Car pooling originated as an autonomous form of organizing the sharing of the same trip among people using a single vehicle. Over time, this form of sporadic and unstructured mobility has expanded and become organized through technological platforms. Car pooling thus becomes a driving force for reducing traffic congestion, CO2 pollution, and other particulate emissions.
Currently, there are two main types of car pooling: the first involves the home-to-work commute among employees of the same company, often organized directly by the company; the second involves occasional trips for users who do not belong to well-defined categories, either logically or geographically.
Car pooling began as a cost-saving measure for a trip, evolving into a tool for reducing the environmental impact of daily and occasional travel. By reducing the number of circulating vehicles, air and environmental quality improves, with positive benefits for the entire area. To engage and spread an active culture of environmental protection, users, administrations, and companies need to equip themselves with modern tools to adopt the new mobility paradigm.
The benefits gained in introducing a carpooling platform are related to the lower personal and/or corporate environmental impact that the user has during his or her commute.
The reduction in CO2 emissions can be calculated to determine the individual or corporate environmental footprint.
For corporate car pooling, environmental improvements can be incentivized through tax measures, with rewards given to employees. Additionally, car pooling is one of the most used tools by Mobility Managers (now mandatory for companies with more than 100 employees in cities with over 50,000 inhabitants) as an action introduced through the PSCL (Home-Work Travel Plans).
