Victoria Car Share Co-op

[VicHockeyFan]

Not sure if we have a thread on this, so I'd thought I'd start one, since I said few people might know about it.

http://victoriacarshare.ca/drupal-6.2/

As a member, you would make a reservation for a specific vehicle online or on the phone. Prepared with a fleet access key, head straight to the vehicle at your chosen time, retrieve the vehicle key, then go.

When done, fill out a short form from the glove box, secure the vehicle, and leave.

[VicHockeyFan]

costs:

member shares

your one-time member share purchase reflects your share of ownership of the co-op. You will receive a full refund for your member shares if you decide to leave the co-op.

An individual membership ($400 of shares) allows two drivers in the same household. A group membership ($700 of shares) allows up to 4 drivers from a small businesses or organization. You can add a driver for an extra $100 share each.

monthly fee

members pay a small monthly administrative fee of $15, but may "inactivate" their membership during months when they will not use a vehicle. Inactive members are not charged this administrative fee. Members may call or email to activate or inactivate.

use fees

every time you use a vehicle, you pay for both the time used and distance traveled:

* $0.42/km for the first 40km of your trip, then $0.25/km for each additional kilometer. This long-distance discount is offered through december 31st but may be made permanent.
* $2.82/hour, billed by the half hour ($1.41 for each half hour). There is no hourly charge from 11pm to 7am. To make longer trips more affordable, our daily rate is $35.25 for the first 24 hours and $29.61 for additional days. Hourly and daily rates do not include kilometers driven.

Rates include gas, insurance, cleaning, and maintenance, but not gst, pst, and pvrt (a car rental tax: $1.50 per 24 hours for trips over 8 hours). Our rates will increase up to 5% per year. A fuel surcharge may be added to if a month's fuel expenditures are >30% of kilometer revenue. We have not had a fuel surcharge since october 2008.

[VicHockeyFan]

OK, there is the basis of it. I think the costs are VERY resonable. Of course, they only have 20 cars because I think:

A) People do not know about it.

B) People don't really know their per km cost of operating their own vehicle. If they had to pop $13 into the steering wheel every time they made a 1/2 hour trip in it they'd think twice. But financing the car and insurance monthly, and filling it with gas as required doesn't register the same in the mind.

A couple things I think the Co-op might benefit from:

Seeing if they can arrange with a new car dealership to have the car LOCATED ON THE CAR LOT THAT SELLS THAT BRAND, and see if they will finance replacing the car with a new model each year. Ya, on a strict business case it might not be ideal or the dealer at first glance, why provide a parking stall and new car to people who choose not to buy their own car? But maybe in PR terms it does make sense, and people move, situations change, maybe when they get to really like that Prius, and move to North Saanich, they'll buy a car at that dealership.

I think they might be able to enter into arrangements with retailers to reimburse for car-share mileage charges. ie, a customer shops at Thrifty's and spends $200 while they have the car, they get $10 back from Thrifty's, or at least Thriftys pays the co-op, and the co-op attributes it to the user's account. Because you fill in a log with your times, it can be matched with the receipt from the store, the user can submit to the car-share, the car-share validates it with the users drive log, and submits a bill to Thrifty's. A little bit of paperwork, but now the car-share person knows they can do a big shop every two weeks and Thrifty's will pay the car-ride. Again, Thrifty's looks good for the PR. Would work for lots of retailers, I think.

Maybe BC Transit can get onboard somehow. If you buy a monthly bus pass, maybe you can turn that in to the car-share every month and save some of your $15/mo. fees. Again, car-share can bill back to BC Transit.

Vancouver has 235 cars, and already has some perks: http://www.cooperativeauto.net/perks

[VicHockeyFan]

It also says here at the very bottom that Vic and Van have a cross-sharing plan. That's a great perk for each side.

[Mike K.]

...

Victoria Car Share Co-op grows to over 400 members
By Paul Seal, VibrantVictoria.ca
http://vibrantvictoria.ca/?p=2171

Operating out of a cozy third-floor office in downtown Victoria, the Victoria Car Share Co-op presents a modest face, yet it has has seen steady, and recently bumper growth, since its inception in 1997. And that’s in spite of the fact that it operates on a nearly non-existent marketing budget.

Membership now stands at over 400, nearly double the members in 2008. The core demographic is 25- to 35-year-olds, living in the urban core, who do not own a vehicle. [...]

[Rob Randall]

Victorians to choose next Car Share purchase

By Robert Randall • Published on Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A contest to find Victoria’s next top model is coming, but the contestants aren’t tantrum-prone divas or wafer-thin waifs. In fact, the final contestants combined weigh in at nearly two and a half metric tonnes.

The Victoria Car Share Co-Op is asking Victorians to vote on one of two vehicles being considered as the newest addition to the car share’s stable of cars, trucks and minivans.

The choices offered up for voting are the Nissan Cube and the Honda Fit. Both Car Share Co-Op members and non-members are eligible to cast ballots, with each vote entered in a draw for driving credits, Mountain Equipment Co-Op gift cards and other prizes.

more...

[davek]

A sad end for one car-share program.

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by davek

A sad end for one car-share program.

Under the program, the county paid $1,100 a month per car to Enterprise Rent-a-Car for hybrid vehicles, available for county employees to check out by the hour.

But each of the 30 cars rented by the county was used less than an hour per month by employees during the initial months of the program, making the per hour rate of using each vehicle about $1,300.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/lo...#ixzz0sDRww9zd

Whoops...

[Mike K.]

The Victoria Car Share has added vehicles to three neighbourhoods: Jubillee, North Park and Uptown.

[VicHockeyFan]

I was just reading up on ZipCar. The technology sure makes this a pretty cool and easy service.

Zipcar is a US membership-based carsharing company providing automobile reservations to its members, billable by the hour or day. ...

As of February 2013, the company has 777,000 members and offers nearly 10,000 vehicles throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain and Austria, making Zipcar the world's leading carsharing network.[3]

Members can reserve Zipcars online or by phone at anytime, immediately or up to a year in advance. Zipcar members have automated access to Zipcars using an access card which works with the car's technology to unlock the door, where the keys are already located inside. Zipcar also offers an iPhone or Android application, that allows members to honk the horn to locate a Zipcar and unlock the doors.[4] Zipcar charges a one-time application fee, an annual fee, and a reservation charge. Gas, parking, insurance, and maintenance are included in the price.[5]

....

It was announced 2 January 2013, that Avis Budget Group will purchase Zipcar for about US$500 million in cash.[10] Avis completed the deal on 14 March 2013.[11]

[VicHockeyFan]

[VicHockeyFan]

Vancouver rates (it's only in Toronto and Vancouver in Canada):



http://www.zipcar.ca/vancouver/check...et_id=40436214

[pherthyl]

The Victoria car share also has a "casual" plan with no monthly fee. That's what I'm on. Cheaper to run errands from uvic by car share than to drive and park.