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
We use Street Car and love it. We just don't see the point of car when you live in the middle of London and it's nice to know we're doing our bit for the environment, even if it is only a small contribution. Yes it's not great for a trip to Asda as it would be cheaper to get a cab but if you had to go to several places in three or four hours it's great. The first 30 miles don't cost you anything in petrol so can end up being very reasonable. There are so many cars to choose from and often we book only an hour or two in advance.
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I think I need to reread the article. I didn't think anyone was trying to force anyone to part company with their precious cars. The whole point seems to be that it might be useful for some people in some cir@#$%stances. I might just as well get all angry that people are trying to take away my washing machine because of the 'Launderettes' that are springing up all over the place. And quite how we get from this article to the statement "send a load of asylum seekers back home.. The way they arrived by boat...Now that’s the real problem we are simply overloaded" courtesy of your BNP representative raymondlangleyuk, I don’t know – an argument so riddled with fallacies to tackle them I’d be taking this thread even further from it’s point.
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excellent idea, i think this could also roll out to commercial vehicles on a load one way, or round robbin, could well be the answer to small owner operators or drivers from hgv dan
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Reading some of the comments here makes no sense at all. People obviously talking about something they have never tried. The product offered by these companies is for city folk who perhaps refuse to purchase a car and more so probably have no where to park it in the first place. I live in the city myself and walk to work. I whizzgo when i need to and more often than not can book a car within 15-20 mins of using it. If its not available there are others parked in designated parking spaces usually within a couple of hundred meters of each other. The best example of i can give for the use of this service is renting a car for the hour to collect someone from the airport. Taxi from the airport cost £19, need i say anymore!
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nah non runner for us we live in a small town 20 miles outside a major city a car is a must publia transport is a total joke round here 1 bus per hour then a 40 munite train ride thats £10 gone then £4-6 per hour for the car sounds expensive to me so NO THANK YOU
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More new world order trash !!! In agreement with johnnyhotshots 2003
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perhaps this is an idea companies can adapt for people who work for them, get a group to share the car only use it to work and back and the company subsisises the costs
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good idea, not practical enough, plus the way i drive !!!!!! like my own bubble to much
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I think the '@#$%' part of the word 'cir@#$%stances' was censored in my post. Odd. Free speech, eh?
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An arsenal supporter from s@#$%horpe cir@#$%navigated the globe Just testing.
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