Developing a region wide e-carsharing system including a new registration and booking app
About this good practice
The idea of launching an e-carsharing system in the region was already created before the corona pandemic occurred. The supply of vehicles has increased as planned even during the pandemic and will continue to increase until 2022. Charging and hiring stations have been established in different central places in the region. A new and simpler registration and booking app was released in mid of 2021. Demand increased especially during the pandemic and over average (if comparing it with demand of other transport modes). The vehicle fleet was used not only for renting, but for parcels services (medical products) and community transport (e.g. Gemeindemobil) with volunteers as drivers as well. This increased the range of the services and the efficiency of usage. Following the idea of mobility as a service, the same booking app can be used for bike sharing in the province as well.
Together with the service provider itself, the operators of community transport services, flexible transport services, a bank (Raiffeisenbank) and the single municipalities are involved. All shareholders of the bank can use the car-sharing vehicle for free.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic a special disinfection regime has been introduced for the vehicles.
Resources needed
One additional staff member for the development of new e-carsharing stations and the search for partners with additional demand for e-cars and mobility. Other resources such as the budget for the free test campaign and the budget for advertising and promotion for the new stations.
Evidence of success
The release of the booking app increased the attractiveness of the service significantly (registration with driving licence can be made online now). The number of vehicles was increased from 7 to 14. The number of bookings (even considering booking per vehicle only) increased +64% during an advertisement campaign (with free contingents to use the services) but stabilised on +30% between April 2019 and April 2021.
Potential for learning or transfer
The continuous increase in the number of vehicles within the system is now starting to reach a threshold, so that more and more residents and tourists are becoming aware of the system. These developments take time, and the usage figures are slowly but steadily increasing.
The booking system needs to be simple and integrate many transport services in the region, so that users do not have to register in many different apps (e.g. for bike sharing, different car sharing systems, scooter sharing, public transport, etc.).
Another point to be tackled is the cost structure of the service. Free testing phases are very important, so clients can make first experiences with the system and register themselves. Free usage for tourists with a tourist card could be an option (this is established for the regional buses in the region already).