it has been measured the possible forms of involvement and support that such stakeholders can offer to the service. As mentioned above, the stakeholders analysis is a really important phase of the project: in fact, thanks to this strategy, it’s possible to define some crucial points by the comparison of different information by interviewing the stakeholders asking questions and thoughts about the objectives, the priorities of the configurations and the supports needed to design a flexible service that can have different shape according to the configuration taken into account. The final step of this phase is to validate the configurations of the service by associating each stakeholder to its own service profile. For doing this, the first step is to analyze the different configuration and collect proposals. Thus, thanks to the individual interviews to the users and the creation of a focus group, some fundamental information will be collected to design the appropriate configuration of the service based on their needs. Through this process it will be possible also to define the support that each stakeholder will provide for the service itself. The Objectives can be divided in four categories: environmental, mobility, social and economics. The Environmental objectives are: • Pollution Reduction - related to the reduction of the emissions such as PM10 that affects the quality of the air we breathe every day thanks to the reduction of car usage by car sharing users. • Greenhouse Gas Reduction - related to the reduction of emission of gasses like carbon dioxide thanks to the reduction of car usage by car sharing users.
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• Energy Consumption Reduction - related to both the reduction of the actual consumption of energy by the vehicles and the inducted consumption which is related to the introduction of the vehicle sharing as an option to the owned car. The Mobility objectives will be: • Reduction of the traffic congestion - less cars on the roads thanks to the fact that people will share their vehicles • Increase Accessibility - moving from and “owning economy” to an “access economy”, the possibility of accessing to the service for the mid-low classes will increase giving them the mobility right. This will be enhanced by the compatibility with the public transport. The Social Objectives will be: • Increase of the livability of the urban spaces - less cars means less infrastructure demand, then a better efficiency of the urban design. • Increase of the ecological consciousness - related to the sustainability practices in the vehicles usage. The objective is to modify the behaviors of the private car owners to a more sustainable and ecologic one. • Social Innovation - related to the reinforcing of the social relations thanks to the usage of tools such as social networks and alternative type of businesses. • Economical Sustainability - related to an improvement of the economical performances of the system. This objective can be reached by different type of policies such as the reduction of the costs, the increase of the profits or the improvement of the service image (which reflects on the profits increase too) The support that such stakeholders could give to the service will be measured in this indexes: • Service Design - as performances or added services • Marketing - users access inside the service • Financing - financial support • Car parks and infrastructures - availability of car parks and electric infrastructures • Inter-modality - the partner companies make available their car parks to the vehicle sharing users, the public transport will integrate the fares and the service touch points (smart card-infrastructures) • Membership - the stakeholders can become clients. This will make them promoters and supporters of the service by showing their leadership inside the service system and giving credibility to the service itself.
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CONDOSHARING First for the condosharing alternative, the stakeholders were asked which are the most important objectives that should came out from the adoption of the service. The obtained results from the interviews are given below with some significant opinions and comments in brackets. From the residents perspective, the most important parameter is the economic one, in detail the interviewed people answered that they are sensible to the car management in terms of time and money saving. The second point is about the environmental objective, for example pollution reduction. Then the social aspect in time of sharing and development of interpersonal relationships are considered also important. As the last point the mobility issue as an improvement of the mobility access has been identified. An interesting thought came out from an interview: “The time sharing between the residents of the condominiums could be fostered by the creation and the publication of a shared calendar that will function as a tool to let the people share the trips to/for near points of the city (a sort of carpooling)”. From the administrator point of view, the main objective is mostly economic, and stands on the improvement of the image perceived by the residents. Another point emphasized is about mobility and the increase of the access to the mobility for residents. The administrator says that: “It’s difficult to implement such a service in a condominium which has an existing regulation”. The house builder instead sees the economic goal in a similar perspective, but the increase of the image now will be for the construction company with a profit increase. Secondly there will be an environmental objective intended as an improvement of the environmental impact in general. In his view: “It would be necessary to organize some preliminary meetings in order to explain the benefits of the adoption of this system”. The aim of the second set of questions and answers was know what kind of support each stakeholder could make available for the service. The residents identified as main support the membership, secondly they said it could be possible, as condominium, to support the service in a financial way (i.e. buy some vehicles), but only if the whole inhabitants give the consensus. “The fact that not the whole residents of the condominium would adopt the service could strongly interfere with the purchase of the vehicles by the residents”. The administrator’s support could be both in the marketing and in the management of the spaces. It’s in their interests to promote such system
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also in other buildings. They have the possibility of making available some common spaces for the service in the condominium, but they need the residents’ consensus in order to make it feasible. Also in this case: “the partial adoption by the residents has the potentiality to create issues in the common spaces grant”. Finally the house builder points out that the marketing goal is in his interests, by promoting and applying such initiatives also in other condominiums. From their point of view it will be possible also to build a specific space and the predisposition for the service infrastructures. From the financial side, the constructor could offer the first month of free usage to the residents in order to create affection to the service. In his mind: “the service has the potentiality to become a new standard in the new residential constructions”. To sum up, it can be said that there are several points which can determine the positive implementation of the service in this configuration, but on the other hand there some factors which need to be taken into account. There should be a shared calendar (that respect the users privacy) to foster the collaboration between residents and the car sharing. This strategy can be enhanced by testing period that creates the basic participation on which will be implemented the service in a second moment. It’s also necessary to underline the economical and functional (credit system, time bank etc.) benefits of the service in order to create demand. The tricky points could be found in the possible lack of space availability where to install the infrastructures of the service, and financial investments in orders to sustain the system itself. Some critical points are the fact that is not so easy to make the residents aware of the added value of this kind of system and to involve them inside as members. Another criticality lies in the sharing of the vehicles, when it has to be shared in a garage, where most of the people are not willing to share both the space and the car.
WORLD OF SERVICES In this specific branch the main objective is an economic benefit which can be achieved by the improvement of the image with a consequent increase of the clients. Secondly it has been point out the mobility as goal to enhance the accessibility to commercial area (i.e. shopping center) by more clients. Regarding the support the interviewed offer to promote the service through advertising, by giving space inside the park to build the GM infrastructures and finally by integrating their services with the GM also with a series of
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incentives. Summarizing, the stakeholders of this configuration would be available to integrate GM with a vehicle pooling system and with the other services (info & app) they are providing. Another interesting point which has to be taken in consideration is the possibility of making some commercial strategic areas, facilitators in the creation of a service network. It is necessary to have a huge number of vehicles in order to cover the demand of access of these areas. Moreover, it could be interesting to connect those commercial areas with the residential areas in order to establish a kind of direct two way path for the car sharing system. The critical aspects are that in the past some of the interviewed stakeholders have tried to create similar services but without success due to the low service performances and the car-owning culture in which the users are reluctant to share their cars. Finally some of the interviewed are not interested in taking part in the service because of the economic crisis which has moved their focus on “more important themes”.
FIRMSHARING In the last configuration of the service, both the firm employees and the managers have been interviewed in order to define a complete scenario on this innovative type of service. From the employees point of view the first objective is the mobility in terms of an increase of the accesses by boosting the flexibility that nowadays is not enough to satisfy the public transport users. The second objective is to decrease the private mobility price. Finally some of the interviewees are sensible to the environmental problems. In general the system is seen as: “a service which nowadays is not present on the market, but it has to cost less than owning a private car”. From the manager’s point of view the first objective is economic, it focuses on the decrease of the firm’s mobility costs and in a increase of the company image. Secondly there is an environmental objective in the reduction of greenhouse gas emission with a consequent improvement of the air quality. The firms seems to be open to support the service in order to reinforce the brand and gain economic benefits . They asked also to: “purchase some cars in order to put their brand on it and to ensure a free membership subscription to their employees”. The service has to guarantee the availability of access in the strategic and nodal points, the ICT system had to be developed well because it’s crucial in the service success, and it has to connect also airports.
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The difficulties are associated with the coordination with the ICS (national car sharing), the guarantee of available car parks at the start/end of the route, the integration with the taxi service. The Critical points are: the difficulty for managers to renounce to the car benefit, the necessity to move for long distances or the amount of cars needed to guarantee the distances driven during the whole year by the employees. Finally it’s difficult that an employee would share his own private car within his company.
CONCLUSIONS The analysis made for the three configurations give an overview of the crucial points that have to be taken under consideration while designing the service. In particular customized credit system for each branch of users is necessary to associate them with the right kind of service. One of the most important goals in the economic sector is the marketing, intended as the usage of the service in order to improve their visibility and image among customers and competitors. From the user point of view, instead a crucial point is in the difference between the price of owning a car and the usage of this kind of service, of course the difference has to be important in order to convince a car owner to became a car-sharer, in particular in the Italian culture, that is historically really attached to the idea of owning a car. Finally the interviewed firms seemed very interested in the promotion of the service both from the financial and management point of view, this attention is a clear sign of possible growth for the service and for the firms. Finally, from the stakeholders interviews the strength points of the service came out: • The idea of having a technological standard (Green e-Box) that has the potentiality to let any kind of vehicle to enter the service as a shared car. • The software architecture • The demand analysis • The configuration of the service intended as different service for a different function/user
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• The Model (graph & excel) • The stakeholder analysis • The beta test and prototyping While on the other hand the weaknesses (that can still be improved or fixed) are: • The design of the pricing • The communication as events • The verification of the technological/information standard • The social innovation analysis that at the moment is not started yet
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img 4.11 - Infographic on social media diffusion - source: oxyweb.co.uk
img 4.12 - The conversation prism on social network - source: theconversationprism.com
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4.3 / SOCIAL NETWORKING Green Move is being designed to be open, multi-user and multi-owner. All this characteristics are perfectly fitting the integration with the wide world of the social networking, that is the other big challenge of our Team’s work, together with the service idea. In the last decade, the strong growth of the crowd sourcing movement, which is based on the collaboration between users that works together for a common goal, has opened new ways of micro entrepreneurship and opportunities which should be caught inside our project. This evolution is only partially applied on the mobility issue, that’s why we are interested on the application of those models inside our service system, in order to create innovative contents and interest on this subject. In order to find the best practices on the topic related to the Green Move project we have found some experiences both in the mobility and the social field. Through the analysis of those examples we have identified several points that will be crucial in the enhancing of the user experience offered. Waze is a free GPS application featuring turn-by-turn navigation, the system is based on the users generated contents, which create both the maps (by recording their position in real time) and the information on the traffic conditions, road works etc. This information is directly delivered to the other users (turn-by-turn) giving them advices on the alternative roads to be taken in order to avoid the road issues. The most interesting feature of this app is that the entire contents are developed by the users themselves.
img 4.13 - Smartphone operative systems - source: Team B
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FLINC
Flinc is a car-pooling social network that works within trust based communities which has three fundamentals pillars: • supply and demand of trips are without any constrain: you can disregard the car-pooling for any reason. • Flinc offers are based on a “best passage search” engine that according to the needs of the applicant gives the best result. • Drivers that make themselves available to the car-pooling can select/reject passengers based on the aspirant passenger previous feedbacks, profile ore economic offer he made.
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FOURSQUARE
Foursquare is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smart phones. Users “check in” at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby. Location is based on GPS hardware in the mobile device or network location provided by the application. Each check-in awards the user points and sometimes “badges”.
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FUBLES
Fubles is a Social Network that lets the users easily find and organize matches in their city. By bringing together players, games and sports centers, Fubles allows people to organize games with friends or participate in games already scheduled. It provides features such as the handling of rosters, game results, ratings and statistics. It also has an integrated credit system which allows the users to buy apparel or other training material as soon as the user reaches some goals. Another interesting feature is the feedback system which helps the system to detect the people who don’t follow the rules (someone who dump a match at the last minute).
MYYEARBOOK
myYearbook (MeetMe) is a social network that offers the possibility to use a system of virtual credits called “Lunch Money” for the purchase of goods and services sponsored by the system.
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4.4 / CREDIT SYSTEM In a social network, a “Credit System” is a virtual system of acquisition, exchange and use of virtual credits related to the activities that are developed inside. There are two main ways to earn credits: the first is to perform certain “actions” within the social network and the second is to purchase some credits with real money, an option that could change the economic balance of the service. Credits can be spent to achieve tangible and intangible benefits within the social network or in real life. After analyzing many best practices of social networks, loyalty programs and so on, relating to different fields, our Team designed a credit system for Green Move. It could be related to the acquisition and the use of credits, by both vehicle owners of the shared vehicles (Operators) and the casual user, as explained below. Ways to earn credits - Users: • km (or hours) driven with GM cars; • invitations (and registration) of new service users; • release of the vehicle in specific parts of the city to make easier the reallocation issue; • usage in particular times and/orunused paths. - Operators: • number of cars provided; • km driven by the provided cars. Ways to spend credits - Users: • credits converted in free trips; • win of prizes offered by partners and sponsors (es. ikea); • discounted or free ATM tickets or subscriptions; • priority in the vehicle booking. - Operators: • fiscal benefits; • green certificates (benefits in the public competitions); • pre-emption and better service contracts; • discounted insurance for the shared vehicles; • discounts on the shared vehicles maintenance GREEN MOVE - THE SERVICE IDEA / FINAL REPORT / ASP 7th cycle
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Additional possibilities of acquisition and usage of the credits will depend on the final configuration of the service: for example a user can earn points by creating information and contents within the social network to promote the sustainable mobility. The credit system can be a profitable investment for the management of the system because of the top-down loyalty and collaboration in the advertisement of the service. The credit system is an important part of the project because it opens up a series of both economic and social possibilities that could evolve during the service life. In our idea the credit system is something similar to the Frequent Flyer Program, adopted by the Airlines companies but somehow evolved in a social way. In our model the user is not static as in the FFP in which you gain miles only by purchasing tickets and traveling around, here the users are active, and by adopting a “gamification” of the usage of the service they could carry out “missions” as parking in a particular spot or sharing a ride with other people, in exchange of points that could be spent in the service or with badges (foursquare style) that communicate to the other users thanks to the social network the good usage of the service. Thanks to this strategies the engagement between users and services will be enhanced more and more during the service growth giving visibility and access to new users and branches of the market.
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4.5 / HYPOTHESIS OF SYSTEM’S CONFIGURATION
STAKEHOLDERS MAP
stakeholders map
EXTERNAL
FIRMS
INTERNAL CUSTOMERS
CAR PRODUCERS COMUNE DI MILANO
FRONTSTAGE STAFF INVESTORS SUPPLIERS
REGIONE LOMBARDIA
COOPERATIVES
BACKSTAGE STAFF
RESIDENTS
CONDOMINUMS ATM ENTERPRENEURS
To understand how the system would work in a real implementation we starting from analyzing the different actors that could have a role in the future Green Move service. This visualization (img 4.X) underlines the different stakeholders and the relations between each other. The service works thanks to each roles which they have inside the system and from their interaction. There are two main categories of stakeholders: internal and external. The internals have an active role and are the pillars of the service. We can recognize three main cluster of internal actors: the frontstage staff, the backstage staff and the investors. The first group has the important
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task to communicate directly with the customers (users, firms etc.), they represent the most visible part of the Green Move service and from their work depends the image of the service itself. Otherwise, the second group, the backstage staff, has the responsibility of the supply of cars, cleanings, reallocation and all the management of the service. Finally the investors are all the figures which has invested or have the interest of making business with the Green Move system. Some examples could be the Condominiums which will buy the GM package (infrastructure, cars and membership) or the Municipality that invests money in the creation of the service. On the other side, the external stakeholders can be divided in two main groups, the “suppliers” which exchanges material with the internals stakeholders and others that may have different interests in join the GM system.
SYSTEM MAP information flow financial flow material flow back-office flow
OF T
system map
IKEA SHOPS
MALLS
information flow financial flow material flow back-office flow
POINTS OF INTEREST
LEAVE
REGISTRATION DRIVE
GET
BOOKING
www
USER
LEAVE
RN POINTS
MEMBERSHIP
LEAVE IT WHERE GM NEEDS
INTERACT
PARTNERSHIP
+10
EARN POINTS
+10
END POINTS
TY
LEAVE IT WHERE GM NEEDS SHARE THE TRIP
SPEND POINTS
PAY
COOPERATIVES
SUPPLIERS
PRIVATES
CLEANINGS
MANTAINANCE
REALLOCATION
24h ASSISTANCE
USER ASSISTANCE
INFRASTRUCTURES
I/T MANAGEMENT
VEHICLES
PAY
INVESTMENTS
FIRMS MUNICIPALITY
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PRIVATES
FIRMS
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Going in details in the structure of the system we developed a system map, which provides a vivid and structured visualization of the service experience. The main touchpoints where the users interact with the service are underlined as well as the main stakeholders. From the interaction between the user and the service comes out all the steps that a generic user will experience during the service usage. In the map we also considered the role of external stakeholders that can have different interest in joining the service (i.e. investor) as well as the suppliers of services. For example is it possible that thank to Green Move new cooperatives can be formed to provide additional services: for instance for managing the cleaning or offering supplementary assistance for users (i.e. elderly people that need assistance for different activities) or the suppliers that will be responsible of the car maintenance.
USER EXPERIENCE MAP
REGISTRATION
USER
www
From the User point of view in the generic configuration the first step will be the registration to the service. We propose, as the system hasn’t been configured yet, two ways for this first step, by going to a Green Move point where, with the personal documents (Id, driving license etc.) the customer will became a member or through the website, here the system will take care of the delivery of the documents right to the user place.
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BOOKING
www
GM COLUMN
WEB PLATFORM
APP
At this point the user will become member of the service and he can start enjoy the vehicles sharing system. The booking phase will be accessible from the GM columns which will be placed in the reserved parking, thorough the smartphone’s app or with the Green Move website.
EARN POINTS
+10 GET THE CAT
SHARE THE ROUTE
After the booking the user can go and take his car from the GM station where he reserved it. At this point he has the possibility of sharing his route with the other GM users. By doing so the driver will earn some points on his account.
INTERACT
EARN POINTS
+10
DRIVE
SHARE THE TRIP
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During the trip the user will be able to interact with the Green e-box, this allows the customer to create and share with other members some contents like the route or the traffic information. This feature will also enable other GM members to ask for a lift if they are on the route, in this way both users will share the route costs and save time. This activities are worth some GM points as well.
HELP GM REALLOCATE
EARN POINTS
+10 LEAVE THE VEHICLE
PARK WHERE YOU WANT
At the end of the trip the user will have two possibilities, park in another GM park or help the system to reallocate the vehicles. In this second configuration the user has the possibility to achieve more points by parking in specific places (where GM needs to reallocate cars).
PAY
SPEND POINTS
When the car has been parked the customer will pay the route. If the user has a certain amount of GM Points he will be able to spend this points to have a discount on the toll.
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CREDIT SYSTEM MAP
credit system
GET
FIND NEW MEMBERS
SHARE THE ROUTE
DRIVE
SHARE THE TRIP
LEAVE
LEAVE IT WHERE GM NEEDS
EARN POINTS
+10
SPEND POINTS
The Green Move credit system offers several possibilities to earn points: the first way is to spread the word by sharing the experience trough the networks (facebook, twitter, foursquare etc.) and invite other people to join the service. This action is really important to make the service grow. This strategy is used in most of the membership-based service to get new members (i.e. mobile communication, satellite television, etc.) because the friendship approach let both the users to benefit from the subscription. The other possibilities that the users has to earn points are sharing the route on the GM network, the carpooling, which we have explained in the previous example, and finally the helping in the cars reallocation.
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The Gamification is the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications and processes in order to encourage people to adopt them, or to influence how they use them. Gamification’s proponents works by making technology more engaging, by encouraging users to behave in a certain way, by helping to solve problems and being more engaging, and by taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to play. The gamification can be proposed for example for GM Missions, and the user by completing one or more missions will achieve points and credit, generating a competition beyond the other users with a small investment in terms of money and organization but with a great success in terms of service image and diffusion.
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5 / DESIGN OF THE PROTOTYPING Another important contribute our Team gave to the general project consists in designing and preparing the field test. In this phase will be tested, between the others, the results of two essential stages of the project: the influence graph and the price analysis. So we present these two activities before exploring the on-field experimentation.
5.1 / INFLUENCE GRAPH After identifying the four main configurations, an influence graph (or relations graph) has been created to configure in detail the several alternatives for each configuration. Evaluating the performance of these different alternatives with a wide panel of performance indicator, this graph will be used to plan the full-scale services, in terms of size (number of stations and vehicles), user behavior, costs and revenues and it will also represent an useful instrument for monitoring and evaluating the complexity of the service outlined. On the left side of the graph there are the seven configuration groups of parameters (revised from those used in the conjoint analysis) representing the decision tools the decision maker can adjust: • area and its size; • range of vehicles; • capillarity; • flexibility; • incentives (and added services); • pricing; • marketing and promotion. On the right side, instead, there are the objectives of the project and the indicators to verify and monitor the performance of the service and a variety of project objectives - environmental, social and economic – linked to the various actors in the system. Finally in the middle there are a series of logical links, defining how the decision parameters affect the indicators. Some of these relations derive from quantitative methods or from literature analysis; while others are justified working hypotheses or behavioral relations (such as the demand analysis).
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The aim is to set the values of the decision parameters to obtain different alternatives estimating the associated indicators and objectives. At this point the decision makers, such as the various stakeholders, can choose their best alternatives.
graph 5.1 - Influence Graph - source: Green Move project
AN EXAMPLE OF LOGICAL PATH Below is an example of logical path for the sizing of vehicles and docking stations: The number of docking stations is given by the function: capillarity (stations/ km2) * size of served area (km2). Instead, the theoretical number of vehicles is given by the function: actual withdrawals per hour * average withdrawal duration (it must be noted that the function is created under the following assumptions: constant demand over the period of service and use of a correction factor because vehicles are supposed to be used in an optimal and intensive way). Finally the average withdrawal duration can be estimated from literature and depends on the modality (1way/2ways).
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graph 5.2 - Detail: sizing of vehicles and docking stations - source: Green Move project
The graph was originally developed for the generic configuration. Then it has been modified to obtain the Condosharing version, fulfilling the assumption and constraints of the Condosharing alternative. It is a simplified version when compared to the generic one, due to the fact that in the Condosharing configuration there are some branches and nodes that lose relevance, such as capillarity. Even if simplified, a high level of uncertainty remains in the relations of the graph, because of the high number and complexity of relations among the different nodes. These are both physical/mathematical and social/ behavioral interactions: these latter difficult to estimate on purely theoretical basis. It is therefore essential a field test to give a solution to these uncertainties (for example to find out how users react to different prices).
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5.2 / PRICE ANALYSIS While defining the service, a crucial point is the definition of the tariff. As also shown by the previously mentioned conjoint analysis, the price of the service has one of the highest considerations for the users of the service. The problem of defining the tariff can be expressed in three main perspectives: • Identifying the components of the tariff from a theoretical point of view and analysis of major tariff forms and the behavior induced • Defining underlying instruments of the pricing system • Defining a methodical approach for designing the experimentation of the pricing system
LITERATURE REVIEW AND EXISTING EXPERIENCE As a first step of the definition of the tariff the existing literature and best practices were taken into account. From the analysis of the existing literature important points had been identified for the pricing system. It shows, parallel with our results in the conjoint analysis of both alternatives, the relevance of the cost factor for the user in relation with other characteristics (Shaheen e Cohen, 2008). It also underlines the importance of balancing the fixed and the variable components of the demand and usage of the changes in demand to ensure to smooth out utilization of vehicles and balancing the problem related to one-way trips (Schwieger, 2004). Also the qualitative effects affected by the characteristics of the tariff system should be considered (Brook, 2004). As another part of this first step, the best practices were analyzed. This existing experience could provide a benchmark in prices, position of the service as well as understanding different strategies adopted by other service providers. The Green Move team analyzed 14 traditional vehicle sharing services as well as 4 peer-to-peer services. Also the two car sharing services present in Milan E-Vai and Guidami were also analyzed for the positioning of GM along its competitors. An example of the existing practices analysis done by one of the Green Move departments is given below:
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img 5.1 - Analysis of existing practises - source: Green Move project
Two different trends were identified using the existing practices. The first one, present in 5 cases, is the complex tariff structures which are highly differentiated among different customer types. The other trend is identified as a unique structure of tariff dedicated to the business solutions, which in GMs service alternatives translates to the Firmsharing. In the light of the different analysis of the literature and best practices a cost structure was aimed to be structured by Green Move. The possible components of a tariff structure are the following (Monitoring of the national car-sharing, 2005): • the rate of joining the service • the rate of annual subscription • the reservation fee • the rate of “taking” of the vehicle • the rate proportional to the travel time; • the rate proportional to mileage; • the penalty fees (delay in delivery, damage to the vehicle, ..) The first two points, inscription and annual subscription, are fixed cost components while the other depend on the level of usage. The rate of taking is usually substituted by a minimum usage amount rather than a fixed rate of taking, which helps creating the “pay what you use” idea.
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img 5.2 - Tariff analysis - source: Green Move project
When the Italian case is consider, the services based in Italy only uses the annual rate of subscription and the two quota tariffs based on travel time and mileage. The other points are not included in the pricing structure of the services.
THE CRITERIA FOR DEFINITION OF TARIFF The main criteria which need to be followed when defining the tariff are: • Balancing the invariant components with the variable rates of the service to differentiate and create a cost-effective service. This balancing is important due to competing with other modes of traveling, taxi and public transportation which has no fix cost and owning a car, which has a high fixed cost. • Balancing the fixed rate components, such as reservation and “taking”, with the variable rates, based on time and mileage, in order to compete other modes of transportation on distance base, taxi for short distances and rental cars for long distances. • Maximizing the utilization of the service and the vehicles by balancing the times of lower demand with differentiations in the pricing. Another modulation in the system can be done based on the different vehicles in the system. The cost system should be defined accordingly to sustain differences of vehicles: • The pricing must be defined carefully to prevent creating imbalances between costs and revenues for different vehicle types • Pricing incentives should be used to create more demand for the vehicles which are not highly used GREEN MOVE - THE SERVICE IDEA / FINAL REPORT / ASP 7th cycle
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It should be noted that, the pricing structure of a service with various components is a complex issue, and the tariff structure might not benefit all the different customers. While a high hourly rate and low mileage will benefit users who make long trips with low times of not-utilization (e.g. parking), a low hourly rate and high mileage will benefit users who make short trips but use the car for longer times.
SPECIAL TARIFFS In addition to standard tariffs of the service, usually special rates are present to personalize the offer to the customer. Some examples are: • Discount on off-peak hours: offering free or discounted usage during the night • Maximum daily rate: fixing the daily rate at a price • Different rates: offering different subscription plans depending on the frequency of use such as a low monthly fee and the hourly rate with a high mileage rate or vice versa • Complete package: offering plans that provide a certain number of hours and miles for a fixed monthly fee - for example, 10 hours and 300 miles for $ 80 per month.
THE RATE AS A COMPETITIVE LEVER There is great potential to use the pricing mechanisms to maximize revenue and use, for example by encouraging the use at off-peak hours or little-used stations. The incentives given by price differences have also been used as a mechanism to minimize the imbalances of the systems where travel is one-way. In this case, more convenient rates have been used to encourage clients to take a vehicle from a location with an excess amount of vehicles and return it to another with lower vehicle amount (Schwieger, 2004). However, these differences in tariff can decrees the ability comprehend the cost of the service, making it hard for the customer to make decisions based on cost of the service and other modes of transportation.
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DESIGNING OF EXPERIMENTATION FOR THE TARIFF STRUCTURE After the tariff has been created based on the considerations suggested above, experimentation in a pilot are can be done to understand the approach of users to different tariff structures, as well as implication of the tariff for Green Move. This experimentation will take place in a pilot area for Condosharing alternative. The experimentation can provide the following answers: • Finding a tariff structure which optimizes financial performance of GM by leading consumers to use more of the vehicle sharing service • Understand the learning effects on the service to see if the use increases due to increased familiarity with the service after a period of experimentation. • Understand the changes of tariff rate in the variable components, conducting a sensitivity analysis to better understand the demand However, while doing the experimentation, it is important to take into account the characteristics of the different macro-alternatives of the service. For Condosharing experimentation, as an example, a fixed rate for daily use might not be applicable because it will prevent other users of the condominium to use the car that day. This point is not consistent with the assumptions underlying the Condosharing alternative. The design of the experimentation must be carefully done to prevent conflict with the characteristics of different services.
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5.3 / FIELD ANALYSIS AND TEST As ASP team, we have followed this step very closely participating in the planning of the experimentation, creating some tools as support both in an intangible way and in physical outputs. Due to some delays, which will be explained in the following paragraphs, the beginning of the prototyping phase has been postponed of some moths. Therefore we won’t be able to take part at the process within the testing phase, but we will start analyzing some results coming from a pre-mapping of people interest.
PROTOTYPING THE CONDOSHARING AS TOOL The service prototype is designed as a tool to test the adaptability of a service to a specific context, to observe users’ interactions with the system, to understand the dynamics, refining and optimizing before beginning with a full-scale implementation. Another important point to check is the possible interference or commingling with external factors that may affect the implementation of the service. Obviously some of these factors cannot be accurately predicted before the prototyping itself, but they can have a big impact on the service. Therefore it’s fundamental to have a testing phase before starting with the implementation. The main advantages that are obtained from an experiment can be summarized as follows: • The prototyping can be an occasion to raise discussion between users, the developing team and between the members of the developing team themselves. • Prototypes make it possible to do an usability testing in the development process. • Prototype focuses on the overall content and functionality by testing the system as a whole • It defines the final optimal solution and up-scales it The type of test Green Move is planning to implement is the experimental prototype, which is constructed to determine if the proposed system will be adequate and acceptable when finished, both from the technological point of view and the outcome of service and user experience. The Condosharing is the alternative chosen for this field test because it’s one of the most important configuration identified during the analysis process that could led to a real innovation in social terms. Also its small scale configuration makes it easy to test and verify the service in all its elements.
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The Green Move aims to define and verify: • The service configuration • Possible additional services (ex. baby car seat, navigation system, etc.) • Technological aspects: the smart phone application, online booking platform, information system between the Green e-Box and the green move center • Prices: testing with different price structures to understand what the best configuration is (ex. by kilometers and hour, only by hour, forfait, etc.) • The interest of people to this kind of service • The communication strategy The experimentation will be contextualized in a specific condominium in the city of Milano, giving some electric vehicles to be included in the service prototype and it will start around December/January lasting approximately 4/6 months. At first it was planned to start the test session at the beginning of November, but due to several difficulties the date has been postponed by several months. The main problem was the portfolio of vehicles: in fact Green Move owned three electric vehicles, the Piaggio Liberty, the Birò by Estrima and the Tazzari Zero. The department of Politecnico, who were dealing with the technological aspects, worked on these three vehicles developing the Green e-Box, the smart phone application and other technological components. However, these vehicles have evident limitation in terms of seating capacity, weather conditions, trunk capacity and access to highways. Green Move tried during the first phases of the project to buy other vehicles in order to balance the lacks of the present fleet. Subsequently many difficulties were faced in reaching an agreement with car companies, for having free access to the basic electric signals of the vehicles in order to install in the proper way the Green e-Box, the bridge that allows the connection between the vehicle and the Green Move center, controls the battery status, sends the GPS data, etc. At the end, the Green Move work team decided not to utilize the present three vehicles.
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img 5.3 - Green Move portfolio of vehicles - source: Green Move project
To solve this problem and raise the quantity and the variety of vehicles for the experimentation a contract with e-Vai (the electric car-sharing in Lombardia region) has been reached. In this way Green Move will be able to add at the Green Move fleet three or four medium size cars (minimum four seats). The contract with e-Vai ratifies that Green Move will have access only to the GPS data of e-Vai and not to all the data (i.e. the battery status, open and closure of doors, etc.). Therefore the Green e-Box needed to be modified before being installed on these cars. In fact, during the field test the users will utilize a RFID card (or smartphone) to give a signal to the Green e-Box, the Green e-Box will then send automatically a message to e-Vai to unlock the doors and grant access to the car. The same procedure will be followed to lock the car. Another point ratified by the contract with e-Vai is the booking phase. In theory, during the Condosharing test, the users would have to register to the e-Vai system to book the car. What Green Move aims to do is to put a layer between the e-Vai system and the user to introduce the Green Move’s online platform to test the usability and make it familiar for Condosharing users.
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img 5.4 - e-vai electric car sharing at Milano Bovisa train station in charging - source: Team B
Given the fact that some changes need to be done on the Green e-Box and on the online platform, the testing phase has been postponed for a few months. Additionally permissions within the condominium and agreements among all the inhabitants to start the test have to be found which required some time.
THE TWO HYPOTHESES OF PROTOTYPING Two different hypothesis of prototyping are being planned and developed in order to avoid problems and obstacles for the testing phase and there is the possibility to include both during the experimentation. • Hypothesis A: condominium “Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini” located in via Scarsellini 17 Milano • Hypotesis B: cohousing “Urban Village Bovisa 01” located in via Giudice Maddalena Donadoni 12 Milano Both options are located in the Bovisa’s neighborhood, near Bovisa station and Affori Nord train stations.
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img 5.5 - Area of interest of the testing phase - source: Team B
When analyzed the location of the first option, the area on which the complex stands, consists of two buildings (one of which is the the Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini, of interest to the field taste is situated between via Scarsellini, via Nicotera, via Cialdini and via Grazioli and occupies the entire north side. In this area, the production facility of the Corriere della Sera was situated, however now it is completely abandoned. The sub-area, at the moment in a deep urban transformation phase, is bordering to the north with the residential areas and the historic core of Affori which was historically occupied by production areas confined into large factories. Moreover the recent new university district of Politecnico di Milano in the south (Bovisa area) is giving new strengths to this important regeneration process for the neighborhood. The Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini is a large sized condominium that hosts around 100 family units and composed by eleven floors plus two underground floors for garage. There are some common areas shared by the inhabitants and an internal social network of the condominium used as channel for information and activities. Liat Rogel, PhD candidate at Politecnico di Milano, is the link between the Politecnico working groups and the inhabitants of the condominium as she lives in the condominium itself and manages the internal social network. She is following all the phases of the setting up of the field test. Another fundamental work which
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Liat Rogel is also doing is to start spread the seeds of the service experimentation among the inhabitants of the condominium in order to prepare them to take advantage from the opportunity of having a Condosharing service. The project will be then formally presented during a condominium meeting to have all the official permission, however inhabitants are already showing enthusiasm for the service.
img 5.6 - Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini - source: Team B
The first step of our team for the experimentation phase was to consider the territorial nature of the area through an on-site visit at the Villaggio Cooperativo. Through the territorial analysis we found out that the area was an old industrial district and in a phase of deep regeneration with many building sites. The presence of cars is low near the Villaggio and the parking areas are almost all free of charge. As regard the public transportation the area is linked with the underground yellow line (Comasina-San Donato) and the bus line 70 and 80 nearby, while the train station Affori Nord and Bovisa station are just 1 km far. (see img 5.7). The experimentation phase still needs to be designed in details, but we already have some general guidelines to follow for giving an idea of how it will look like.
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As in the condominium there are some garages owned by the Consorzio Cooperativa Ca’Grande, therefore by all the inhabitants these will be used as parking site inside the building. The vehicles that will take part of the testing phase will be the three or four cars of e-Vai and the three vehicles owned by Green Move, as explained before, used alternately. There will be the Green Move’s online platform through which the user has to register and book the vehicles, the keys of the common garages where the vehicles will be parked (the key is part of a welcome kit that will be explained in details later), the RFID card to open and close the vehicles, a Green e-Box positioned on each vehicle. All the vehicles will be recharged inside the garages through a normal plug by the users once they have finished using the vehicle.
img 5.7 - Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini and public transportation analysis - source: Team B
On the other hand the hypothesis B, the cohousing Urban Village Bovisa 01, located in via Giudice Maddalena Donadoni 12, stands on an abandoned industrial area, near the university of Politenico di Milano Campus Durando. The Cohousing is born from the initiative of the Agency for Social Innovation Partnership Innosense INDIGO and the Department of Politecnico di Milano after the foundation of the company Cohousing Ventures Ltd. The building is with a U shape and composed by three floors for a total amount
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of 32 apartments of different kind (loft, duplex, loft, traditional apartments) with a common garden of 400m2. The common services shared by the people are a living room with shared kitchen, hobby room / Ciclofficina (bike workshop), laundry, a garden with specific area for growing aromatic plants and the outdoor pool with a solarium. All the facilities are managed by the Inhabitants by interfacing with the condominium administrator.
img 5.8 - Cohousing Urban Village Bovisa 01 - source: Green Move project
In both cases the steps which the users have to do in order to use a vehicle are: 1. Make the online registration to Green Move platform (even if this will be just a cover layer of e-Vai service) 2. Book the vehicle specifying for how long he/she intends to use the vehicle 3. Open the garage with the proper key (contained in the welcome kit) 4. Open the vehicle and activate the Green e-Box through an RFID card (contained in the welcome kit) 5. Pick the vehicle (they will find the vehicle’s key in the ignition switch) 6. Use it as they need for the time they have booked 7. Return the car in the proper garage and deactivate the Green e-Box through the RFID card 8. Put the car into recharge and make sure it’s cleaned 9. Leave the vehicle key inside the ignition switch 10. Close the garage
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The proposal of a hypothetical testing phase of the Green Move’s service has already been done to the administrator of the building and was welcomed with great interest and enthusiasm. The community is already used to share spaces, services and facilities, and therefore is inclined to share even electric vehicles that would be a new service well-pleasing to the inhabitants. Considering the analysis of the two different hypotheses for testing the Condosharing system, it can be said that the best solution would be to test the service within the Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini. In fact the context of this condominium is more a common one in terms of composition than the cohousing where the people are already a community with a strong sense of sharing and participation, characteristics which unfortunately are not so common in a regular Italian condominium. Another important factor to keep in mind for the choice is the number of inhabitants that can take part at the testing phase, in fact in Scarselini village there are around 100 families much more than the 30 of the Urban Village Bovisa 01. Therefore the optimal choice would be the Scarellini one.
MAPPING THE INTEREST THE QUESTIONNAIRE As second step, in parallel at the on-going design of the field test, we were involved in mapping the needs of people. More precisely, two questionnaires have been created to understand the interest of people to the car sharing system: one general survey for around 1000 people developed by a consulting agency and one specific questionnaire developed by our team for the Scarsellini’s inhabitants. The Scarsellini’s questionnaire is done with a Google doc form so easily sharable using the social network of the condominium managed by Liat Rogel. With this tool we aim to understand the interest of people living in Milano, more precisely on the hypothetical condominium of the field test, on the car-sharing service and, more specifically, on the Condosharing system eventually integrated with a peer to peer method. Another important point is to discover specific targets of people or common habits that may need additional services: for instance, the high number of families with children may indicate the need for additional services such as child safety seats. The survey is divided into five parts: the first is about the generalities of the interviewee and of his/her family unit; the second part is about the
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ownership of vehicles; the third one is on the car sharing service in general; the fourth one is about the Condosharing; the last part is on the peer to peer opportunity plus a part for free comments and suggestions.
THE VIDEO To make the inhabitants understand better what Green Move is it was decided to join the online survey with a promotional video which would be designed by the communication team of Politecnico di Milano who is working on the whole Green Move’s communication strategy. The video, still under development, will be a combination of graphic elements with a voice over following a text created in two versions by our team in collaboration with Liat Rogel. Here there are the two possible versions of the voice over for the promotional video developed in Italian language following the same structure: what’s a car sharing, what are the benefits of the car sharing, what is green Move project, what is the Condosharing proposed by Green Move. Version 1: Se potessi avere un’auto sempre a tua disposizione quando ti serve, ad esempio per andare a fare la spesa o accompagnare i bambini in piscina... E se potessi parcheggiarla ovunque: strisce blu, strisce gialle; Usare le corsie preferenziali ed entrare nell’area C senza alcun pensiero... Spostarti in città non sarebbe più facile? Il car sharing è un servizio che ti permette di avere sempre un’auto a portata di mano. Prenoti Usi l’auto per il tempo necessario e la rilasci in un punto stabilito. Il costo è quello dell’utilizzo fatto in base a chilometri e tempo. Green move, un progetto del Politecnico di Milano e della Regione Lombardia, propone un car sharing innovativo per la città di Milano: leggero, aperto ed elettrico. In questo sistema tutti possono mettere in condivisione la propria auto elettrica quando non viene utilizzata. Meno traffico, meno inquinamento e molti vantaggi per tutti gli utenti!
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E se Green Move mettesse a disposizione 1, 2, 3, 4 automobili solo per tuo condominio? Il condosharing cambia il modo di spostarti in città! Condivideresti le auto con la tua comunità avendo sempre a disposizione una macchina in più quando ti serve e pagando in base all’utilizzo fatto. Green Move l’auto per il condominio: Aperto, leggero, Elettrico e VICINO Version 2: Car sharing vuol dire condividere l’auto. è un servizio simile al noleggio auto ma serve per tratti brevi. Per esempio: fare la spesa, portare i bambini in piscina o fare una gita in giornata. Puoi scegliere la macchina che fa per te. (immagini di macchine che cambiano rispetto alla situazione). Prenoti, prendi, usi e riporti. Paghi per ore e per km. Green Move, un progetto del Politecnico di Milano e della Regione Lombardia, propone un car sharing innovativo per la città di Milano: leggero, aperto ed elettrico. Per mettere Green Move alla prova partiamo con condosharing. il servizio dedicato ai vicini di casa di uno stabile. Il sistema è uguale e le macchine ti aspettano nel box, quasi come avere sempre una macchina elettrica in più. anzi, 3. Green Move l’auto per il condominio: Aperto, leggero, Elettrico e VICINO
CONDOSHARING WELCOME TOOLKIT In addition to the explanatory and promotional video on Green Move, for both cases of the Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini and the cohousing Urban Village Bovisa 01, we proceeded to design a welcome toolkit to be offered to the inhabitants, one per family, to promote and introduce them to the service when the system will be active. The toolkit is a tangible touch point of the Condosharing service and could be replicated during the implementation of the service itself becoming an effective communication tool. The welcome toolkit consists of: • Brochure with explanatory ten rules for a perfect Condosharing user • A USB flash drive containing the promotional video of Green Move • The keys of their garage where vehicles will be parked • The RFID card to open the vehicles and activate the Green e-Box The illustrated brochure is one of the key parts as well as it illustrates how
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the Condosharing works and highlights the basic rules that users have to respect during the field test.
Here the text of the ten rules of the brochure in Italian language. Green Move l’auto per il condominio: Aperto, leggero, Elettrico e VICINO 1. Prenota! (sul sito www.greenmove.xxx/xxxx) 2. Sblocca il veicolo col la tessera RFID che trovi nel welcome kit. 3. Personalizza il veicolo con i servizi aggiuntivi che trovi nel garage Green Move. Per esempio puoi usare il seggiolini per bambini se devi uscire con i tuoi figli. 4. Pronto per guidare? Puoi accedere all’area C e usare le corsie preferenziali. 5. Parcheggia, dove vuoi! Le strisce blu e gialle sono sempre gratuite! 6. Riporta il veicolo nel box, alla fine del tuo utilizzo. 7. Ricordati di metterlo sotto carica. È importante per gli altri, ma soprattutto per te! 8. E assicurati che sia pulito prima di andare via. Nel garage trovi tutto l’occorrente per rimettere in ordine il veicolo! 9. Passa ancora la tua tessera RFID per bloccare il veicolo. 10. Chiudi il garage a chiave. Ti verrà addebitato l’utilizzo fatto. Sei il perfetto utilizzatore del servizio Green Move L’auto di condominio! I veicoli sono sempre a tua disposizione… comodo vero?
ESTIMATED BUDGET We have planned to use the budget for the project in three main activities of the experimentation phase: • Welcome toolkit • Interior design of the garage • Prototyping launch event The main part of the budget will be destined in the production of this welcome toolkit to be included during the future phase of prototyping which we think is important as tangible touch point of the Condosharing alternative. The main part of the budget we have for the project will be destined in the production of the welcome toolkit to be included during the future phase
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of prototyping which we think is important as tangible touchpoint of the condosharing alternative. Another important point under development is the interior design of the garage in which the Green Move vehicles will be parked. This will be another communicative tangible part of the service and has to be a cozy space with all the elements that could be useful to take of the cars: i.e. we are planning to have a locker in which is possible to leave common tools, a little vacuum cleaner, child car seat which people can use if they need as additional self-personalization, roof rack and other tools. Therefore another important part of the budget is dedicate to all this elements that make the service prototyping more tangible and welcoming for the users and of which we can have an answer in term of importance. Finally, the idea to have a formal launch of the experimentation to present the project and Green Move to the inhabitants of the condominium, both if it will be in Scarsellini or Donadoni, it’s a fundamental point. Starting with communicating the project in right way is the very first step for a successful experimentation in term of users participation, which is what Green Move wants to achieve to test and verify the system. Due to the delay of the beginning of the prototyping phase, we will realize the welcome toolkit, on the contrary the budget for the interior design of the garage, the different tools to personalize the cars and for the launch of the event we are not sure to be able to use it.
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5.4 / CONCLUSIVE COMMENTS AND AN OUTLOOK ON THE NEXT STEPS Given the high complexity of the Green Move’s project also the field test has a dense dynamic consisting of several aspects and actors that have to work together and in harmony to test properly the alternative of Condosharing. Our contribution in this stage of the project was focused on preparing the ground for the experimentation. The postponement of the beginning of testing phase of a few months, due to technical problems and timing (described above), has unfortunately made it impossible our collaboration during the next steps of the actual test, the collection and the analysis of the results that will be obtained. To summarize this complex part of prototyping design, we can say that: • The prototype serves as a tool to verify the technological aspects and the service idea Some electric cars of the car sharing e-Vai will be added at the Green Move’s fleet • There are two hypothesis for the prototyping: the Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini and cohousing Urban Village Bovisa 01 • The territorial analysis and evaluation of the context indicate that the optimal hypothesis for testing is the Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini • A specific questionnaire, accompanied by a video, has been created in order to test the interest of the inhabitants of Villaggio Cooperativo Scarsellini • It is designed as a tangible part of the Condosharing a welcome toolkit to promote the field test This important phase will then followed by the analysis of the results that would lead to the design of multiple service configuration for Regione Lombardia and a consequently scaling-up and implementation of the service itself.
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6 / CONCLUSIONS Piccolo, elettrico, condiviso (Small, electric, shared): Green Move tries to design a scenario integrating technological aspects of the problem with a business model and urban mobility in an innovative and integrated way. The interdisciplinary cooperation of different departments and centers of the Politecnico di Milano allowed addressing the problem in depth, aiming to reach a range of possible solutions, according to the variables that from time to time are taken into account, and which may have implications in many directions, even out of a given solution studied for the proposed project. Actually the car-sharing system has a long history: the first complete system of car sharing was born in the early 1970s in France, but lasted only about two years. A more ambitious project called the Witkar was launched in Amsterdam by the 1968. Later, from the 1990s many other car-sharing started to be launched in a larger and more structured systems, for instance in Germany, Switzerland, Netherland and Canada. Nowadays, their spread is still too limited and can be attributable to the characteristics inherent in the implementations: the services are too generic, often taking shape as a simple offering of a rental car. The objective of Green Move is to propose a scenario that fits seamlessly into the contemporary dynamics of the next economy and in creating effective element of a smart cities, which is what Milano aims to be, preparing to host a world-wide event as the Expo 2015. Within the complex fluid contemporaneity, users, indeed all citizens, are called to participate actively in the sustainable change of the city, because their choices shape day-to-day the contexts in which they live. People who are directly involved in a project or feel that they are part of a community become more responsible and active, promoting and teaching themselves the green value in the society. Green Move wishes to accelerate the process of changing behavior and lifestyle of Milano citizens proposing a win-win solution where the costumer is satisfied and in return the environment has evident ecological benefits and, moreover, the society gains a safer environment with less traffic problems. Users can join the service not only as passive or active service co-producers, but also deciding to share their private car (peer-topeer) becoming stakeholders themselves, being part of a community that gives value to the environment and is active for the good of the society. Of course, this goal is certainly ambitious when the normal routine of a normal Italian citizen is considered: two cars owned, often the first is an high-powered and the second is used rarely (in average one hour per day4 source: the future of carsharing), low propensity for sharing and collaboration in general, even in the same Condominium which seems to be a war trench with the neighbor than an opportunity to establish cooperation 86
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and friendship relations. Fortunately these dynamics are slowly evolving in society and there are clear signs: from many examples of convivial gardens to the particular case of the Cohousing Urban Village Bovisa 01, we mentioned in the experimental phase, where people share several facilities, even the kitchen. The small-scale field test is therefore critical to understand how effective can be the service Green Move under this direction. It will highlight the opportunities and limits creating new design ideas to be proposed to the Lombardy region for an effective service to citizens that would be participated, would lead to social innovation also pushing micro-entrepreneurial activities and designed with a HCD (Human Center Design) approach. Throughout the project our team developed some strategic points. While following the overall of work which continued in parallel, we created value-added contributions in several contexts. With working on analysis of best practices, definition of alternatives and conjoint analysis, we provided insight on the different parameters that are available, which acted as background on the subject. A fundamental contribution was on the credit systems. A concept previously not yet analyzed by the other departments, can be an important aspect on the configuration of the social network and service, giving users incentives for usage and certain behaviors. Finally, on the testing phase, with the toolkit, questionnaire and the analysis of the territory we created a strong base for the future. Even though we won’t be involved in the actual testing, the preparations done on the subject would facilitate the testing phase and ensure the knowledge and preparation needed for the analysis. The strength of our work is its user oriented approach in the proposition of solutions and in the preparation of the testing phase. As Alta Scuola Politecnica team B, we can consider this two years’ experience as a unique opportunity to deal with a complex problem. We had the chance to work with professionals of high level within the departments and centers of Politecnico di Milano, open up our vision on problem solving and integrated approach in dealing with complex challenge as mobility is right now. Understanding how eight departments and centers of Politecnico di Milano, each with their own specific competences, could work together to a common vision is the assumption of multidisciplinarity that we had the truly opportunity to experience during the numerous workshops which we took part of. This also happened within our group where our different backgrounds were the starting point to mix competences and create an effective overall picture during all the phases we had the possibility to go through. For some of us was an enthusiastic first time to take part in a project with a field test and a future implementation on a real scale. GREEN MOVE - THE SERVICE IDEA / FINAL REPORT / ASP 7th cycle
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7 / REFERENCES [1] A. Millard-Ball et al., (2005) Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds, Transit Cooperative Research Program. [2] B. Schwieger (2004), International developments towards improved Car-Sharing services [3] D. Brook (2004), car-sharing – Start up Issues and New Operational Models, Transportation Research Board. [4] F. Ciari, M. Balmer and K.W. Axhausen (2009), Concepts for a large scale car-sharing system: Modelling and evaluation with an agent-based approach. Paper presented at the 88th Annual Meeting of the transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. [5] F. Prettenthaler, K. Steininger (1999), From ownership to service use lifestyle: the potential of car-sharing, Ecological Economics 28, pp. 443-453. [6] Floyd, Christiane (1984): A Systematic Look at Prototyping. In: Budde, R., Kuhlenkamp, K., Mathiassen, Lars and Zullighoven, H. (eds.). “Approaches to Prototyping”. Springer Verlagpp. 1-17 [7] FOCUS ON Milano 2011, Le statistiche fondamentali per conoscere Milano. Comune di Milano. [8] G. Valenti, M. Mastretta (1998), car-sharing: evoluzione e prospettive, pubblicato sul sito di iniziativa car-sharing: www.ics car-sharing.it. [9] P.E., Greenand & V. Srinivasan (1978). Conjoint Analysis in Consumer Research: Issues and Outlook. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Sep., 1978), pp. 103-123. [10] Greenberg, Saul. Prototyping for Design and Evaluation. Retrieved 9 November 2012 from http://grouplab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/saul/681/1998/ prototyping/survey.html#whatis [11] G. Invernizzi, C. De Marco, R. Mazza, G. Mocnik, C. Sioutas, A. Ruprecht, & D. Westerdahl, (2011). Measurement of black carbon concen88
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tration as an indicator of air quality benefits of traffic restriction policies within the ecopass zone in Milan, Italy. Atmospheric Environment 45 (2011) 3522-3527. [12] K. Steininger, C. Vogl, R. Zettl (1996), Car-sharing organizations. The size of the market segment and revealed change in mobility behavior, Transport Policy, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 177-185. [13] M. Mastretta, L. Torriani (2005), Monitoraggio del programma nazionale car-sharing. Rapporto di valutazione. [14] Milan, Conduits Project. Retreived 28 October 2012 from http:// conduits.eu/documents/city-summaries/Milan.pdf [15]Numeri, ATM.http://www.atm.it/it/IlGruppo/ChiSiamo/Pagine/Numeri. aspx [16] R. Katzev (2003), car-sharing: A New Approach to Urban Transportation Problems, Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 3: 65-86. [17] S. Shaheen, A. Cohen (2008), Worldwide car-sharing growth: An international comparison, Transportation Research Record, 1992: 1-89. [18] S. Shaheen, D. Sperling, C. Wagner (1998), car-sharing in Europe and North America: Past, present, and future, Transportation Quarterly, 52: 35–52. [19] S. Shaheen, M. Barth (2002), Shared-use vehicle systems: a framework for classifying car-sharing, station cars, and combined approaches, Transportation Research Record. [20] Service Design Tools, http://www.servicedesigntools.org [21] Soegaard, Mads (2010). Prototyping. Retrieved 3 November 2012 from http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/prototyping.html [22] Urban Village Bovisa 01. Retrieved 3 November 2012 from http://www. abitareeanziani.it/aea/Lenuoveabitazioniperlaterzaeta/Soluzioni/Bovisa. aspx GREEN MOVE - THE SERVICE IDEA / FINAL REPORT / ASP 7th cycle
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Team B