CARSHARING                                                Printer-friendly version

Introduction

What Is It?

• Carsharing is a system where a fleet of cars (or other vehicles) is jointly-owned by the users in distinction from car rental or cars in private ownership.  
• Members of a carsharing organization access the vehicles from shared-use lots (e.g., transit station, neighborhoods, and employment centers).
• Fees typically cover maintenance, insurance, registration, fueling, and time use.
• Urban carsharing with linkages to transit is the predominant shared-use vehicle model. However, several new models are being tested (e.g., employer-based carsharing, such as CarLink; resorts; gated communities; etc.).
• Existing carsharing organizations typically provide a choice of vehicle type, rate, and convenience suited to participant needs.

Benefits

Key results include:

• More careful consideration of the necessity of car trips, duration and distance of travel, and modal alternatives and as a result decreased auto use and ownership
• Cost savings to individuals and employers
• Energy and emissions savings
• Improved public transit, when paired with other cost-saving systems like congestion pricing
• Increased transit ridership
• Decreased parking demand
• Increased cooperation between industry and government

Costs

Making carsharing companies work - and work financially - has required a different type of business strategy.  Many companies withhold information like the total number of vehicles and total number of members.  This makes an overall analysis challenging.   However, below is a brief breakdown of general costs for the carsharing organization.  (in 2006 dollars)

• Vehicle lease: $300 to 500/month; almost all car share companies lease and there are no insider deals with car manufacturers.
  
• Insurance ($300K to $1 mill. single limit): $150 to $250/month per vehicle.
  
• Car access and tracking computer:  $1200 to $1500 depending on features, GPS plus $30/month for wireless charges (to download reservations, report hours and miles of usage and occasional GPS location query).
  
• Staffing: about four to eight on staff per city; includes general manager, one or two salespeople (residential and business), customer service rep, fleet manager and part time “event marketing” people for member recruitment. Vehicle cleaning is outsourced.
  
• Billing and membership screening: handled via the Web site at the corporate level.
  
• Call center: handled nationally; refers problems to local on-call staff member if immediate help is needed; breakdowns handled by contract Tow Company.

Information courtesy of Dave Brook, Car-sharing consultant www.carsharing.us , excerpted from :  http://www.innovativemobility.org/news/ARN1106carshare.pdf

Where is it implemented?

Updated and partially excerpted from www.carsharing.net

References

European car sharing
http://www.carsharing.org/

World carshare consortium
http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/cs_index.htm

National station car association
http://www.stationcarinfo.com/

San Francisco car sharing
http://www.citycarshare.org/

Flexcar
http://www.flexcar.com/

Cooperative auto network- Vancouver
http://www.cooperativeauto.net/

Autoshare - Toronto
http://www.cooperativeauto.net/

Car sharing library
http://www.carsharing.net/library/

Author: Susan Shaheen, Marika Benko