3/10/2023 0 Comments Zipcar san diego![]() Zipcar’s major markets are Boston, Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington – cities where traffic congestion and parking problems can make car-sharing an attractive alternative to owning. The services cover gasoline, maintenance and insurance costs. When finished, the driver returns the car to the pickup site, typically a private spot in a lot or garage. At the arranged time, the driver enters the vehicle by swiping a coded card over a windshield reader. Members can reserve a vehicle online or over the phone. Zipcar and Flexcar operate similarly, with members paying hourly or daily fees to book a wide range of vehicles parked in urban neighborhoods. The costs of acquiring cars and parking spots as well as signing up members make new markets initially unprofitable. Zipcar has managed to turn profits in major cities where it’s been operating a couple years or more. Zipcar and Flexcar “are probably a little ways from where they can get the kind of scale they need to be successful over the long term, but this deal could help them get there,” Cole said. ![]() ![]() “It would not be a difficult thing for them to move into this business,” Cole said. markets and 50,000 members.Ībout 30 smaller regional services offering cars parked in urban neighborhoods have emerged alongside Zipcar and Flexcar, but the biggest competitive challenge for the two eight-year-old firms comes from traditional car rental companies.Įnterprise Rent-A-Car has been trying to match car-sharing services’ conveniently located cars by adding small rental locations in neighborhoods, supplementing more traditional locations at airports, said David Cole, chairman of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Center for Automotive Research. Washington D.C.-based Flexcar is smaller, with about 1,500 cars in 15 U.S. college campuses – and has more than 120,000 members. Zipcar, based in Cambridge, Mass., offers 3,500 cars in more than 35 markets in the United States, Europe and Canada – most of them U.S.
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