With the arrival of sunny days, the city of Dieppe (Seine-Maritime) will find, at the end of June, its bike rental service – electric or not – right next to the SNCF train station. Originally designed for tourists who come to discover the city of Ango, the offer is not reserved for them. On the contrary, as Christophe Courcoux-Serdeczny, CEO of the Actif ESS group, which works in the field of social and solidarity economy and has been managing the Actif Véloc' service on behalf of the agglomeration community, explains for 5 years: "We realized that 47% of those who came to rent a bike were Dieppois. It shows that modes of transportation are evolving. And so we decided to meet that demand. »
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From the end of the summer season, the fleet of about fifty bikes, which was until now stored in September, will indeed be offered for monthly rental, at the rate of 60 € TTC, which also includes helmet, anti-theft and insurance, about 2 € / day. "The objective is above all to run these bikes, especially (electric) e-bikes, which are damaged if they are not used regularly," continues the general manager, who wants to increase his fleet of two-wheelers by at least ten units with the revenue generated by the summer activity and part of the subsidy paid by his client. "Everything we earn," he says, "we reinvest to buy new bikes."
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Convinced that the future of travel depends in part on cycling, Christophe Courcoux-Serdeczny is already preparing for tomorrow. By approaching local companies to consider making bicycles available on their site for their employees. He is also talking to Transdev, which manages the Dieppe urban transport network. "Their contract with the agglomeration community runs until 2025, but we are already thinking about how to integrate a larger-scale rental service into the public transit offer that we could manage."
He sees it as an opportunity to create new jobs that favor social and professional integration within his structure, which already employs nearly 270 employees in fifteen fields of activity. "As an actor of the social and solidarity economy, it is certain that we have a role to play in everything related to the protection of the environment and the planet," he says. Bike rental is just one concrete example. ».
