Shared Automobile Services Gaining in Popularity

October 14th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under • by admin

Many families have a significant need for multiple automobiles, often with two parents working and multiple children needing rides to school, work, and various activities. It’s not uncommon for some larger households to have the need for three or four cars. Unfortunately this can be very cost prohibitive with the price of gasoline, insurance, vehicle ownership and maintenance. In many of America’s urban markets there are now companies which have seen the need for families to have an additional vehicle on occasion, but cannot justify purchasing another entire vehicle. These companies, such as Zipcar and Flexcar, are offering shared automobile services which will give you access to a vehicle when you need one without paying a substantial amount of money to purchase another vehicle.

The way these services work is that you can rent a car by the hour to run your errands, or take care of whatever you need to and return it to where it was parked originally and you’re taken care of. The price of gasoline and insurance are included with the rental price as well. You just pay the fee and then go on with your life. Essentially they are offering a new form of public transportation, but instead of being stuck with standard routes of busses or being at the whim of finding a taxi, you control where you are going and do it at your own pace.

With Flexcar, you’ll pay an annual membership fee of around $35.00 which will give you access to their services. When you need a vehicle, you can reserve one online or by phone. You walk to your vehicle which is often less than 5 minutes away, pick it up, do your errands and then return it after your finished. You’ll then be charged for your usage electronically. Flexcar is come up with quite a streamlined system to make the rental process much easier.

The prices you’ll pay are very reasonable if your demand for a vehicle is very minimal and you only need to make a few trips a week. You’ll pay around $5.00 per hour or $50.00 per day. That fee includes gasoline, insurance, emergency assistance, reserved parking and vehicle maintenance. The first 150 miles on the vehicle are completely fee, and then you’ll pay a prorated rate for every mile after that after that.

Currently these services are only available in some major markets. Flexcar is operating in 19 major markets and ZipCar operates in 5 domestic major markets as well as London, Toronto and Vancouver.

These new automobile sharing services, such as Flexcar and Zipcar, are a great way to gain access to a vehicle when you need one without having to pay the high costs of owning a vehicle.