The Loire Family Allowance Fund (France) manages to meet98% of the parking needs of its 300 employees with 60 parking spaces, thanks to Sharvy.

Context of Loire Family Allowance Fund

The Loire Family Allowance Fund (“CAF de la Loire” in French) is a public-law body responsible for managing and paying family allowance benefits. It is part of the national network coordinated by the National Family Allowance Fund in France (CNAF). The CAF offers families in the department assistance in the form of income supplements, equipment assistance, and monitoring and advisory services.

The “CAF de la Loire” headquarters, based in the centre of Saint Etienne (France), has around 300 employees and a 60-space car park. Historically, the Human Resources department had to manually manage a list of parking space allocations. To do this, it based its decisions on geographical criteria, family constraints, health and disability. The more criteria an employee met, the more likely they were to obtain a space. Once a year, the 60 spaces in the car park were all allocated to employees according to their number of points. In the event of absence, it was very common for the holder to notify one of their colleagues so that they could use their parking space. However, this informal system posed three major problems:

• A concern for fairness towards new arrivals who did not yet know their colleagues and therefore could not benefit from this sharing of spaces.
• A handful of employees had access to the car park, while the others had to spend long minutes looking for a space in the surrounding streets, where parking is very limited.
• Finally, designated spaces were left unoccupied every day because their owners were absent.

Frustrations and complaints about parking were therefore frequent, especially since the introduction of two days of remote working per week, which exacerbated these issues. That is why the Human Resources and IT departments took charge of the matter in order to transform the “CAF de la Loire” car park into a shared resource.

Setting up of Sharvy

Once the issue had been identified by Human Resources, the IT department sought a solution that would enable the efficient sharing of parking spaces at “CAF de la Loire”. After a few tests and a presentation, Sharvy, the corporate parking management application, proved to be the one that best met this need.

Firstly, “CAF de la Loire” employees filled out a form assigning them a certain number of points based on geographical criteria, family constraints, etc. The Human Resources department then created two lists: a main list and a secondary list. Employees on the main list were allocated a space that they must free up on days when they are not on site. Those on the secondary list can request spaces on days when they need one in order to take the spot of an absent colleague. These lists are reviewed annually to take into account changes in the circumstances of certain employees.

To ensure greater fairness among employees, the “CAF de la Loire” has selected Sharvy’s fair allocation algorithm. This algorithm allocates available spaces to the requester who has received the fewest spaces in the last two months, rather than giving priority to those who are quickest to make their reservations. As a result, all requesters have the same chance of obtaining a space. To optimise the allocation of parking spaces, Sharvy is connected to the “CAF de la Loire’s” HRIS. This means that reservations are blocked and places are released if an absence is declared in the software.

In addition, to optimise access to the car park, an IoT module has been installed on the automatic barrier opening system and connected to the application. This means that if an employee has an active reservation on the day, they will have an ‘Open’ button in their Sharvy application and will be able to enter the car park. Conversely, if they do not have a reservation, they will not be able to access it. This system prevents errors or abuse by limiting access to the car park to only those who have obtained a space.

Once the configuration was complete, the Human Resources and Communications departments informed “CAF de la Loire” employees of the upcoming changes by sharing a user guide for the application provided by Sharvy. As a result, employees quickly adopted the tool as soon as it was launched at the start of the 2022 academic year in September.

CAF de la Loire favourite features

Benefits noted

The main advantage of Sharvy for the CAF in the Loire region has been the opening up of the car park to all employees who wish to use it. It is now a shared resource, available to everyone. It is no longer a privilege reserved for around sixty people. And this is despite the fact that all employees are still guaranteed a space when they need one. In fact, 98% of parking requests are now met, and situations of saturation are very rare. Sharvy thus promotes the well-being at work of “CAF de la Loire” employees. They no longer have to worry about finding a parking space every morning.

Access to the car park has also been greatly facilitated by the installation of the IoT module. Previously, staff had to get out of their vehicles to swipe their badges at the gate. Now, they no longer need to leave their cars, as everything can be done on their smartphones! Some permit holders had remote controls, which have now been largely eliminated, resulting in financial savings and easier management for the Work Environment team.

The Sharvy solution has proven to be completely satisfactory for managing parking spaces and will soon be deployed to control electric vehicle charging stations. In other words, users will be able to start and stop charging their vehicles from the app. They will also be notified when charging is complete and be able to track their consumption. Administrators will have an overview of the various charges carried out and the real-time status of their stations.

Do you need to optimise your company car park? Do you want to modernise its management and make it fairer?

Follow the lead of “CAF de la Loire” and opt for Sharvy!