I rarely use a car
January 18, 2009 4:55 PM Subscribe
Help me start a car sharing service
I wanted to join a car sharing service like Zipcar but in my area nothing is available. This is odd, since I live in a large University town. Now, I want to start my own car sharing service, for which I am willing to buy a car and "rent" it out to people who joined our car sharing coop. What kind of technology can I use to allow people to use the car with a RFID card the way zipcar does it? Or are there any other ways to allow a number of people to use the car without needing to share the car key? Any other tips for a new car sharing service operator would be appreciated!
I wanted to join a car sharing service like Zipcar but in my area nothing is available. This is odd, since I live in a large University town. Now, I want to start my own car sharing service, for which I am willing to buy a car and "rent" it out to people who joined our car sharing coop. What kind of technology can I use to allow people to use the car with a RFID card the way zipcar does it? Or are there any other ways to allow a number of people to use the car without needing to share the car key? Any other tips for a new car sharing service operator would be appreciated!
I would highly advise against purchasing a car under your own name for an endeavor like this. If anyone does anything that could be construed as illegal, there's a great chance that you would be tied back to it and left hanging.
Talk to a lawyer about creating some kind of legal entity that would own the vehicle, and about creating an agreement for those who drive the car that completely and utterly indemnifies your legal entity from their actions while driving it.
posted by phredgreen at 5:20 PM on January 18, 2009
Talk to a lawyer about creating some kind of legal entity that would own the vehicle, and about creating an agreement for those who drive the car that completely and utterly indemnifies your legal entity from their actions while driving it.
posted by phredgreen at 5:20 PM on January 18, 2009
Best answer: Also chat with the non-profit Ithaca Car Share people. They just started up this past summer in an environment similar to yours (University town, smallish community) and would probably have some good tips.
Also try the World Carshare Consortium (no personal knowledge of this organization).
The folks at Opencar spun off from SF's City Car Share to market the technology needed for these services (RFID keys and reservations and such).
Also Metavera makes the software/hardware used by Ithaca Car Share and other such outfits to manage car sharing arrangements and handle reservations.
posted by zachlipton at 5:35 PM on January 18, 2009
Also try the World Carshare Consortium (no personal knowledge of this organization).
The folks at Opencar spun off from SF's City Car Share to market the technology needed for these services (RFID keys and reservations and such).
Also Metavera makes the software/hardware used by Ithaca Car Share and other such outfits to manage car sharing arrangements and handle reservations.
posted by zachlipton at 5:35 PM on January 18, 2009
Oh and good for you for pursuing this. I'm sure it will be useful to many members of your community.
posted by zachlipton at 5:36 PM on January 18, 2009
posted by zachlipton at 5:36 PM on January 18, 2009
Best answer: What kind of technology can I use to allow people to use the car with a RFID card the way zipcar does it?
For comparison, the car sharing service I use (AutoShare) went with a simple lock-boxes, all keyed alike, to hold the keys... pretty simple, and it seems to work well. They also use Metavera's software.
posted by onshi at 6:35 PM on January 18, 2009
For comparison, the car sharing service I use (AutoShare) went with a simple lock-boxes, all keyed alike, to hold the keys... pretty simple, and it seems to work well. They also use Metavera's software.
posted by onshi at 6:35 PM on January 18, 2009
Seconding what Onshi said. Community Car had lockboxes until recently and uses an online reservation system. They are also in a university town smaller than the metro areas that use Zipcar.
posted by Madamina at 8:17 PM on January 18, 2009
posted by Madamina at 8:17 PM on January 18, 2009
Best answer: City Car Share in SF started as a nonprofit. ZipCar is copying it as a for-profit entity. City Car Share wrote a guide about how to start car sharing in your own community (pdf) (here is the shorter summary [pdf]).
posted by salvia at 11:09 PM on January 18, 2009
posted by salvia at 11:09 PM on January 18, 2009
i came in to suggest many of the things already suggested, so i don't have anything else to add besides: good on you for wanting to do this! i hope it is something that is truly feasible for you, or people in your area, to undertake.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:34 AM on January 19, 2009
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:34 AM on January 19, 2009
One option that I can recommend (it's working for my small town) is to try to convince a car sharing organization in another town to open a branch in your own. If you can get together a group who are ready and willing to plunk down the cash for their co-op membership share (or whatever arrangement they are using), you might be an attractive option for another co-op who are looking to expand.
On the key issue, as others have written, lockboxes are the answer. I was recently part of a 10,000+ member co-op and they used lockboxes too.
But don't worry about those kind of details now. The most important thing (and the most difficult and time consuming by far) is getting together a sufficiently large group of people who are willing to join your as yet purely theoretical co-op. Start spreading the word in any way you can.
posted by ssg at 12:46 AM on January 20, 2009
On the key issue, as others have written, lockboxes are the answer. I was recently part of a 10,000+ member co-op and they used lockboxes too.
But don't worry about those kind of details now. The most important thing (and the most difficult and time consuming by far) is getting together a sufficiently large group of people who are willing to join your as yet purely theoretical co-op. Start spreading the word in any way you can.
posted by ssg at 12:46 AM on January 20, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by The Michael The at 5:14 PM on January 18, 2009 [1 favorite]