CarSharing World

One of the biggest problems with carsharing is the lack of making one-way journeys. It means that needing to go a short distance for the day can cost $50 or more, depending on your carsharing outfit. If this problem can be solved, then you will open the floodgates to new people who want to carshare.

Mathematician and Zipster Tanya Khovanova offers a possible solution to the one-way carsharing problem:

Here’s how it would work. Suppose we have three cars currently assigned to the Mt Auburn/Homer Ave location. I suggest we name three as a desirable number, but actually allow from three to four cars to be assigned to this location at any particular time.

Now suppose I want to pick up a car at the Mt Auburn/Homer Ave location and to return it to the Somerville Ave/Beacon location. If the number of currently assigned cars to Mt Auburn/Homer Ave location is three (at the lower limit), the Zipcar reservation webpage tells me, “Sorry, you can’t use this location unless you return your car back here,” and shows me the closest location with extra cars. The same goes if the number of assigned cars at the Somerville Ave/Beacon location is at its upper limit. If my starting point has more cars assigned to it than its lowest limit and my destination point has fewer cars assigned to it than its upper limit, then I am allowed to take a car from my starting location and return it to my destination. Zipcar can throw in some financial incentives. If my choice disrupts the most desirable balance of car assignments, I have to pay a fee. If my choice restores the balance, I get a bonus discount.

So, essentially she thinks that cars can be moved around town, keeping a minimum and maximum number of cars at each location. When more cars are needed, the cost of a one-way trip to that location decreases, while if the max is already there, one-ways either won’t be allowed or will have a hefty premium.

There are many flaws to this, some of which she admits in a separate post. First and foremost, what happens if someone can’t make the one-way trip, and there are reservations at the new location that anticipate the car being there? What if a reservation is booked far in advance? This can only be done one type of car at a time, as someone who reserves a Prius hatchback and arrives to a Civic sedan would probably be ticked off. These are just some of the questions she addresses, but not satisfactorily in my mind.

A possible solution is to require roundtrips as they do today, but allow others to book a trip inside a roundtrip. This would be most beneficial to those who would use the car to drive to work. An example of this:

Joe works at CSW, inc., a company with 100 employees. He drives his carshare Prius to work everyday, and has to pay about $42/day to get it there and back, plus tax (current Zipcar Philly corporate rates for a part-day rental). He arrives at 9a and leaves at 5p.

Now, it is very uneconomical for him to do this, as it would cost about $12k/year just to go to work. Instead, He could reserve a ‘there and back’ rental, allowing him to pick the car up at his house location, drive, and drop it off at the location at work when he arrives at 9. When he locks the doors when he arrives at the work location, the car will become ‘available’ to the public, from that moment, until he reserved it to go home at 5p.

During this time, any other carshare member could reserve it and do a round-trip rental that would be deducted out of Joe’s rental-time. If Johnny Rocket has to drive to a meeting, he can take the car for two hours. If Chatty Cathy has a business lunch, she can borrow the car for 90 minutes. The secretary just ran out of copier paper, and needs to run to Staples before the boss notices, so she rents the car for 30 minutes.

For the 4 hours the car was used during the day, Joe gets that deducted from his rental time. So instead of renting the Prius for $42, he receives a $29 credit($7.25/hour x 4 hours) and only pays $13.

This wouldn’t work everywhere. The main location for it would be office complexes that already have ‘commuter mass transit’ to the area to get people in and out of the office, but would then need a car during the day. For someone who can’t take the bus or train to the office, this would offer a practical solution.

I thought about letting the person driving to and from the office only pay hourly rates and the carsharing company take the risk, but this way, it encourages the member to refer others in their office to join the carsharing outfit.

What do you think? Tell me your thoughts in our forum. (Guests can post there too; you don’t need to be a CarSharing World member)

Filed under: Carsharing World, Hertz, Nashville