Carsharing

Carsharing [ ka ː (r ) ˌ ʃeərɪŋ ] (english car " car " to share "share", in German as: " auto parts " or " community car " ) is the organized community use of one or more automobiles. Carsharing allows unlike conventional car rentals a short time, even minutes -by-step renting of vehicles. The car parts among neighbors and acquaintances falls under the term Private car sharing.

• 7.1 Germany 7.1.1 Commercial Offer
• 7.1.2 Private car sharing

Term

The English term carsharing (now usually written as one word, alternatively, car sharing, or (as Bild-/Wortmarke ) car sharing ) is used in most languages ​​and countries within the meaning of this article. One exception was the UK, where with car sharing ( in two words ) originally the carpool was meant and was used for auto parts, the concept car club. Other well-known exceptions are autodelen ( Dutch), autopartage (French), auto conditoner visa ( Italian) and bilpool ( Norwegian, Swedish).

As early as 1975, the term appeared in an article title in the London Times on: "Car -sharing among plans to ease London traffic". The city administration GLC turned to the not yet sophisticated idea, "Methods of common automotive use " introduce, against the RAC, who demanded more and wider roads to the gridlock. The experiment began in 1977 in Ipswich, but was rather a Carpool as a service to make use of cars by several drivers.

Organization

The vehicles of a car-sharing organization are distributed either on fixed leased parking on a city or large town or park free ( free floating) in public parking areas. The fixed rental locations are often located at traffic junctions of public transport such as railway stations, tram junction, end stations of bus routes, etc., where they are easily accessible by the members. The preallocated vehicles are generally used to reach these nodes of remoter targets. Vehicles must be after the booked time. At their location or, when flexliblen carsharing, at any parking space within the business area clearly defined

So Carsharing works only with a well -developed public transport and is a means of " combined mobility ". It can not and will not replace public transport that serves as a feeder to the parking lots. For commuters who do not have the cover with the car all the way to work otherwise, there is usually no reasonable alternative; to be more suitable carpool and carpool. The concept is intended more for irregular tours or transport.

An increasingly popular application for car sharing is to use a car-sharing vehicle at the airport. The Free Floating providers such as DriveNow and car2go provided here their service with an extra airport fee. At the airport even special parking spaces are designated for the car-sharing vehicles. This car-sharing is another mobility option at the airport in addition to local public transport and taxi.

Members of the carsharing organizations usually go into a long -term, partly paid membership in the organization. The organization and not the individual participants are the owners of the cars and - in contrast to the neighborhood auto parts - responsible for the maintenance and repair of vehicles. A concept that lies in between is offered by Citeecar: Here, customers can apply to be a so-called " hosts ". You must have a parking lot and take over the sponsorship for a vehicle, they ensure cleanliness and maintenance. Will be paid this activity with a travel credit.

Expiration of a car use

The size of the car-sharing organizations is very different. According to a variety of systems are used for reservation, from simple boxes with keys and manual posting to highly complex computer-based solutions with GPS tracking. For larger organizations today is the automatic posting via the Internet or telephone computers around the clock usual.

The vehicles of larger organizations today are equipped with onboard computers, which are automatically synchronized with the central office. The trip computers provide the vehicle to the beneficiaries for the booked period free. Such systems are not only more efficient than manual entries, but also necessary, to prevent misuse in larger organizations. For the non- station -bound models, the car will report its location to the center. Customers can search online for a vehicle and usually reserve a maximum of 15 minutes.

At station based systems, the participants are responsible for the timely return of the vehicles at the right place and in a clean condition itself. In particular, for late return of high fines are sometimes required because leave the following participants expected to find their booked vehicle at the site. Many organizations operate call centers where breakdowns or emergencies must be reported. They organize, where appropriate, replacement vehicles.

From the on-board computer billing is also triggered. Will be charged fees for the most number of kilometers and for the period of use. The cost of fuel, consumables, cleaning, insurance, etc. are usually integrated into the prices. Most also discounted daily, weekly and monthly rates are available.

Costs

Carsharing is cheaper than running an own similar vehicle, as long as the annual kilometers driven and usage times are below the profitability threshold. This is different from provider to provider, usually between 10,000 and 20,000 kilometers per year. Stiftung Warentest came in a model calculation with 5000 years kilometers at the expense of 138 euros per month, with an own car, however, to 206 euros per month.

Fixed costs, such as acquisition costs, parking space or garage rental, car tax and insurance premiums account for. When not in use is to be paid (eg registration fee, monthly contribution ) depending on the provider, only a small or no fee. Most vendors integrate a breakdown service, which makes an additional member of Association for Transport and unnecessary.

Depending on the number of users and professionalism claim, providers a relatively -new and modern fleet of vehicles ( including navigation equipment, air conditioning, etc. ) are available. It usually come new vehicles used, their cost must be allocated to the participants. A self -maintained older cars can therefore be operated cost-effective in some cases.

Difference to the private car

Car sharing can be guaranteed a comprehensive mobility. , The car as a complement to public transport, pedestrian and bicycle traffic goes Thus, these modes of transport are promoted, and overall road relieved. Especially in urban residential areas, where there is a car park available for all vehicles, car sharing can bring relief.

Many carsharing providers offer different types of vehicles that the customer can choose depending on the situation and needs (eg small or sports car, station wagon, van or transporter). For some providers, the driver has, however, only after a certain age have access to the entire site.

In almost all station bound providers the useful life of the vehicle must be pre- defined and can be extended only if the car is subsequently not yet been posted by other users. When not stationsgebundenem ( free - floating) Carsharing the rental period must not be specified in advance.

In almost any provider, it is possible for the user, the car to " personalize ", so it can, for example, no goals in the navigation system or radio stations in the permanent store. In general, self-inflicted Verunreinungen must be disposed of at lease so that the next user finds a clean car. Required additional equipment such as child seats, the user must often bring their own. For longer distances, such as vacation trips, the costs are usually higher than for other modes of transportation.

Several studies point to a better environmental balance of private cars. So are the vehicles used in carsharing generally much newer than private cars and therefore benefit earlier from the technological development. According to the Bundesverband Carsharing average CO2 emissions per kilometer is around 16 percent below that of private vehicles. In addition, many carsharing customers would renounce their own car, making the area consumption is reduced and fewer vehicles would be manufactured. A car-sharing vehicle replaces four to eight private cars on average. In addition, car-sharing promotes the use of other modes of transport such as cycling, trains and buses, as on a ride with a car-sharing car, the share of fixed costs in total costs is significantly lower than in a private car. In terms of environmental performance has to be considered allersdings that in this case the energy and raw materials for the production of a new car was not considered.

Parking

There are different models for the deployment of vehicles:

Management

The driver does not care about the technical maintenance of the vehicle and official formalities such as environmental badge, main inspection or emissions test itself. The legal issues are clearly defined between the owner ( carsharing organization ) and the drivers ( car-sharing members ).

To date, successful carsharing is often limited to densely populated and well developed with public traffic areas. Thus the concept of living in the country people is not very interesting and there may be difficult to establish.

Development and current status

The idea of sharing a vehicle and neighborly auto parts is practiced in the private sector from time immemorial. The first documented carsharing organization is the Swiss self-drive Cooperative ( SEFAGE ) in Zurich in 1948.

Already in the 1960s have emerged concepts of carsharing in connection with studies on the future, computerized traffic control.

In the early 1970s, it was the first major projects: The ProcoTip system in France only lasted two years. An ambitious project from Amsterdam was Witkar that was based on small electric vehicles and electronic controls for reservation and return as well as in many sites in the city. The project was abandoned in the mid -1980s.

The 1980s can be described as a turning point. Several smaller car-sharing projects were developed in Switzerland and Germany as well as in Norway ( Bilkollektivet ) and the Netherlands ( CollectCar ). From the 1990s, these and other projects, such as CommunAuto and Car Share in Canada, Car Sharing Portland ( Flexcar later), Portland (Oregon ) and Zipcar in Boston and CityCarClub in the UK experienced a significant development.

The global market for car sharing includes a billion euros. A study of a counseling agency expected by 2016 to grow to ten billion euros.

Germany

1988 was established (since 2006 under the name Greenwheels ) as the oldest carsharing organization in Germany in Berlin StattAuto Berlin. 1990 and 1991 originated in Aachen, Bremen and Freiburg / Breisgau other organizations.

The number of users in Germany has increased, according to the carsharing providers compared to last year during the year 2013 by 67% to 757,000 users. The independent station carsharing has increased by 140 % over this period and is currently used by 437,000 people in 14 cities. Station -dependent Carsharing is at 3,900 stations in 380 German cities available and finds 320,000 participants who use 7,700 vehicles together there.

In Germany, there were, according to the Federal Association Carsharing Association ( bcs ) in early 2010 about 110 car-sharing organizations. Average come to each car-sharing vehicle ride 37 signatories.

Carsharing is operated in Germany in addition to the mentioned hereinafter " commercial offers " in two organizational forms:

• Corporations ( in the form of a GmbH or AG): Many companies are spin-offs from clubs or professionally run clubs that want to achieve with Carsharing by professionalization larger parts of the population.
• Smaller associations and neighborhood groups: These groups lay only the costs to, and are therefore not profit-oriented, and usually operate at a local or district-based environment. They represent the largest number of carsharing organizations offer but usually only to individual vehicles.

The largest car sharing provider in Germany were in early 2013 Flinkster ( 215,000 customers ), Car2Go (100,000), Drive -Now ( 88,000 ), Cambio ( 50.000) city car ( 30,000 ). [Note 1]

Commercial Offer

The largest car-sharing networks in Germany, with at least 10,000 customers are:

• Flinkster is the station -based car sharing the German Bahn subsidiary DB Rent GmbH (until 2011 under the name DB Carsharing ). The company is the market leader in Germany: 250,000 registered customers are offered around 3,100 vehicles in 140 cities ( including over 100 electric vehicles, see also: BeMobility ). In addition, cars in Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland can be booked. Since April 2006, DB Rent is cooperating with the Drive Carsharing GmbH, which belongs Service Car Rental AG for Europe. The combination of car rental and car sharing is implemented by 25 partners. Since 2007, the city also marketing companies in the partner network. Also develops and operates DB Rent firm-specific car-sharing solutions, such as airlines and service fleets.
• Stadtmobil in Berlin, Rhine -Ruhr, Hanover Area, Rhine -Main, Rhine -Neckar, Stuttgart and surroundings, Karlsruhe and Pforzheim environment and has approximately 30,000 customers and combined station based dynamic ( free - floating) car sharing.
• Cambio carsharing in Aachen, Berlin, Bielefeld, Bonn, Bremen ( also the location of the booking office ), Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Cologne, Lüneburg, Oldenburg, Saarbrücken, Uelzen, Winsen, Wuppertal and several cities in Belgium ( Aarlen, Antwerp, Bergen, Bruges, Brussels, Chiney, Ghent, Hasselt, Kortrijk, Leuven, Lier, Liège, Mechelen, Mons, Namur, Oostende, Ottignies, Turnhout and Zwijndrecht ) has around 50,000 customers and own offices in 15 German cities.
• Green Wheels in Berlin, Braunschweig, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Pinneberg, Potsdam, Regensburg, Rostock, and several cities in the Ruhr area has about 20,000 customers and over 500 vehicles.
• Car2go is a dynamic concept Car ( Free Floating Car) from the German car manufacturer Daimler and the car rental company Europcar. In Germany, car2go in six cities with 3000 vehicles active and has over 70,000 registered users.
• DriveNow a join venture of BMWi and Sixt in January 2014, over 200,000 active users in Germany; the fleet consists of Minis and BMWs in Munich and Berlin are those driven by purely electric vehicles supplemented by BMW ( ActiveE ). Stopping at any point within the division ( Free Floating Car) petrol costs and parking fees are included.

The Drive Carsharing GmbH became the first car-sharing company with even light electric vehicles in the fleet. These are currently offered in Dusseldorf and Cologne, the Stadtwerke Dusseldorf AG and Rhein Energie AG are partners in this project.

In June 2011, the carsharing service DriveNow was first started in Munich and Berlin from BMW and Sixt. Meanwhile, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg and San Francisco were involved. DriveNow the first car-sharing provider, the spontaneous journeys is integrated. Rides can be offered automatically flinc, while also addressing the rent can be shared.

After the German carmakers Daimler (with car2go ) and BMW entered ( with DriveNow ) in the car-sharing business also starts the Volkswagen Group with its own Quicar attempt. The offer of the subsidiary Volkswagen Leasing GmbH was founded in November 2011 and is located in 2013 still in a testing phase in which it extends first to the town of Hanover as well as some surrounding communities. In this area are at about 100 different fixed pitches 200 white diesel car of the type VW Golf VI "Blue Motion" with striking blue stripes for the temporary use. In Quicar the cars must be delivered as with most service providers in the same place where they were picked up.

In Berlin, the American classic car rental company Hertz has introduced its founded in 2008 "on demand" (ad hoc) carsharing model Hertz on Demand. Hertz on Demand is also in London, Madrid, New York City and Paris as well as on some campuses are available. Here, the customer books not as car rentals usual about the company's headquarters, but also on the corresponding Internet portal, and he is not fixed to the solid Anmietbüros the company. Also, the pricing scheme is completely different. In May 2013, the car-sharing offer was renamed Hertz 24/7.

Private car sharing

The idea of ​​private Autoteilens there long before commercial providers entered the market. However, she is in neighborhood associations, for example, quickly " insurance question " who pays how much, if anything happens and this increases my insurance premium? Model contracts, which can be controlled all the risks and costs, for example, there when traffic Club Germany (VCD). Since 2010 there is also internet sites in Germany, which facilitate the Organizational. The first was tamyca.de in November 2010, a student startup, followed by car Netzer. In March 2011, followed Nachbarschaftsauto.de, which introduced the now available on all platforms adaptiere German model of liability and fully comprehensive insurance. And went as far last platform "rent -n- roll.de " in Germany at the start. They offer a special insurance that is tailored to private car sharing. On their website you can view the available cars in the area.

In Austria the project Caruso Carsharing already started in October 2009 and is aimed at companies, communities and individuals. The platform brings together people who share their cars and those who want to share a car. The reservation system is offered free of charge. If an onboard unit is installed in the vehicle, an automated electronic logbook can be (also suitable for the tax office in official trips) and exported the car to be unlocked by mobile phone. The operators offer advice to regarding insurance, legal aspects and calculation of the rate for the group members.

Austria

From 1997 to 2011 Denzel was the sole provider of carsharing in Austria. The Denzel Mobility Carsharing GmbH was founded as a joint venture between the Group and the DENZEL Mobility Carsharing Switzerland in 2008 and is today the leading car-sharing provider in Austria. By August 2012, took place after the acquisition by Zipcar Inc., the change of company name to Zipcar Austria GmbH. The Company currently offers approximately 200 vehicles in nine award categories at over 100 locations in Vienna, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Graz and other cities to the hour and kilometers -based rates to. Cooperation with public transport providers, such as the ÖBB, public transport and more public transport operators in the provinces complete the mobility concept.

Zipcar is the largest car-sharing network in the world and has over 700,000 members in the U.S., Canada, England, Spain and Austria around 9,000 vehicles. Zipcar offers individuals and businesses a choice of more than 30 vehicle models for hourly or daily use.

End of 2011, extended to the car2go location in Vienna. In the urban area 700 vehicles are distributed.

Switzerland

1987 originated in Switzerland, two car-sharing cooperatives AutoTeilet - cooperative ( ATG) in Stans and the ShareCom in Zurich. Initially these companies were supported through volunteer work. Another provider was CopAuto in Geneva, the only short term could hold 1993 to 1995 and was acquired by ATG.

1997 merged the ATG and the ShareCom for Mobility Carsharing, has advanced the technical development in the sequence. She went a different collaborations with Swiss transport Connected and companies and licensed their proprietary reservation system to Austria and Spain. The Mobility Carsharing, the largest carsharing organization in Switzerland, since mid-2011 has over 100,000 customers.

Europe

Under the name of European Car Sharing ( ECS) decided in 1991 the leading car-sharing provider from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway and Switzerland cooperation. Thus they allowed their members as part of combined transport and cross-national car sharing.

In Paris there are four carsharing organizations: Mobizen, Okigo ( AVIS & VINCI ), Carbox and Caisse -Commune.

Move About (formerly Th! Nk About) was founded by Dr. Ing Jan- Olaf Willum in Norway in 2007, and offers completely car-sharing solutions with electric cars. Motto of the company is Zero Hassle - Zero Emission. Dr. Willum was on the board of the Norwegian electric car manufacturer Think Global AS, the first Europe- approved electric car (M1 homologation ), the Th! Produces nk City. Meanwhile Move About is represented in several European countries and independently of the manufacturer. Move About provides institutional and private clients " Mobility on Demand", in the private sector often referred to as car sharing.

USA

1998 saw Car Sharing Portland in Portland (Oregon ), which went up in Flexcar, based in Seattle ( Washington) in 2000. Also in 2000 was Zipcar in Cambridge (Massachusetts ), founded on the model of German and Swiss systems. Zipcar and Flexcar 2007, merged. Due to the low population density of the U.S., the company focused on metropolitan areas and university campuses. With over 9000 vehicles and 700,000 members Zipcar is the largest car sharing operator in the world.

China

In China, the company Kandi Technologies Group, Inc., in collaboration with its subsidiary Zhejiang Kandi Vehicles Co., Ltd.. as well as the car maker Geely started a car-sharing project, should be available at the conclusion of 100,000 carsharing cars for Chinese sharers available. In Hangzhou, a start was made; Gradually the project on other areas such as the cities of Shanghai and Chengdu as well as the regions of Jiangsu and Hainan spreads.

Development prospects

Since the 1990s, carsharing has high growth rates for private users. In addition, companies have used business vehicles partially converted to car-sharing; This has reduced the cost per vehicle kilometer. Further impetus to go out of the long-term rising gasoline prices. Innovative concepts are aimed at private vehicles for rent. So no new vehicles to be purchased.

Through the promotion, visibility and environmental benefits associated with it, carsharing could become the testing ground for electric mobility. However, customers are not yet ready to take on the increased capital and operating costs for electric vehicles.

If autonomous cars will be developed and approved for series production, this could offset some disadvantages of car sharing. A vehicle could pick up customers at any desired autonomous and self are constantly looking at the target parking. In addition, the provider may use the vehicles more efficiently, as they could independently go to areas of high demand as needed. A study from the year 2013 assumes that this perspective has the potential to make more than 90 percent of the vehicle population superfluous.