I am following up my last blog on carsharing in Australia with another interesting point, brought up by Cristina Lynn, Managing Partner, Parking Consultants International.
"I was talking to a potential customer of this service, and he was telling me that from his research the biggest issue he has with the carsharing companies is that you have to drop the car back to the original collection point," says Lynn.
Lynn points out that some carshare customers, like commuters for example, may only want to use the car to get from point A to point B. She say it would make more sense to allow the user to drop off the car at point B, rather than have to park the car for a period of time and then take it back to point A.
"This would then mean you don't have to pay for the rental while the car is parked – as well as the parking fee!" Lynn adds.
This made a lot of sense to me, so I checked into it. Turns out the carshare companies have given this concept a lot of thought, but it is not a simple issue.
"One-way trips is of course something that has been considered from the early days," says Gregory Giraud in Members Relations at Flexicar, one of the leading Australian carshare companies. "It does make a lot of sense, however, it is complex and challenging to implement. We'd need several parking spaces at the same location and a complex booking system to be able to juggle between bookings, members, locations and cars, but also some staff to relocate cars on a daily basis."
My guess is that solving this parking issue will be critical to the growth of carsharing in Australia.
Pete Goldin
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