Mobility in Switzerland is the world's largest car-sharing organisation. At the end of 1999, it had 37,600 members, who shared 1,300 vehicles stationed at 800 points in 330 municipalities all over the country. Mobility was formed in 1997 through the merger of ShareCom (established in 1987) and Auto Teilet Genossenschaft. The organisation is still growing fast - membership doubled from 1996 to 1998. Size has paved the way for an increasingly professional organisation. They now employ some 190 people and use advanced IT systems for easy car booking and for keeping track of the bills each member runs up.
'Two out of three members live within ten minutes walk of the nearest car station'
A survey of Mobility members in 1998 showed that most were very satisfied both with service and with the quality, choice and availability of cars. Two out of three members live within ten minutes walk of the nearest car station, and the likelihood of finding a vacant car is 95 per cent on average. A recent special offer to businesses, associations and public authorities has attracted 800 new business clients.
Car-sharing in Switzerland also brings considerable environmental benefits. Car owners who sell their own vehicles on joining Mobility drive 70 per cent less on average after doing so - they travel more by public transport and by bike or scooter. Those who did not own cars before joining Mobility, drive somewhat more after doing so. Still, even these people do not consume more fuel than before, because the Mobility fleet consists of highly fuel-efficient cars. On average, members of Mobility use 55 per cent less energy (on all their various travelling) than do Swiss who own their own cars.
Mobility Car Sharing Schweiz, Mühlenplatz 10-11, CH-6000 Luzern 5, Switzerland (tel 0041 41 419 46 55; fax 0041 41 419 46 99; web: www.mobility.ch).
Adapted from an item entitled '22,000 Swiss Car Sharers' which appeared in the Norwegian Ideas Bank (Stiftelsen Idebanken, PO Box 2126 Grünnerlokka, Norway, tel 00 47 2203 4010; fax 00 47 2236 4060; e-mail: idebanken@online.no; web: www.idebanken.no).
Car-sharing spreads to America
Summarised from an article by Peyton Whitely, entitled 'Do you need a car just once in a while?', in The Seattle Times (July 1st 2000) monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.
The concept of car-sharing has now made its way to the US, with a new system being tested in Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. Under this system, when a member of the scheme wants a car, they call a computerized dispatch system from a touch-tone phone. The driver can then unlock the car with a master key given to all members, and the same key opens a box containing the ignition key and a gas credit card. Each member is then billed at the end of the month.
In this system, a membership fee (which depends on how often you need a car) replaces all insurance, licensing and maintenance costs, while the member is charged at a set rate per hour and per mile. Flexcar, the company running the system, also plans to offer reduced driving rates in conjunction with mass-transit passes to encourage the use of public transport. So people should be driving only when strictly necessary, and fewer cars should be used at any one time.
More information can be found on the website www.Flexcar.com.
In a growing number of US cities, including Boston and Cambridge, Zipcar will provide a new VW Beetle (or Golf or Passat wagon) for 15 hours a month for $1,300 a year (including fuel, maintenance, insurance and parking).
See also www.carsharing.net for other US cities and for worldwide car sharing news and information.
There is now car-sharing software available for businesses, and a separate one for schools. See www.business-wizard.co.uk/travel_2_car_share.html for more information, or e-mail Colin Weaver, its inventor, at carshare@business-wizard.co.uk
Flexcar cherishes U.S. success
Summarised from an article entitled "Flexcar gains in West Seattle," by Jack Mayne in the West Seattle Herald/White Center News (August 6, 2003). Monitored for the Global Ideas Bank by Roger Knights.
Headquarted in Switzerland and started in Seattle, Flexcar celebrates its much unanticipated success. "We didn't see this from the get-go, but it has been hugely successful," says William A. del Valle, general manager for the Flexcar Washington state branch. Flexcar now operates some 230 cars, 90 percent of which are Honda Civics, one-third of those are gasoline-electric hybrids. The company boasts Flexcars are much cheaper than owning a car, limits the number of cars which pollute the air and clog up the highways, and perhaps the best part, are available on very short notice.
Reported in a September 8, 2003 issue of Newsweek magazine, in an article by Martha Brant entitled "Zipping Along," Zipcars could be rented for about $8.50 an hour on average, with 15 car-sharing companies scattered throughout 20 U.S. cities. Zipcar membership have also doubled in a year. The success due largely to the combination of Boston's Zipcar and Seattle's Flexcar.
|
