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January 2, 2008 |
Zipcar leverages an extensive suite of technologies to make car sharing simple
By Trevor Marshall
 Pundits often point out that computing and telecommunications technologies have changed the way we work and play, and it’s true high tech has made tremendous contributions to the economy and provided richer entertainment experiences. But technology is at its most interesting when it changes how people live their lives—especially when such changes would simply not be possible without ubiquitous and affordable computing systems and wired and wireless communications networks.
Zipcar is a good example. The Cambridge Mass.-based car-sharing company launched in 1999 and now operates in seven North American cities plus London, England, with tens of thousands of members worldwide. Zipcar opened its doors in Toronto in May 2006 and regional vice-president Michael Lende said there are now 6,000 members in the city. Zipcar rolled into Vancouver in April 2007 and more Canadian cities will soon see its arrival. “We’re going to be opening up in 50 more cities, including more cities in Canada, in Europe, in the United States and perhaps the southern hemisphere as well,” Lende said.
Technology model
Zipcar depends upon a number of innovations to make its business run. “We’ve had a convergence of all of the key technologies required to pull this off,” said Doug Williams, Zipcar’s vice-president of engineering. “These include the ubiquity of Web browsers; the ubiquity of cellphones, because if members need to contact us they’re going to be in their cars and they’re going to have a cellphone; the ubiquity of cellular networks so we can use them to communicate with our vehicles; and the widespread adoption of RFID technology so we can provide all of this at an economical cost.”
These components combine to create a convenient, self-service model (see sidebar) that reduces Zipcar’s costs by eliminating the trappings of traditional car-rental businesses, including private lots, kiosks and counter staff.
“The ability to do self-service allows us to offer members the ability to make hourly reservations and for us to have a broad range of cars with very small local teams,” Williams said. Those savings mean Zipcar can charge as little as $10.50 per hour, including gas and insurance.
But technology also makes reserving and picking up a set of wheels convenient, Williams said. “This appeals to a growing set of people who actually prefer to just take care of it themselves. Instead of waiting in line at a counter they prefer to go online.”
Lende said reserving a vehicle takes about 10 seconds on the Web, which is an appropriate amount of time when one might be using the car for just an hour. “Standing in a rental trailer and waiting for somebody to sell me insurance and extra miles and signing a bunch of documents—that’s all very time consuming,” he said. “Here, technology eliminates all that. There’s no half-hour wait: I book my car online, I walk up to it, I get in and I go.”
Making it fun
The user experience is important, Williams said, because getting people excited about car sharing requires more than simply making the economic argument. “We want it to be more fun than owning your own car, and technology certainly plays a role in that it helps to make things as simple as possible.”
Lende agreed: “The more complex we get on our end, the more simplified and convenient it gets for the consumer.”
He adds that this ease of use, combined with the economics of car sharing, have created a loyal customer base for Zipcar. “Forty per cent of our members get rid of their existing vehicles or halt the decision to purchase a vehicle within the first year of being with us.”
But Lende believes it’s the indirect benefits to society that make car sharing really exciting. “It’s going to ease congestion. It’s going to reduce emissions. It’s going to reduce gas consumption and because people pay for Zipcars by the hour, they think twice before they book their reservation, so we’re making people better transit consumers,” he said, pointing out that on average, a Toronto Zipcar is shared by more than 20 members.
Growth opportunity
Recently, Zipcar incorporated text messaging to mobile devices into its technology play. The company can now alert members if another member has booked the vehicle they are using, or tell drivers that the car is available if they want to extend their booking. “Reservation alerts happen in real time,” Williams said. “If we do this on a Web site or via e-mail, we can’t expect that it’ll help anybody. But with text messaging, we can.”
Going forward, Williams and Lende see a real opportunity for Zipcar to work more closely with transit systems. Members already take transit to work and book a Zipcar to go to meetings, instead of driving to work every day. Williams said Zipcar is looking at whether it makes sense to integrate membership cards onto smart-card-based transit passes. “We’re viewed as a big resource by transit authorities,” he said. Other opportunities being explored include using mobile phones as identification mechanisms and moving into location-based services. “Thus far we haven’t been prevented technologically from moving forward,” he said. “We feel really lucky on the technology front.”
For Lende, that means the future is bright for car sharing and that is good news for urban dwellers. “Ten per cent of all drivers in a city should be car sharing,” he said. “That would mean literally hundreds of thousands of cars off the road. That’s the dream. That’s the vision.”
SIDEBAR
How it works
There are four basic steps to using Zipcar
1) Join. This is a one-time step. Fill out an online application and Zipcar checks your driving record and establishes the billing relationship. Approved applicants then receive an RFID-enabled membership card.
2) Reserve. Visit the Zipcar Web site to browse available vehicles—anything from subcompacts to pick-up trucks—and then book the chosen vehicle. Reservations can be made minutes or months in advance. The reservation is transferred to an onboard computer in the vehicle using GPRS, a wireless data service carried over mobile phone networks.
3) Unlock. Vehicles are parked in reserved spaces throughout a city. Each vehicle has a unique name and a home lot. For example, a BMW 323 called “Brazil” lives in the Commerce Court parking garage in downtown Toronto, while “Trevor,” a Toyota Tacoma pickup, calls a lot near Nelson St. and Expo Blvd. in Vancouver’s Yaletown district home. When it’s time to drive, go to the lot and hold the membership card up to the vehicle window. The vehicle’s computer uses RFID to compare the membership card to the reservation information it downloaded when the booking was made. If it’s a match, the doors unlock and the car is ready to go.
4) Drive. The keys are inside the vehicle, tied to the steering column. Zipcars come with fuel cards to pay for gas and insurance is included in the hourly rate. Return the vehicle to its home parking spot before the reservation expires and lock the doors. The vehicle then transmits data back to Zipcar to report that it’s available for another booking, how many kilometres were driven and so on. This information is used to calculate the final bill, which is charged to the member’s credit card.
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