The UK based start-up Faxi has been named the New Mobility Innovator of the Year at the inaugural TRANStech Awards, for its pioneering incentivised carpooling app. Celebrating technology that makes transport cleaner, smarter and easier to use, the TRANStech Awards are new awards recognising people and organisations designing and using technology to improve the transport system.
Established in 2013, Faxi has revolutionised the concept of carpooling for commuters with its unique smartphone app. The Faxi Software as a Service (SaaS) enables organisations to set up closed, private groups only available to employees, with a route-matching algorithm which suggests potential carpooling partners based on similar routes to work. As such Faxi responds to the groundswell of demand from government and employers that are now taking sustainability seriously.
“Large companies and government are looking for ways to reduce the polluting emissions commuters create by travelling solo in their own cars”, said Tony Lynch, Chief Executive and co-founder of Faxi. “But the missing piece in the jigsaw is being able to identify the co-workers who have similar commutes and accurately incentivise them to share their journeys. Faxi delivers this solution giving companies everything they need to enable their workforce to reduce their commuting emissions.
“We are already passionate about the role Faxi can play in tackling commuter pollution. Winning the TRANStech award should give more employers the confidence that we can make a genuine difference to how they can meet their sustainability goals. Indeed, our analysis shows that in large companies 96% of commuters could carpool with multiple different co-workers which would have a measurable sustainable impact.”
Providing a way for co-workers with similar journeys to connect to travel together, the Faxi platform provides reliable verification that commuters are travelling together so that rewards and incentives are properly and accurately distributed.
Businesses are also using Faxi verification technology to calculate a contribution to the costs of employees that transport co-workers. In other words, it is helping create private networks of paid drivers. Faxi’s goal is that this will lead to a future where verified multiple occupancy vehicles can be preferentially treated in terms of parking, tax, access and financial incentives.
In 2018, driven by a customer-focused approach, Toyota Financial Services (TFS) began working with Faxi for the development of a Toyota branded carpooling platform to offer incentivised carpooling in Europe. Earlier this year TFS invested in Faxi, becoming the majority shareholder. Aioi Nissay Dowa Europe / Toyota Insurance Management also invested, joining existing shareholder, the Indigo Group. The ambition is to scale the Faxi platform across Europe and beyond, expanding the current number of cities and projects.
Doug Gillies Managing Director of Toyota Financial Services ( UK ) PLC added: “This is a game-changing technology and the TRANStech Award win reflects how, working with businesses like Faxi, we are identifying new ways to tackle the challenges of urban transport. Our goal is to find new solutions to reduce environmental impact and employ a more sustainable transport solution for the millions of commuters in single-occupancy vehicles all over the world.”
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