Mobidream: Solidarity Car Sharing for Youth Mobility in Rural Areas

In rural areas, not having a personal vehicle can be enough to block access to a job. To make it possible to share a fleet of Citroën Ami vehicles without handing out physical keys, Mobidream relied on a Dunasys telematics unit. Here is the story of a solidarity mobility project that is still in service today.

The context: a mobility gap in rural areas

Philippe lives in the countryside, about 180 kilometers south of Paris. In his area, he kept seeing the same situation repeat itself: residents, often young people, asked on a daily basis to be driven to the pharmacy, to the doctor, or to run errands, simply because they had no independent way to get around.

He himself belonged to a generation where access to independence relied on family support: parents paying for driving lessons, finding a first secondhand car. Today, in a context where financial situations are often tighter, that kind of support is no longer always possible. Without a vehicle, it becomes difficult for a young person to travel to neighboring villages or reach companies that could employ them.

This observation is what gave rise to Mobidream: a mobility solution designed to help young people find a job and get around, including in areas with limited transport links.

The challenge: sharing a vehicle without handing out keys

To build his service, Philippe chose the Citroën Ami, initially presented as ready for car sharing. In practice, that was not the case. The vehicle offered no way to know who was using it, no geolocation, and no remote access management.

Under these conditions, putting several users on the same vehicle by simply passing around a set of keys was not workable. As Philippe puts it, it would have meant literally chasing across the countryside to find out who currently held the keys. What was needed was a technical solution able to remotely lock and unlock the vehicle, identify the user, and track its location, all in a way that stayed simple for young drivers.

The Dunasys solution: a telematics unit that made car sharing possible

Philippe met Michel Durand, CEO of Dunasys, and explained his challenge to him. A first telematics unit was tested to address exactly this need: remote locking and unlocking of the vehicle, user identification, and real time geolocation.

This piece of technology is what allowed the project to get off the ground. Without it, Mobidream simply would not have been able to launch its car sharing service. According to Philippe, the solution has proven lasting: it is still in use today.

What Philippe values about working with Dunasys

“I have two big compliments to make. The first is client listening. Everything had to be built from scratch, and the fleet was very small at the start. Unlike other operators who required a minimum of one hundred vehicles, that barrier never existed with Dunasys. The second point is that the commercial and technical team is very effective, high performing, and very responsive.”
Philippe, founder of Mobidream

Two things stand out in his account: Dunasys’s ability to support an early stage project with a small vehicle fleet, at a time when other market players imposed a minimum threshold that was hard to reach for a young structure. And the responsiveness of the commercial and technical teams throughout the project.

Benefits for Mobidream

Thanks to the Dunasys telematics unit, Mobidream was able to:

• Open its car sharing service to several users on the same vehicle without handing out physical keys
• Identify precisely who is using the vehicle at any given time
• Track the fleet’s location in real time
• Launch its activity with a small number of vehicles, with no minimum threshold required
• Rely on a lasting technical solution that is still in service today

Do you have a solidarity mobility or car sharing project?

Just like with Mobidream, Dunasys supports mobility project owners of any fleet size with telematics units adapted to car sharing and fleet management.

Contact Dunasys to discuss your project.