Zipcar bringing car-sharing to public sector

WASHINGTON — After nearly a decade of convincing city-dwellers to ditch their vehicles and sign up for its car-sharing service, Zipcar Inc. is hoping to broaden its customer base by offering the technology to the public sector.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company plans to announce a new venture Monday that will allow municipalities to equip their vehicles with Zipcar’s reservation and management systems. The company says having city employees share vehicles will allow governments to streamline their fleets, saving money and helping the environment.

The new program comes as cash-strapped local governments look for ways to trim costs amid a slumping national economy.

A pilot program under way for six months in Washington, D.C., has allowed the city to reduce the total number of passenger cars in its fleet by 360, or 17 percent. District of Columbia officials are projecting net savings of more than $1 million after the first year and $6.6 million after five years.

“You promote more sustainable transportation behavior and also save money — it’s a huge win-win,” said Zipcar chief executive Scott Griffith.

The FastFleet program works much like Zipcar’s car-sharing service. Participants reserve a vehicle online or by phone, and then enter it by swiping an access card. Keys are stored inside the car, and when a driver is done, he or she returns the vehicle to the pickup site.

But there’s a key difference from Zipcar’s traditional service — FastFleet does not provide the vehicles. They are supplied by the city or business using the technology. The monthly cost for the equipment ranges from $65 to $90 per vehicle.

D.C. city administrator Dan Tangherlini said the city first began working with Zipcar several years ago when the company asked to use to public parking spaces for its car-sharing service.

After seeing strong demand from residents, Tangherlini said the district began to consider ways to use the technology to reduce its costs and pollution.

The city is using hybrid vehicles for the service and eventually hopes to have an all-electric fleet, he said.

Zipcar estimates there are more than 4 million passenger vehicles deployed across thousands of government fleets. Municipalities maintain large fleets to meet peak demand, but thousands of the cars typically sit idle.

“These things are sitting more often than they’re out moving,” Tangherlini said.

With FastFleet, cities are better able to monitor how frequently the cars are used and when, allowing them to move vehicles to locations where they get frequent use and eliminate those that are underused. They also can save on fuel and parking costs.

Each car in Zipcar’s traditional car-sharing fleet typically serves about 40 drivers, Griffith said. Under the FastFleet program in D.C., each vehicle is used by about 15 to 20 drivers, and that number is expected to increase.

Zipcar has 275,000 members in more than 50 markets in the United States, Europe and Canada.