Autocars Calella, official mobility partner of the Catalan Hockey Federation

Autocars Calella has signed a partnership agreement with the Catalan Hockey Federation under which the mobility company has become the official partner of this sports federation, offering its coach service to all the hockey clubs in Catalonia throughout the season.

At the signing ceremony, which took place recently in Sant Cugat del Vallés with the Chairman of the Catalan Hockey Federation, Xavier Adell Salvatella, and the Managing Director of Moventis, Miquel Martí Pierre, the two executives highlighted their commitment and drive to encouraging the practice of sport in these exceptional times.

The agreement reaffirms the position achieved by the Moventis Group as a benchmark in group mobility given its proven reliability in meeting all safety, hygiene and control protocols. This federation now joins all the other sports entities that also trust in the services provided by mobility companies of this group, which include Girona FC, CE Sabadell FC, the Catalan Swimming Federation, Junior FC and the handball teams of OAR Gracia, Balonmano Santo Quirze, Balonmano Bordils and San Martín Adrianenc, among many others.

According to Xavier Adell Salvatella, Chairman of the Catalan Hockey Federation, “we are very happy to partner with Autocares Calella and offer its transport services to our member clubs, safe in the knowledge that their athletes will travel in complete safety”. To this, the Manager of Autocares Calella, Miquel Martí Pierre, added that “we would like to express our gratitude for the trust placed in us by such an important sports entity as the Catalan Hockey Federation. The commitment by the companies in the Moventis Group to meeting safety, hygiene and control protocols is an absolute priority, and the agreements we have so far reached with sports entities and organisations in other sectors drive us to continue working every day to maintain our position as the benchmark mobility company in the public transport sector”.

Moventis SARFA receives recognition for its social responsibility actions during the pandemic

Begur Town Council and El Baix Empordà Regional Council have officially recognised Moventis SARFA for its social responsibility initiatives during the pandemic. The actions most deserving of this high praise are: its promotion of quality employment in the region, its collaboration with local employment services, its launch of initiatives aimed at employment inclusion for people with functional diversity and its donation to Palamós Hospital.

Enric Gimeno, General Manager of Moventis SARFA, collected the award in recognition of the various social responsibility actions undertaken by the company during the pandemic.

The Mayor of Begur, Maite Selva, presented the award to Moventis SARFA and highlighted the importance of such companies that are based on hard work, innovation and commitment in tough times for society like the COVID-19 pandemic. “Commitment shown by companies like Moventis SARFA, which continue to bring added value to all during such tough and uncertain times and have contributed more than ever to consolidating a social, collaborative, sustainable and responsible economy in our region.”

The Palafrugell Municipal Theatre was chosen as the venue to host the award ceremony organised by the El Baix Empordà Regional Council and the El Baix Empordà Regional Network of Economic Promotion Officers, with support from several local council authorities throughout the region, including Begur Town Council. The event sought to highlight those companies in the region that have shown themselves to be socially responsible during the COVID-19 pandemic through initiatives leading to a positive impact for the general public. 

The awards, which were presented to 17 businesses in the region, were proposed by a technical committee made up by the regional council and various local council authorities in El Baix Empordà.
 

The role of Moventis SARFA during the pandemic

Moventis SARFA is an iconic company in El Empordà, a leader in the transport sector and boasts a history spanning almost 100 years. The organisation has been recognised for its regular collaboration with local employment services through participation in training and accompaniment programmes for the re-employment of the unemployed, the inclusion of people with functional diversity in its workforce and the economic contribution made to Palamós Hospital.
 

Social responsibility as a cross-cutting issue

Social responsibility at Moventis is something that forms a major part of its day-to-day business. According to Enric Gimeno, “we are fully aware of our opportunity to build a more equal society and generate well-being for people. It can therefore be said that the concept of solidarity is another of the underlying pillars that support Moventis, an inherent characteristic of our nature”.

According to its CSR Policy, Moventia is committed to returning to society that which society gives to Moventia, understanding solidarity as a voluntary expression by the company in its contribution towards building a better society, its commitment to continually strive to improve and go beyond simply complying with legal obligations and to continue investing in human resources, the environment and stakeholder relations.

Based on this approach to solidarity, Moventis is highly dedicated to commitment and social responsibility in its environment, working with its partners to build a better society.

Moventia in the special sectoral column of Carril Bus

The Carril Bus magazine recently published a special sectoral article on the main transport operators in Spain. The article includes opinions from benchmark executives at each of the companies about the crisis stemming from the global pandemic and their outlooks for the coming months and years in the public mobility sector. The article also includes insights and perspectives from Josep María Martí, CEO of Moventia, on future trends and his conclusions from the last 12 months.

The article can be read in full here

 

8 March: International Women’s Day

At Moventia, our goal remains to foster equality and parity between men and women within the mobility sector. Ever since plans for equality between men and women were launched in 2007, and following our adherence and commitment to the manifesto promoted by the European Transport Commission to encourage the hiring of women, our company has ceaselessly pushed towards building a sector with more equal treatment and jobs between men and women. At present, all our companies have sexual harassment prevention mechanisms in place and are governed by equal access to employment, professional classification, training and promotion, as well as equal pay and work-life balance for everyone who works at Moventia.

Movento increases the offer from Motospazio with the Hamamatsu dealership

Movento is boosting the presence of Motospazio in central Barcelona, its dealership for motorcycle brands from the Piaggio group. The doors of Motospazio Hamamatsu opened to the public in December. These premises bring together the Piaggio, Vespa, Derbi, Gilera, Moto Guzzi and Aprilia dealerships into one place, as well as the corresponding official garage, which also operates under a multi-brand model. The space can be found at 337 Calle Mallorca, next to Paseo de San Juan.

By adding these premises to the dealership on Calle Calvet, Motospazio has doubled its presence in Barcelona with spaces in strategically central locations offering benchmark services to two-wheeled vehicle users. The Motospazio experience is now more than just a motorcycle sales business, including a showroom area and a repair garage to focus on in-depth services from specialised advisers.

According to Santi Colomer, Managing Director of Movento Diversification, “these new premises once again demonstrate the commitment from Movento to motorcycle distribution and repair that began six years ago with Motospazio and has been recently boosted with new leading brands”. Jorge Carrillo, Head of the Motorcycle Division, also expressed satisfaction with this growth within the Motospazio structure. By opening these premises, Movento is continuing to strengthen its presence in the world of two-wheeled transportation and consolidating its presence in the Catalan capital.

Presentation of the new gas station and depot for the TIB fleet in Calvià

The compressed natural gas refuelling station will also open to the public soon for the refuelling of private vehicles.

The Mobility and Housing Councillor, Marc Pons, was accompanied by the Mayor of Calvià, Alfonso Rodríguez, the Director-General for Mobility and Road Transport, Jaume Mateu, and the Managing Director of the Mallorca Transport Consortium, Maarten Johannes Van Bemmelen, on a visit to the new depot-gas refuelling station for the TIB bus fleet in Calvià this morning. The Chairman of Moventia, Miquel Martí, and other representatives from the company managing the new intercity public transport concession for the western region since the start of the year also took part in the visit.

The councillor stressed that “this is one of the six gas refuelling stations we have promoted via the new TIB network on the island of Mallorca, and the first to be opened to all members of the public and businesses in general”. Marc Pons wished to highlight the qualitative leap forward made by implementing the new TIB: “Five years of work are producing good results, a very competitive offer and improved public transport to position Mallorca at the cutting edge of a new intercity mobility model”, he said.

Located in the Son Bugadelles industrial estate, the depot includes a parking area for 42 buses, a bus wash area, an office and a rapid compressed natural gas refuelling station with two refuelling lanes fitted with NGV1 and NGV2 pumps. The gas refuelling station supplies compressed natural gas (CNG) to the TIB bus fleet owned by Moventis. It will soon open to the public for the CNG refuelling of both private cars and trucks, coaches and vans.

Miquel Martí, Chairman of Moventia, expressed gratitude for the support provided by the public authorities in the Balearic Islands and especially Calvià Local Council, which did everything it could to help open the premises and launch the service in record time. “This is the second gas refuelling station opened by Moventia: the first in France and now in Mallorca, which is the first within Spain. It is a clear commitment to public transport, sustainability and decarbonisation”, he said. He went on to add that, “despite the complicated times being caused by the health situation, the Moventis Illes team made it possible to launch this service from 1 January through tenacity and a huge effort, and we are very pleased with the demand we saw in January”.

The Mayor of Calvià, Alfonso Rodríguez Badal, underlined the improvement made to such an important municipal service as public transport, as well as to the compressed natural gas fuel system in terms of the environmental impact and noise. He also stressed that, due to their location in the heart of the municipality, these installations will enable greater efficiency in the service and will also be an advantage in the future for the refuelling of another public service – taxis.

Redexis was responsible for building both the gas refuelling station and the gas supply installations leading to the premises. The energy company built five distribution gas lines to supply gas to a total of six gas refuelling stations located at the headquarters of various concessionaires for the TIB service in Mallorca, making a fleet of 198 compressed natural gas buses possible and thereby promoting more sustainable and economic mobility. Miguel Mayrata, Head of Business Diversification for Redexis said that “Redexis welcomes the opening of this gas refuelling station, which represents the ongoing promotion of the necessary energy infrastructure for both the Moventis fleet and the professionals and citizens of Mallorca to have access to more economical, sustainable and environmentally friendly mobility solutions”.

Besides the depot presented earlier today, Moventis also has another two depots located in the Son Castelló industrial estate. The depots owned by the concessionaire in the western region are home to a total of 55 vehicles, including 12-metre buses, articulated buses, intercity buses, microbuses, etc. so all road and service types can be covered. 50 of these vehicles run on CNG and the remaining five are hybrid electric. It is an entirely new fleet, with which the group wishes to anticipate new mobility habits and therefore base its offer on innovative and sustainable technologies from an environmental and social standpoint.

TCC Pamplona staff recognised at SER Navarra Awards

The staff of TCC Pamplona received one of the awards presented at the SER Navarra Awards ceremony held yesterday at the Baluarte Palace Auditorium

This fifth edition of the event was focused on the fight against COVID and, among a total of 10 different categories, the panel wished to highlight workers in those sectors considered as essential during the early weeks of the pandemic, such as food stores, cleaning and urban transport. The staff of TCC Pamplona received the Navarre Prize of Honour.

The driver, Maite Beorlegui, collected this emotive prize on behalf of all staff and expressed gratitude for the award while dedicating it to all TCC staff members.

“This prize represents recognition by the office staff – those who organise the services every day – of those people who clean the buses and those of us who go out and drive them every day. We all made a huge effort to provide a public service during the toughest times of the pandemic when people needed transport”, said Maite Beorlegui.

The driver was accompanied by the General Manager of TCC, Ramón Palau, and the Director of Transport at the MCP, Jesús Velasco.

Our congratulations to all staff members.

Moventis takes part in an event to present on-demand transport service in Calonge

The Chamber of Commerce of Palamós and Calonge i Sant Antoni Local Council organised an information day entitled “On-demand transport: the Shotl service, your bus closer to you and only a click away” at Calonge Castle this morning. The goal was to raise the profile of this kind of flexible transport services in which the vehicles adapt their route in real time to meet demand. This is a service offered by Moventis that has already been successfully implemented in other municipalities around Catalonia, such as Sant Cugat.

The event discussed the need for this Shotl service in municipalities such as Calonge and Sant Antoni, as well as other towns on the Costa Brava with numerous geographically disperse urbanisations and areas with no conventional public transport services, in order to facilitate mobility for their residents.

The event was attended by Pol Fages, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Palamós; Miquel Martí Pierre, Managing Director of Moventis; Roger Cumeras from Shotl; Pere Aguilar, Head of the Public Transport Department of Sant Cugat del Vallès Local Council, the first municipality where Shotl was launched; David Saldoni, the Director-General of Transport and Mobility of the Regional Government of Catalonia; and Albert Ros, Mobility Councillor for Calonge i Sant Antoni.

The main advantage of the Shotl service lies in that it enables public transport to reach areas with very little demand at present while also representing an economic saving and generating less pollution given that the bus only operates when there is a demand for the service. This avoids bus journeys with no passengers, reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The advantages also include the ease with which users can request a pick-up by the bus – using an app or the telephone – and reduced waiting times.

The second part of the event consisted of a Shotl demonstration on the streets of Calonge and Sant Antoni: how a pick-up is requested, how the service is confirmed, how the driver is told about the shortest route and how the user can see on the app where the bus currently is and their current waiting time.

Visit by the Director-General for Transport and Mobility of the Regional Government of Catalonia

The offices of Moventia HQ were visited this morning by a delegation from the Department of Regional Affairs and Sustainability of the Regional Government of Catalonia. The Director-General for Transport and Mobility, David Saldoni, was accompanied by the Deputy Director-General for Transport Planning and Sectoral Development, Josep Maria Fortuny, and the Deputy Director-General for Public Transport, Benjamín Cubillo.

The visitors received a tour of the new Moventia offices and its control centre, and were shown the new work culture implemented by Moventia since the end of last year when it relocated to the new corporate HQ in Sant Cugat.

The visit was initially planned for March this year but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 health crisis and could not be rearranged until July. On behalf of Moventia, the visitors were welcomed by: Josep Maria Martí, Executive Vice-President of Moventis and CEO of Moventia; Sílvia Martí, Corporate Vice-President of Moventia; Miquel Martí Pierre, Managing Director of the Discretionary Transport Division; Joan Giménez, Managing Director of the Regular Transport Division; and Jordi Castells, Operations Director of Moventis.

Comprehensive answers were provided during the visit to all the questions and concerns expressed by both the regional government representatives and Moventia regarding the current situation in the transport and mobility sector.

A lo largo de la visita, se ha podido dar respuesta exhaustiva a todas las consultas e inquietudes mostradas tanto por parte de los representantes de la Generalitat como por parte de Moventia en relación a la situación actual del sector del transporte y la movilidad

Bla Bla Bus renews contract with Sarfa

Following several months of negotiation, Sarfa has signed a partnership agreement with the company BlaBlabus – the operator of several intercity lines in France – to operate the routes starting or finishing in the city of Barcelona. The specific lines subject to this agreement are:

 

Marseille – Montpellier – Barcelona

Marseille – Nîmes – Montpellier – Perpignan – Barcelona

Bordeaux – Toulouse – Perpignan – Barcelona

Lyon – Montpellier – Perpignan – Barcelona

Paris – Lyon – Barcelona

Barcelona – Perpignan – Carcassonne – Toulouse – Paris

 

The agreement will last four years, during which time Sarfa must provide the service according to the image and quality standards and measures defined by BlaBlaBus. The buses are fully identified with the service image and the drivers are especially chosen for their quality and skill, as well as because they can speak to passengers in French, Spanish and Catalan.

 

This agreement consolidates Sarfa’s presence in France, with services it has been providing non-stop since 2014.