Zipcar to Venture into Public Sector Fleet Management
As more and more municipal governments across the country look to stretch their budgets even further, Zipcar Inc. thinks it has a solution: FastFleet.
According to the Boston Globe, the FastFleet service, to be announced today by the Cambridge, MA-based company, works a lot like Zipcar’s traditional car-sharing service. Zipcar customers reserve a Zipcar-owned vehicle online or by phone, and then enter it by swiping an access card—the keys to the vehicle are stored safely inside. When the customer’s done with the vehicle, he or she returns it to a Zipcar pick-up site, and that’s that.
FastFleet will work the same way, with one major caveat: Zipcar won’t own the vehicles, the municipality will. The municipality-owned vehicles will simply use Zipcar technology and equipment at a monthly cost of $65 to $90 per vehicle. A six-month pilot program in Washington, DC, has enabled the city to reduce the number of cars in its passenger car fleet by 17%–360 cars—thereby saving $1 million in the first year, and a projected $6.6 million after five years.
“You promote more sustainable transportation behavior and also save money,” said Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith, as quoted by the Globe. “It’s a huge win-win.”
By Robert Pothier