Zipcar: entering my world

On wet and windy Tuesday mornings, my focus is not always 100% as I wander from bus to tube. But this morning, I was roused from my torpor by the sight of people with ZIPCAR on their jackets in bright green writing. It's always nice when something you write about becomes a reality in your world....and this morning brought back memories of having covered Zipcar and Flexcar in articles on the Global Ideas Bank 7 or 8 years ago. In fact, it seems amazing that it has taken it this long to really hit the UK in any concerted way, but is now a genuinely viable option for Londoners to take advantage of (as well as those of you reading in Boston and Chicago).

Basically you pay an annual fee, and then get charged on an hourly or daily rate on top. Including insurance and everything though, it is cheaper than hiring a car a couple of times a year....though I wonder if there is a scrum around particular time of the year (Christmas). Particularly for the Minis or BMWs ;0)

Also interesting to see how they've split it definitively for personal and business use, the latter being a distinct option for (smaller) companies wishing to retain flexibility but also tick green boxes and not have to adminsiter a company car fleet. Will be interesting to see if it can take off here....

Comments

[Jonathan]

A point of information! Londoners have had Streetcar for the past 2 years. Streetcar is the fastest growing car club in the world with over 11,000 members in London. We currently have just under 300 VW Golfs all over the capital and are forecast to have over 750 by the end of this year. The London market is perfectly suited to car clubs as there can be very few cities with greater congestion and pollution issues. This is what has contributed to the growth we have seen so far and we are certainly not unhappy to welcome Zipcar to the UK market to help establish further this young concept in the UK.

[Nick Temple]

Thanks Jonathan: I wasn't trying to promote them over anyone else. I wasn't familiar with StreetCar but looks equally good....as you say, for me as a consumer / non car-owner, the more the merrier in the marketplace.

Cheers

[have made the link active]

[Eric Masaba]

The shared car club is a good idea - it beats owning a personal car (and paying for the personal car whether you use it or not).

A complimentary idea is that of a Holistic Logistics and Transportation Cloud - www.texxi.info

In a sentence, use SMS to text where you want to go to and we can find you a ride in a shared taxi with others with compatible itineraires. This makes the trip cheaper for each customer, reduces the number of vehicles per unit km (hence reducing congestion, fuel use and CO2 emissions), makes the driver more money and of course makes money for the franchisee running the Texxi scheme.

This can be used to provide trips for
Evening Activites
Shopping and Leisure
School Transport
Corporate Fleets
Large Events (Concerts, Football)
Commuter Fleets
Tourist Travel

Texxi can also provide non-emergency ambulances, emergency evacuation (with ID of people being evacuated), carpooling, vanpooling, social networking opportunities via SMS, tell tale monitoring and an Ostraka systm (Ebay like voting system for reputation management).

[Logan]

I have been a zipcar member for a year now and have had an awful time with them. They have a good business model but horrible customer service. They do things like accidentally close your account and then you don't find out until you try to rent a car, and then when you let them know they charge you member fees again in spite of the fact it is their fault. I would just beware that while they are innovative, they have a lot of problems with their management.

[Eid]

I have never used the service before but I see the zipcars all over the place living in Chicago. It seems like a great idea for an untapped market. There is an alternative called igo cars, which is a nonprofit service based in Chicago which does the same thing as zipcar. I-go also offers cards which allow you to use all public transit in Chicagoland along with their car fleet. Great way to have an "all-in-one" solution (and they're also nonprofit, so we may actually see benefit from this company).