In the parking lot because of teleworking, company cars loaned to job seekers

With the massive use of teleworking, a good number of cars remain in the garage or in the parking lot. Among individuals but also in businesses and local communities, which nevertheless have several thousand company vehicles all over France. In Brittany, the regional council and its 4,000 agents are not spared. With teleworking, the drop in the number of face-to-face meetings and the virtual absence of events, staff and elected officials move much less. Solicited by various structures very interested in these cars squatting in parking lots, the community decided to lend some of them. A simple gesture that will however allow people to get a job. Because in some areas, having a car is not a choice, it is a necessity.

Lilandra is 20 years old and lives in Louargat, west of Guingamp, in the Côtes-d’Armor. Holder of a driving license, the young woman does not yet have the chance to have a car, for lack of means. She managed to find a job as a replacement in an nursing home in her village where she can walk. But what will happen at the end of the month? “With a car, I could go and make replacements elsewhere, but without that, I can’t”. Often in difficulty to recruit, the establishments for the elderly in the vicinity would however be very happy to welcome the young woman. Lilandra therefore requested the help of her local Mission for Employment, which offered her a rented car for the modest sum of two euros per day. “We were already doing it for scooters or electric bikes. But after a certain distance, you need a car, ”explains Laurent Quefferus, director of the Guingamp local mission.

“When you don’t have a car, it’s a real handicap”

In this part of Brittany, there is no metropolis and public transport is far from being as efficient as in the city. Here, employment is not concentrated and housing is fragmented. “Businesses were created where the bosses lived. When you don’t have a car, it’s a real handicap, ”continues Laurent Quefferus. At the end of last year, the director of the Local Mission convinced the owner of the Beyou Volkswagen dealership to lend him two small city cars to offer better mobility to young people. So when he met the regional president at the start of 2021, he did not hesitate to remind him that a large number of service cars were sleeping in the parking lots of the regional council offices. And he got the loan of four more cars. “It’s a test. We will see how it works, who uses it, for how long. If it works well, we would like to develop a real rental system to help as many young people as possible. The form remains to be defined but it is on the right track ”.

On Friday, the local mission of Lannion, where the device is also in place, received a visit from the Minister responsible for equal opportunities Elisabeth Moreno about this device called “On the road to employment”, which is is shown to be very interested in this local initiative. “When you’re young, you all want to buy a car, but it’s expensive. If we are loaned one for a few months, it can allow us to work to save money. This idea, I find it great ”, summarizes Lilandra. The young woman hopes that she will be able to afford her first vehicle in a few months. A synonym of freedom. And almost a necessity in rural areas.

Other cars already on loan

Since then, the Brittany region has done it again and has loaned six cars to the Optim’ism association, which works for better mobility for people seeking employment in Lorient and the surrounding area. Vehicles that made it easier for the Cité Marine seafood company to recruit, which struggled to fill certain positions on its somewhat isolated site in Kervignac. The Wimoov association, based in Carhaix, also obtained two vehicles.