Mobility manager: guidelines for drafting and implementing home-work commute plans approved

On 4 August 2021, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility (the “MIMS“) approved the “Guidelines for drafting and implementing home-work commute plans” (the “Guidelines“) as a reference tool for the “Mobility manager“.

As clarified by the Guidelines: “The objective (…) is to allow the structural and permanent reduction of the environmental impact deriving from vehicular traffic in urban and metropolitan areas, promoting the organisation and management of the demand for people’s mobility that allows the reduction of the use of private motorised individual transport in systematic home-work commute and decongestion of vehicular traffic.”

Here are the main initiative changes.

The Home-Work Commute Plan and the Mobility Manager

Decree Law no. 34 of 19 March 2020 ( “Relaunch Decree”), converted with amendments into Law no. 77/2020, requires that private companies and public administrations, with individual local units with more than 100 employees located in a regional capital, metropolitan city, provincial capital or municipality with a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants, adopt a “Home-work commute plan” ( “PSCL“) for their workers by 31 December each year. To verify the 100 employee threshold, permanent workers with a daily and continuous presence at the local unit under a contract, service contract or forms of secondment, or other, and even if they are another company’s employees, must be considered.

The reference role for the implementation of such initiatives is the Mobility manager who, under art. 6 of the Relaunch Decree shall:

• promote the organisation and management of employee mobility through the preparation of the PSCL;
• support the company in the adoption of the PSCL;
• verify that the PSCL is adopted and adapt it according to the guidelines received from the local relevant Municipality;
• handle relations with public and private bodies directly involved in the management of employee’s journey;
• activate information and awareness initiatives on the issue of corporate sustainability;
• with the area Mobility Manager (a professional who is specialised in corporate sustainability in the municipality), promote training and guidance to encourage employees to use cycling, walking and public transport services.

Guidelines

By adopting the Guidelines, which are a helpful support for the Mobility Manager’s operational activities, the Ministries involved have set themselves the objective of simplifying and standardising the PSCL contents.

Clarifying that with the adoption of the PSCL, it is necessary to:

• disincentivise individual use of the private car;
• Favour public transport;
• Favour cycling or micro-mobility;
• Reduce demand for mobility by preparing a plan to encourage remote working or co-working in locations close to employees’ residences/domiciles,

an outline of the minimum contents that the plan must contain is shared (on this point, see Annex 1 to the Guidelines).

A PSCL must be composed of at least (i) an information part, (ii) a project part and (iii) a monitoring programme.

Based on the financial budget made available by the company and the time required to implement the planned measures, it is necessary to identify a programme for PSCL implementation, setting the priorities, related timeframes and resources needed. This programme must cover the measures that can be implemented in the reference year and applied to following years.

To investigate the elements helpful in understanding employees’ travel habits and needs, and their propensity to change, the Mobility Manager must carry out a data collection campaign, using an information questionnaire provided to each employee. If necessary, an analysis of accidents is needed.

Once adopted, the PSCL must be brought to employees’ attention so they may be involved in the implementation phases.

The PSCL is constantly monitored by the Mobility Manager to ensure the measure’s effectiveness, identify any obstacles and critical issues that hinder implementation, and propose timely solutions.

Other related insights:

• The “Decreto Rilancio” has been converted into law