This idea is inspired by the traffic
problems in the Netherlands.
In my country the traffic jams are for
a large part caused by commuters in
the morning and evening. While you
can live well without a car in most
parts of the country (supermarkets
are near, kids go to school by bike)
it
is increasingly difficult to live
comfortably and go to work without
a
car.
In suburbia you can survive without
a
car as a homeworker, but most
people work more than 5 kilometers
away (the distance people can travel
by bike, foot or a few public
transport
stops). People live some 20 or 30
minutes away from work by car for
example. Public transport is usually
not an alternative because it nearly
always goes somewhere you don't
want to go (unlike the metro in Paris
for example, that is where the
concept works).
The population is not concentrated
in
one big city, but sprawled in a
highly
populated area with about 5 big
cities
in them and a lot of suburbia in
between.
Let the offices move around the
country in circles instead of office
workers commuting to their fixed
offices.
Working at home works only for a
small number of tasks and the
people
who have functions that consist only
of such tasks and have the
personality to enjoy it already work
at
home (writers, programmers,
whatever). Employers also prefer to
have the employees come together
at
work for various reasons. Most
employees also like to seperate
work
from home physically.
When offices move around the
country instead of employees,
clients
and suppliers going to the offices, a
lot of car movement can be avoided
with careful planning.
The employees walk or bike to a
convenient location where the office
can pass by on rails or on the
highway. When they enter the office
they can start working, while the
coworkers are picked up at their
homes. Depending on the direction
the office moves in you start to work
early or late. When your office
doesn't
stop by, you can also rent an office
in
another company for a while until
you find a good connection with
your
office. Perhaps make some good
contacts along the way if you think
the company can be interesting for
your company. Or you can arrange
the office of a client to pick you up
in
the morning.
The offices drive according to a
carefully planned and published
schedule, which determines many of
the appointments people make. If
you
need to see a client, you make the
appointment when your office parks
for a while at the same parking or
station as the office you want to
visit.
Your moving office can also visit
non-
moving offices, either of the
company
you work for or other companies.
The
area where all the offices move is
not
that big, you can make a circle in
the
country like two or three times a
day.
If the other offices also move you
can
easily meet each other.
Delays are less critical than before.
Now you can miss a train transfer in
just a few minutes and you waste a
lot of time waiting. The moving
offices arrive early for a transfer and
are parked next to the other offices
for a while until all the transfers are
done.
For lunch the office stops at a
restaurant where you can eat and
meet people from other offices (your
company or others). Perhaps you
run
into someone you know or would
like
to know. In the offices there is no
cafetaria, it is outsourced to
restaurants on physical (nice)
locations.
The office cleaning and maintenance
at the end of the day can be done in
places where cheap labour lives
(there
is more employment in the north of
the country).
Some departments in organisations
are perfectly fit for this kind of
office
(sales, marketing) others not at all
(manufacturing, laboratories).
There are many ecological
advantages:
1. No (ugly) offices along the
highways that just sit there eating
up
space outside office hours. The
offices are driving on the highways
that are already there using the
overcapacity of roads outside of the
rush hours. The offices will avoid
traffic jams with the use of careful
planning by the driver. The office
has
the time to make detours or drive
slow when needed. An individual
driver does not want to lose time.
2. Instead of a few dozen cars going
to the office on a central location
the
office picks up a few dozen
employees decentrally. They don't
need a car and don't waste road and
parking space.
3. Instead of cars from suppliers,
couriers, maintenance people
driving
to the office, the office can be driven
there the supplies can be picked up.
Cleaning and maintenance can be
done outside office hours or the
office goes into repair and is
temporarily replaced by another
office.
4. The energy for the office can be
derived from hydrogen. See link.
Hydrogen can power both the
engine
as the electricity on board and is
perfectly clean. The hydrogen is
derived from wind or solarelectricity
to electrolyse it. Now they cannot
store a surplus of electricity, with
hydrogen they can. This hydrogen
be
made anywere in the country where
the conditions are the best, the
office
will drive there to pick up the
hydrogen. The office can continue to
make electricity from hydrogen
outside office hours and sell it back
to the energy grid (where such a
facility is made, the office can be
parked there).
5. When a few dozen of these
hydrogen powered offices drive
around in the country, the hydrogen
powerstation become economically
viable and consumers can switch to
hydrogen powered cars more easily.
Businesswise it also makes sense:
1. The office driving around is
advertising. It is very accessible for
(potential) clients when it is parked
somewhere where other offices also
gather. Or you they call you to come
over some time when in around. In a
fixed office park/building you get to
know your direct neighbours pretty
quickly, now you can meet new ones
all the time.
2. The market is easier to expand to
areas where you don't have an
office.
You only have to drive your office
there once a week to establish
contacts. Dutch companies can
expand into Germany more easily
for
example, the clients can arrange a
meeting on a parking near the
Autobahn.
3. It is easier to find or fire
employees. A major obstacle for a
flexible economy in Europe is the
inflexibility of the workforce
compared to the US of A. People do
not want to move to find a job
elsewhere and companies do not
bother to seek employes to far
away.
When you have a highly specialised
job you hold on to mostly because it
is close from your home, you can
then change it for that job for
another
employer from another region that
wants to drive by to pick you up.
4. The officespace can be expanded
and shrinked whenever it is needed.
There are no investments in
buildings
that cost a lot. Internal
reorganisations are done by
planning
not by moving around stuff. You
plan
certain employees together in one
office or let offices that should work
closer together more often park
near
each other.
Now, how does this translate to
other
countries?