Yulon Motor enjoys giving back to the land that nurtures us, discovering difficult issues in society and providing resilient solutions, especially when Taiwan is facing a developing trend of an aging society and insufficient transportation resources in remote areas. Therefore, we address these issues and provide the best solutions to the elderly and to the transportation at remote areas with our strength of owning a comprehensive horizontal automobile value chain. The theme projects such as the“ Happy Wheel,”“ 9453 Friendly Travel,”“ New Taipei City Long-term Care Fleet” have linked Yulon Motor’s core value of“ People, Vehicle, Life” to public welfare.
Happy Wheels
Oriented on its main business in 2019, Yulon Motor integrated the Group’s resources and launched the“ Happy Wheel- South Link Free Transportation” project at remote areas near the South-Link line, which have long-term needs for transportation. The Happy Wheel project is composed of three subprojects, including to design a“ transportation service” model matching the local demands, to incorporate the concept of mobility value sharing to enhance the impact, and to devise a smart-technology aided dispatch system in addition to car donation. We help the Association of South Link Care Promotion for Taitung County (the South Link Association) to manage car reservations and dispatch cars flexibly and provide the data to the host unit of the plan for analysis, tracking and service optimization, thereby exerting local power. The complete transportation service also empowers the local indigenous drivers who know the local traffic and language the best. In doing so, we offer these drivers subsidies and work opportunities and create a supply–demand framework of long-term service. Yulon Motor accompanies the local community, gives birth to the local vision of sustainability and develop the regional revitalization program with our partners in public welfare to maintain the positive impact in these areas. The Happy Wheel project is a private green lane, which, in addition to having a smart dispatch system, allows the South Link Associate to assist the general public in hospital registration so as to increase the efficiency of doctor appointments and attain a new patient-oriented model of smart medical resources sharing at remote areas.
Framework of the“ Happy Wheel” project
Happy Wheel – an innovative model for public welfare
Rental subscription + exclusive housekeeping service that effectively lower the transportation costs in remote areas
The public welfare project provides the industry the experience in testing the operation of the Pilot Plan, in which the operational status analysis and on-site inspection are conducted in advance, and the mobility resources are subsequently input to the operation in remote areas near the South Link Line. In this way, the effective connection is beneficial to the policy communication environment and relationship network and creates a magnetic effect. Compared to the issues of a conventional charity model, including burden from vehicle assets, repair costs, single designated use of donated assets and difficulty in performance evaluation, the“ transportation service” of the Happy Wheel replaces large road transportation vehicles with the passenger cars. We thus create a high-mobility transportation network using these flexible transportation vehicles combined with an electronic tracking system. Recognized by the Global Views Monthly CSR and ESG Corporate Social Responsibility Awards and named a role model in the“ Outstanding Program- Social Innovation Group,” the Happy Wheel project has broken the conventional framework of car donation by a corporate and firmly connect with Yulon’s main business and vision.
Social Return on Investment of Happy Wheel
Yulon Motor also hopes to bring long-term help to local community. After projects such as the Happy Wheel and the South Link Association has gained the experience in fleet and dispatch management, and we see the new opportunities of transformation under the Ministry of Transportation and Communication’s policy to legalize the pak pais operation in remote areas. In 2022, under the guidance of the local government and the Highway Bureau, the South Link Association successfully received the business permit as a downtown bus carrier and joined the TTGo transportation reservation service platform of the Taitung County Government. It has activated two public transportation service lines offering more convenient transportation service to tribal residents for shopping, doctor visits, education and transition in downtown. Because of the shortage of convenient transportation for both people and freight in remote areas, the high transportation cost and long transportation time have always been the pains at remote areas. If we cannot effectively integrate and share the limited transportation capacity, the transportation cost must remain high forever. Yulon Motor saw the local demand during the process of these projects and picked up the role as a matchmaker to connect the South Link Association with the“ 1919 Food Bank” and bring about their partnership, in which the South Link Association acts as a satellite site for coordination. The“ Bus Carrier Carrying Freight” allows the more efficient, diverse and flexible use of transportation capacity in remote and tribal areas, and it will hopefully extend the lifespan of food and supply to groups in need in a timely manner while solving the issue of expensive logistics and making goods move smoothly. In 2022, we started to build a food collection network along the South Link Line in Taitung, gather the existing six vehicles of the Happy Wheel project and have them deliver the food to tribal residents in need so as to extend and increase the added value of the“ Happy Wheel.”
In 2021, we made use of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) tool to gain an understanding about the change and impact of stakeholders, so we used such an approach to evaluate the social impact of this project in number and in monetary unit. The resultant SROI was 10.68, that is, it created the social value equivalent to NT$10.68 for every NT$1 investment.
Regional revitalization
Yulon Motor also hopes to bring long-term help to local community. After projects such as the Happy Wheel and the South Link Association has gained the experience in fleet and dispatch management, and we see the new opportunities of transformation under the Ministry of Transportation and Communication’s policy to legalize the pak pais operation in remote areas. In 2022, under the guidance of the local government and the Highway Bureau, the South Link Association successfully received the business permit as a downtown bus carrier and joined the TTGo transportation reservation service platform of the Taitung County Government. It has activated two public transportation service lines offering more convenient transportation service to tribal residents for shopping, doctor visits, education and transition in downtown.
Because of the shortage of convenient transportation for both people and freight in remote areas, the high transportation cost and long transportation time have always been the pains at remote areas. If we cannot effectively integrate and share the limited transportation capacity, the transportation cost must remain high forever. Yulon Motor saw the local demand during the process of these projects and picked up the role as a matchmaker to connect the South Link Association with the“ 1919 Food Bank” and bring about their partnership, in which the South Link Association acts as a satellite site for coordination. The“ Bus Carrier Carrying Freight” allows the more efficient, diverse and flexible use of transportation capacity in remote and tribal areas, and it will hopefully extend the lifespan of food and supply to groups in need in a timely manner while solving the issue of expensive logistics and making goods move smoothly. In 2022, we started to build a food collection network along the South Link Line in Taitung, gather the existing six vehicles of the Happy Wheel project and have them deliver the food to tribal residents in need so as to extend and increase the added value of the“ Happy Wheel.”
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The Happy Wheel
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The Happy Wheel
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Global Views Monthly CSR and ESG Corporate Social Responsibility Awards – “Outstanding program – Social Innovation Group”
Business model
Feedback from participants in the Happy Wheel project
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A medical vehicle driver:
“I think the biggest difference is the change of attitude. I used to be reckless in society and could easily race and fight with others. But when I return to the tribe, I cannot be reckless and shall be emotionally controlled when serving the elderly. I have better temper in comparison to the past! This is the most significant change. ”
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A user of the medical vehicle ser vice:
“Improving medical care to gain opportunities. Because of the free transportation service of the South Link Free Transportation Project taking me to see the doctor, my physical condition has improved. Otherwise, I can hardly walk with my bad knees, and I was so scared of falling.”
9453 Friendly Travel – Accessible Light Travel
Yulon Motor has paid attention to the demand for transportation of all ages. As Taiwan is becoming a super aged society, the demand for accessible transportation increases. Therefore, we work with OurCityLove Social Enterprise to promote the“ 9453 Friendly Travel” campaign to facilitate the innovative service of accessible transportation and help people on the demand side obtain a more convenient and friendly transportation support. We collaborate with both OurCityLove Social Enterprise and the government to recruit people with disability into the empowerment training course, make these participants the accessibility-friendly correspondents, ask them to suggest and search for friendly stores and come out with more than 50 accessible itineraries. We also provide the accessible welfare vehicles used in the free transportation service, set up the Taiwan accessibility services platform and publish the“ 9453 Taiwan Friendly Traveler Magazine,” which introduces a variety of travel information. Until now, we have invited over 20 disadvantaged families and groups with disability to participate in the campaign and motivated the elderly care institutions to join the accessible travel. Since 2017, we have hosted 21 sessions in total, and we expect the cumulative number of participants to exceed 800 in 2023. Yulon Group has spent over NT$4.84 million on this campaign.
Innovative accessible transportation service
Feedback from the participants:
A participant in the design of Luxgen V7: “Thanks to accessibility of the car, my mother’s wheelchair can get on the car safely, and she can now travel together (participate in the elderly travel event)”
Goal and model of the 9453 Friendly Travel cooperation
Historical events
In addition to integrating relevant corporate resources of Yulon Motor, we also collaborated with partners from various fields to create the socially innovative accessible transportation service project and assisted in the facilitation of an accessible friendly city. In 2022, through the collaboration project with the Chiayi City Government,“ 9453 Friendly Travel,” we helped Chiayi City become the first“ Elderly Friendly Model City” in Taiwan and promoted the“ Accessible Light Travel.” This project not only offered 30“ Love Millage” trips but also trained 21 friendly correspondents who have visited 126 friendly stores and 42 accessible attractions in total to build the first“ Chiayi City Friendly Living Information Network” in Taiwan covering information regarding accessible transportation, food, accommodation and attractions and enabling accessible travel in the city for people with disability, the elderly and families using a stroller. In the 9453 Chiayi Friendly Travel cooperation, we also take our elder family members to travel by the“ One Car, One Family” method to experience an accessible light trip in Chiayi City. In the future, Yulon Motor will boost and expand this innovative accessible transportation service to extend its corporate social impact.
Long-term care fleet in Taipei City and New Taipei City
As the society in Taiwan is aging, the transportation needs of the elderly for medical treatment and rehabilitation is increasing. We have worked with Taiwan Be The Light Association (formerly known as Taiwan Taxi Academy Association) to launch the long-term care ride hailing service since 2020, and joined the Departments of Health of Taipei City Government and New Taipei City Government to carry out a long-term care plan. We offered the used car rental service in the form of subscription to ease the financial burden born by the Association and helped it build a long-term care fleet. By replacing the asset-heavy model with the asset-light model, we have built a long-term fleet with sufficient capacity. Until now, there are already 15 accessible vehicles serving the transportation of people with level 4 of disability and the transportation from and to day care centers. Since 2019, we have served a total of 40,550 persons and travelled a total of 184,489 kilometers.
Meanwhile, during the period of severe COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the Department of Health of New Taipei City faced a serious shortage in the number ambulances for transporting confirmed cases, so Yulon connected private resources with the existing long-care fleet and rapidly formed a safe ride home fleet during the pandemic. We also help to design the vehicle disinfection station and the transfer station to safeguard the health and safety of frontline drivers. During the Be The Light Fight Against the Pandemic Project, which lasted 82 days in total from 5/22 to 8/11, we gathered 80 drivers for the pandemic prevention transportation and served a total of 4,361 persons.
