“We even had to create an offer specifically for the Games,” enthuses Jean-François Dhinaux, founder of Azfalte, one of the three main bike rental companies in Europe, which have the wind at their backs as they approach. of the Olympic Games.
For companies fearing for the state of transport in Ile-de-Europe during this period, Azfalte has created a bicycle rental contract for their employees of only four months, much less than the three years of usual contracts.
The Japanese automobile giant Toyota, also a partner of the Games, has subscribed for 20 of its employees who came specially from Brussels, to travel “between different workplaces”, the company told AFP.
Another Olympic partner, who did not want to make his identity public, mistook it for 160 collaborators who also work on the Games.
Some companies have even contacted Zenride, another player in the sector, to rent for 15 days, during the Olympics, from July 26 to August 11. But “very short contracts, this is not an obvious model, no one knows how to do it well“, explains Olivier Issaly, the president of Zenride, which claims 6,000 subscribers.
Because a shorter duration increases the cost, the times to amortize the purchase of bicycles being reduced: in the case of Azfalte, companies will have to pay 225 euros per month for an electric bicycle, its helmet, its lock and its insurance, compared to around 100 euros for traditional long-term contracts.
They can then pass on part of this price to their employees, generally less than thirty euros.
A way for them to green their balance sheet, while taking advantage of a tax loophole which allows, in addition to passing the rental price as a deductible expense, to obtain an additional reduction in their corporate tax.
For some companies, the Olympics act more as a trigger. This is for example the case of a Parisian press group, which inquired about its rental offers for its reporters, less to offer a solution to employees already partially won over by cycling than to make its contribution to the situation. Games building which want to be more ecological, he told AFP.
And rental companies intend to take advantage of this momentum. “Rentals during the Olympics are an accelerator for our long-term offer“, explains Jean-François Dhinaux of Azfalte, who will offer companies the opportunity to continue their rental after the Games.
No shortage
Thanks to the Olympics, Azfalte expects 1.8 million euros in additional turnover for the next two months.
TIM Mobilités, a competitor of Azfalte and Zenride, “also faces strong demand during this period“, adds its co-founder Jérôme Blanc.
An appetite which is mainly explained by the anxiety of businesses faced with possible transport congestion – the main means of travel for Ile-de-Europe residents – during the Games, and the presence of fluctuating traffic ban zones in the capital, easier to get around by bike.
However, there is no reason to fear a shortage of bicycle stocks, rental companies want to reassure them. The market is in fact rather in a period of overstock: “the whole industry got a little fired up in 2020-2021“, during the first deconfinements linked to the Covid epidemic, estimates Olivier Issaly. “It increased production to be able to respond, but demand has subsided.”
The stock of bicycles produced is therefore just starting to be reduced, with demand remaining growing, at higher levels than before Covid.
Fifteen million visitors are expected during the JOP period in Île-de-Europe, according to the Paris tourist office. Authorities have called on those who can to avoid transport during the period. “Maybe it's time to take out your bike“, estimated Minister Delegate for Transport Patrice Vergriete in mid-April.
