“It was a very moving moment. Nicolas Gorse, CEO of Dott France, and the company’s 200 or so employees in Île-de-France “celebrated” their departure from the premises in Rungis (Val-de-Marne), Tuesday August 29, with a big barbecue. They had taken over the premises in March 2019 to store, repair and redeploy the scooter fleets. After four and a half years of work, seven days a week, the adventure is over for the technicians, electricians and patrollers in charge of changing the batteries.
Like its competitors Tier and Lime, Dott must now reorganize with the end of the operation of its 5,000 scooters in Paris, since Friday, September 1. The company is now focusing on cycling, with 5,000 two-wheelers operated in Paris but also in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis). “We are the only ones present today both in Paris and in the inner suburbs. We launched a fleet of 150 bikes in January in Aubervilliers. Everything is going well, elected officials and customers say they are satisfied,” says Matthieu Faure, marketing manager.
“Without scooters, we walk on one leg”
The end of scooters is a huge shortfall for this young company, co-founded in 2018 in Amsterdam (Netherlands) by the French Henri Moissinac and Maxim Romain. “The income from the scooters helped finance the bikes, which were more expensive and complex to operate. Without scooters, we walk on one leg, and we are not in balance, ”confided the leaders of Dott at the start of the year. Especially since the transfer of Parisian scooter enthusiasts to bicycles should not be 100%.
Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), Thursday August 31. Dott keeps this warehouse and hopes to bounce back during the Paris Games in the summer of 2024. LP / Sébastian Compagnon
As soon as the outcome of the ballot on April 2, where 89% of Parisian voters said stop to scooters, the company thus embarked on the preparation of a plan to safeguard employment. This summer, 51 Dott employees on permanent contracts, out of 200, received a letter, offering professional training or reclassifications in other cities such as Bordeaux (Gironde), Grenoble (Isère) or Brussels (Belgium), where some positions are to provide. They have until mid-September to announce their preferences.
“Many have fairly solid conversion plans. But it’s a difficult time. The employees learned of the will of the mayor of Paris in January, in Le Parisien…”, we regret at Dott. While the leaders expected resignations and a surge in absenteeism, they find that everyone remained in office until the last moment.
“They love their job. They do not understand that some say they have precarious jobs, while they have free health insurance and salaries above the collective agreement. And even less that we say that their activity would be bad for the environment, ”continues a manager.
Lime and Tier are keeping their workforces… for now
The three companies that operated the scooters represented nearly 800 direct jobs in Greater Paris, not counting the subcontractors and the many seasonal fixed-term contracts. On the side of Lime and Tier, no social plan has yet been recorded. Lime has promised to keep all of its 250 employees until the end of the year, in its center in Charenton (Val-de-Marne). Tier relies on the 80 cities in the Ile-de-France region where it operates scooters and bicycles to consolidate its workforce (150 permanent contracts).
Everyone is hoping for a rebound with the 2024 Olympics, which could perhaps open up new contracts in the inner suburbs. “Except that to date, nothing has been signed… The operators want to be guaranteed to be able to stay after the Olympics”, confides an actor who sits on the “mobility committees” of the Olympics, coordinated by Clément Beaune, the Minister for Transport. “But time is running out. We need clear commitments this fall to be able to prepare. »
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