Reward-based carpooling posed as solution to rush hour woes

As Transport Malta prepares to launch a traffic masterplan for the next decade, a new innovative start-up believes it has just the solution to stem rush-hour traffic flows. 

Nicholas Ponniah is the director of CorporateVIP, a company formed earlier this year which designs and sells web platforms to employers who want to motivate and incentivize their staff. The platform allows employers – who include Betsson, MITA and Fimbank – to reward employees with discount perks for restaurants, hotels, Air Malta flights, retail outlets and other services.  

Now he is using the same technology to design a platform that would incentivize people to carpool to work. 

“There are really three routes to tackle Malta’s traffic problem – the government can impose more taxes, or it can keep investing heavily in infrastructure, or people can be encouraged to use alternative means of transport,” Ponniah told MaltaToday at his Gzira offices. “The first option will be politically unpopular and the second is ultimately unsustainable.” 

Carpooling has long been bandied as a solution, but Ponniah’s proposal is the first that offers a clear reward to people who opt to leave their cars at home when travelling to work. 

CorporateVIP is therefore designing an add-on feature to its platform, that will allow employers to reward carpoolers with points. Ponniah explained that staff could be given a point every time they carpool to and from work, while carpooling drivers could be given two points to compensate for fuel costs.  

Once carpoolers accumulate a certain number of points, they would then exchange them for rewards – such as vouchers and free meals – from businesses signed up to CorporateVIP. 

MaltaToday is informed that a number of high-profile public and private companies have already declared interest in adopting this scheme, which would be fully digital – with drivers and passengers matching with each other according to their areas of residence.

“It will be advantageous to carpooling applications like Bumalift, because it will allow people to travel to work with their colleagues, getting to know them better along the way, rather than with complete strangers,” Ponniah said.

“Employers will fork out the costs for the rewards, but really they’ll be a tiny percentage of their total profits. We need to start fostering the spirit of corporate social responsibility.” 

He initially plans to launch the scheme with a couple of high-profile businesses and is confident that interest in it will snowball.    

“If it works, we could even show the results to the government and urge them to provide some sort of subsidy,” he said. “After all, traffic is a national problem, with surveys constantly ranking it the number one public concern.” 

Ponniah is also looking a step ahead towards a triannual lottery for carpoolers on a national level, with each acquired point equivalent to a ticket. 

These prizes will be luxurious, such as holidays abroad, and will be paid for by CorporateVIP.

“I strongly believe that this could be a worthwhile project to add to the greater strategy of easing road congestion and help create a greener attitude to commuting to the workplace,” he said. “It would be the gamification of carpooling – making it fun and personally rewarding to carpool to work.”