Would it work here - Renting Car by hour

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phoenix_n

Guest
What ideally i would want would be the facility to rent a car by the hour. They have that system in the UK,Oz and the states where you join an organisation and you pick up the car from a designated parking spot and return it there after you finish. You book on-line and use a special card to open the vehicle. wonder if it would ever work here. Might fit into all things green!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4446271.stm

www.zipcar.com operates in london and the US.
 
I'm sure this has come up before, main problems I'd see; cost of insurance, cost of parking, lack of 'discipline' (e.g. people not returning cars when they orginally said they would, or returning them in an untidy state).
 
What happens if someone dings the car or smashes it? Does that mean that the next person who was relying on the car being there is without car?
 
Having said that, I think it's a fantastic idea. I'd be a likely customer, living close to the city center & drove just under 3,000 miles last year. What would it take to get dublin corp to look at this seriously, instead of making everything pay & display and talking about congestion charging?
 
tiger said:
I'm sure this has come up before, main problems I'd see; cost of insurance, cost of parking, lack of 'discipline' (e.g. people not returning cars when they orginally said they would, or returning them in an untidy state).
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This would surely apply aswell to London and the US. I think members are screened so risk is reduced.

Newby said:
What happens if someone dings the car or smashes it? Does that mean that the next person who was relying on the car being there is without car?
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Again this would apply in the UK and the US so no reason why it would not work here.

tiger said:
Having said that, I think it's a fantastic idea. I'd be a likely customer, living close to the city center & drove just under 3,000 miles last year. What would it take to get dublin corp to look at this seriously, instead of making everything pay & display and talking about congestion charging?
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Its not really Dublins corporation role to get involved in this except maybe provide free parking. I think it would work and it would only get more popular as it grows.
 
I've seen this work in the States, and it works very well!

To answer a few of the issues raised...

Insurance: In the US you insure the car not the driver, not sure how the system works in the UK, so the cost of insurance is built into the rental cost.
Parking: If a parking ticket is recieved at a certain time the system knows who had the car and debits it from the persons account
If you mean storage, yes, a problem but the same with opening a new shop etc. so up to the business to figure that one out.
Discipline: Any problems and again, you get charged. You pay by the hour so no set return time. If especially untidy, an additional fee is levied.
Dings or smashes: Again, on getting the membership card (which allows you access the cars [the system I saw was like a vending machine where you swiped your card (possibly some security checks, wasn't watching that close), choose your car, keys pop down and then you drive away]), they take full financial details and will charge you any excess etc. on the damage. Didn't look through any of the Ts&Cs, but I'm sure they'll charge fairly well if you damage the car. Again, more difficult in Ireland where the driver is insured not the car. You could organise it with only fully licenced drivers who have to anually show they have insurance cover to cover "driving other cars" to a comprehensive level.
The next person relying on the car: Would still have a fleet to select from (in the US, would Irish usage patterns allow for such high levels of stock??).

In the US, you can pick up the car at one depot and drop it off at another (so pay for 1 hour driving). Then stay near the second depot for the day and after drive home, different car possibly (again, only paying for 1 hour driving). So you can have a full day away with only being charged for 2 hours (I believe the large car rental companies here run this kind of thing, pick up at one outlet drop off at another).
Again, how many depots for these would be viable in Ireland? Just in Dublin? Multiple in Dublin and one in Cork and Galway? Etc...
Still some serious issues, but an idea I'd love to see come into play.
 
It would i think work. Firstly I would use it ,and therefore, there would be others.

The cost of starting the venture would be very prohibitive so more than likely one of the established players will make their way over here soon.

Insurance would probably be an issue but if you can rent a car form avis etc without having your own insurance then its only the cost that may have an adverse affect.

Because Dublins transport links are abysmal ( i need a vehicle to visit some friends in west dublin ) it would have a very good chance of succeeding.


*edit*
on my lunch break i figured out how one could overcome the major cost (technology) in setting up such a business in ireland. anyone want to give me venture capital ? :)
 
Grifter said:
Sounds like a great idea for my next Bank Job. Stolen credit card, false details etc......
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This system has been working fine in the states for years. This isn't an issue.

I don't have the exact details, but I know the process is quite intensive. I believe copies of passport, birth cert, driving licence, bank details... to name but a few, are required for setting up an account.




To be honest phoenix, I don't think the technology (or venture capital) are the issues in Ireland (if they were, the people running it in the UK or the states would already have hit the market here).
Personally, I question if the proposition is viable due to the population density here (although I do see a market for it, I'm not sure if the setup/running costs would make it viable). In a similiar way that public transport struggles in Ireland (Dublin is the lowest population density capital in Europe [least amount of people living per km2]) I'm not sure if a handful of depots would provide the market needed for the number of cars you'd need in stock (no point in trying to market the service if half the time there are no cars left in stock). I can't say I've looked at/thought about it much, but I'd have concerns about trying to run it in Ireland. Possibly is a very good franchise/business oportunity... but would leed a lot of work checking out the feasibility (if it helps, I'll confirm myself as a definate customer if you do set it up ;), but I'd obviously expect a discount :p ).
 
It could start on a smaller scale. Identify a few neighbours who might like to car share. Most houses on my road have at least two cars per family which means that there are always 20 cars on the road not being used. 10 neighbours with 10 cars could probably reduce this to say 8 cars initially and see how they get on. There could also be a variety of cars from mainly small cars to a few larger more luxurious cars for longer trips.

The problem in "Well-off Ireland" is that people are happy to pay the high prices for cars and car ownership and the status it brings.

Brendan
 
Brendan said:
It could start on a smaller scale. Identify a few neighbours who might like to car share. Most houses on my road have at least two cars per family which means that there are always 20 cars on the road not being used. 10 neighbours with 10 cars could probably reduce this to say 8 cars initially and see how they get on. There could also be a variety of cars from mainly small cars to a few larger more luxurious cars for longer trips.

The problem in "Well-off Ireland" is that people are happy to pay the high prices for cars and car ownership and the status it brings.

Brendan
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I think being 'Green' has its own status aswell.
 
Friends of ours in North London use one of these services. The cars are garaged and you have a little card key to access them, I think you have to put your personal code in to start them too. You book the times you want online, if you want to keep it for longer it's fine as there's a "float" of cars

It's up to the person picking it up to inspect the car for damage when they pick it up. There's a team who go round and inspect the cars, fuel them, check the oil etc.

They seem very happy with it, they've used it for 1 hour journeys, trips to Ikea, days out at the seaside etc.

SSE
 
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