Every day, millions of people from the Paris region use public transport to get to work in sometimes exhausting conditions... stress, pollution, your scalp is attacked... uh no, that's not it, let's start again... Crowded transport during rush hour adds additional stress and very precarious comfort to days that are often already very busy.
Based on this observation, Grégoire Bonnat and Ziad Khoury, engineers who graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique (well, yeah, really...), launched the Padam project in 2014, a shared minibus service.
Grégoire Bonnat, CEO and founder of Padam, explains the concept of his company:
Except for a few privileged people who can walk to work, daily commuting is often a source of stress and discomfort for Parisians, particularly due to the saturation of roads and transport lines. Thanks to Padam Daily, users will benefit from a seat every morning, in complete comfort and without constraints!
The concept is simple. Thanks to the mobile application Padam Daily, users can book a seat on a minibus in Île-de-France in just a few seconds by specifying their departure point and destination, at the last minute or in advance.
You can then follow the information concerning your journey at any time on the application: location of the vehicle, duration of the journey, etc. And payment is made directly in the app, no need for cash!
A professional driver will then pick you up in a 7 to 8 seater minibus and drop you off at your destination, optimizing the route in real time to avoid detours as much as possible and drop you off as quickly as possible.
At present, the concept is still only reserved for residents of the western suburbs and does not cover the entire capital (the area extends from Nanterre to Châtelet and from Clichy to Issy-les-Moulineaux). In terms of timetables, the concept is based on peak hours and is therefore available in the morning from 7:30 to 9:30 and in the evening from 17:30 to 20:30. We can imagine that if the Parisian start-up wins its bet, the service will quickly expand both in terms of geographical coverage and timetables.
In short, beyond the practical aspect, Padam Daily is also a good way to humanize public transport and facilitate encounters in a world where individualism tends to be reinforced.
If you have tested Padam, do not hesitate to tell us about it below in the comments!
