We take a look at pay-as-you-go rental schemes. Could they save you money? Could you live without your car?
What's the big idea?
In recent years we've seen the rise of commercial car clubs: companies offering cars for hire on an hourly basis, booked as and when you need to use them. These companies have thousands of cars throughout the country ready to drive away from convenient city-centre and suburban locations.
There are several operators (the big four are City Car Club, Streetcar, WhizzGo and Zipcar), but the basic idea is much the same: you pay a yearly membership charge and then go online (or make a phone call) to book a car when you need it. You then walk to the car, swipe your membership card over the windscreen to unlock it, and drive away.
The price varies from provider to provider but is typically in the region of £4-£6 per hour (including fuel). Between them the four majors cover Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Guildford, Huddersfield, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, St. Albans and York, with other cities to follow.
Internationally Zipcar (which started in Boston, MA, as far back as 1999) has cars in over 50 US cities and more than 100 university campuses. In Europe, GreenWheels is dominant in the Netherlands and Germany, but the country with the most car-sharers per capita is Switzerland, where the first clubs emerged in 1987.
Arguments for
Frugal. Unless you drive for a living, or drive to and from work, the yearly cost of using a pay-as-you-go car is a fraction of what you'd spend on car ownership. You don't have to worry about the cost of monthly repayments, depreciation, insurance, fuel (up to a daily mileage cap), road tax or residents' parking permits. If you live in London, some of the providers also factor in the cost of the Congestion Charge.
Fun. You get to try out a number of different vehicles and aren't tied-down to driving the same car day in, day out. Between them, the car clubs operate family hatchbacks, hybrids (Toyota Prius, Honda Insight), frugal diesels (Vauxhall Corsa Eco, VW Golf Bluemotion) and even Mini Coopers.
Green. For each pay-as-you-go car there are typically 30 car club members. If each of these members replace an existing car with car club membership this takes 29 cars off the road. The fewer cars there are on the road, the less carbon is expended in the production of new cars. In congested city centres this could lead to fewer parked cars which would lead to less driving around hunting for spaces (and the wasted fuel and unnecessary emissions this creates).
Convenience. Because many car clubs have locations in different cities somebody from Manchester, for instance, can use a car when they visit Birmingham or Edinburgh.
Arguments against
Availability. You can't guarantee that there will be a car available in a location convenient to you. Of course you can book far in advance, but you can't always drive away whenever the fancy takes you. Inevitably pay-as-you-go cars are more popular at the weekends, making spontaneous day trips less likely.
Ownership. There's a social status to car ownership that isn't always trumped by the satisfaction of doing one's bit for the environment. Some of the companies insist on plastering their cars with logos, making it impossible to pretend that you're driving your own wheels.
Other users. Although there are contractual penalties for breaking the rules, it's not uncommon to find the car you have booked hasn't arrived back yet, or that the interior is littered, or the fuel tank close to empty (car club members are expected to fill up the cars when necessary, using the pre-payment card in the glove compartment).
Pets. Quite understandably, most car clubs forbid the carrying of pets. But this can be hard on environmentally-minded dog walkers.
Longer journeys. Car clubs only really make sense for short, urban journeys. If you want to book a car for an entire weekend, or need to drive from city to city, then traditional rental cars are more cost-effective.
Related links
Smart idea? Have your say...
Would you ditch your own car if there was a car club vehicle parked on your street? Or could you not bear to share? Let us know your thoughts on pay-as-you-go cars.
More motoring schemes and ideas
To gillianhood17 NO and I think I can say that on behalf of everyone reading any comments on yahoo
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Bloody hell, at last a common sense idea, so long as it's not ruined by greed i'm all for it. Ray W
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good idea but not for me i like my own car to much
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Pay as go is only good for those who use the car once a week, if you use a car more than two day a week that's to say 24hrs it's better owning your on car. 24hrs a week X £4 an hour = 96x52 week =£4992 a year not forgeting fuel and parking that can add up to big fortune. So the scheme is only good for those who use the car once in a month and only for say 4hrs
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cngabu--the idea isn't to keep the car for 24 hours--but to use it only for the errands you need it for--then turn it over to someone else to use. Most peoples cars sit unused for much of the day. Even when you're running errands on a Sat or Sun you often only use the car for 4-6 hours in one day. So why not share the vehicle and only pay for it when you need it. Of course-if you have an hour commute each way and theres no public tranport to use--then this isn't a good idea. But if you can use transport, bike or walk to work and only have to use the car when you go out shopping once or twice a week--this is ideal.
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more new world order trash! Tracking and tracing 'civilians'. What would happen in a civil emergency and you had to leave in a hurry? Think about it....
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No, I can't give up my little car!
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I've been using a local car share scheme for over a year now. Insurance AND Petrol are included in the hire costs so you only pay the £6ph..which it seems some have forgotten. I car share to work with a scheme sponsored by the company I work for, which is free. So, I only need a car for those "big shop" days. Normal weekends now either involve per-hour hiring of a family car for the said "big shop", or WALKING as a family or (shock horror) using the bus. I have hired from the same scheme for a week and it has still worked out cheaper than even hiring a car from someone like Avis (due to the petrol!), coupled to that...No deposit and no 3rd degree of your driving licence. To me, pay-per-hour car hire (Whizzgo in our case) is a significant saving to my family, has encouraged us to be fitter (all this additional walking has now taken 2" off my waist!) and helps the environment by keeping another car off the street.
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why would you want to do it,what happen's if you ned a car at a drop of a hat ,do you have to book it?
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£6 an hour,its too dear! Go shopping its usually a 2 minute drive about 2 hours round the old asda store and 2 minutes home =£12-£18 ,I could get a taxi there and back for £6
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