Joanne Holmes runs a home-based craft business in Victoria, making coats for dogs and other pets. Ewa Ciuk lives in a high-rise condo on Toronto's waterfront, and works for an environmental non-profit organization at city hall.
What do they have in common? They both eschew automobile ownership in favour of car sharing.
Ms. Holmes is a member of the Victoria Car Share Co-operative, a member-owned collective that's been around for almost a decade. Ms. Ciuk uses Zipcar, a private U.S.-based upstart that brought its glitzy marketing machine to Canada's biggest city in 2006.
Ms. Holmes and Ms. Ciuk are on the front lines of a phenomenon that's rapidly gaining ground, as a perfect storm of high car-ownership costs and environmental concerns accelerates a practice that was once associated only with the granola-and-Birkenstock set.
More Report on Business Stories
Car sharing involves joining an organization that owns vehicles parked throughout a city. Members book online or by phone, pay an hourly rate to use the car, then return it to its designated parking spot when finished. It's an ideal setup for a city dweller who doesn't need a car to commute, but wants a vehicle for a trip to IKEA, a grocery binge, or an important date. There are no worries about insurance, maintenance, or the price of gas.
In smaller cities such as Victoria, Kitchener, Ottawa and Calgary, where the business model is still fragile and most car-share organizations are co-ops, the practice is still mainly seen as an environmentally friendly alternative lifestyle.
Vancouver's Co-operative Auto Network is still a co-op, but it has grown into a big business with more than 100 cars. In Toronto and Montreal, the car-share organizations are run as for-profit enterprises targeting young urban professionals. There, the green tinge of car sharing is still a big sell, but the focus is on cost savings and flexibility that can appeal to downtown condo dwellers and those living in the more crowded inner suburbs.
In Canada's biggest market there's even head-to-head competition: Toronto's established AutoShare now faces rival Zipcar, a multinational based in Boston.
For Ms. Ciuk, the light went on when she realized that a car it would cost her over $700 a month -- parking alone would be as much as $150. She lives in a high-rise, and joined Zipcar when she and boyfriend David Jackson decided a car was just too expensive. She bikes to work most days, while Mr. Jackson takes the GO train to work in Burlington, just west of Toronto.
When they need a car, they book it online, walk to the Zipcar lot, swipe an electronic card over a sensor that unlocks the door, and climb in, paying about $11 an hour for the privilege. That's their routine two or three times a month.
There are two Zipcars parked a block away, two more a few blocks down the street, and a pickup truck a subway ride away that they've used to get drywall at Home Depot.
Their motivation for joining Zipcar was mixed. "It was more environmental concerns for me; for David it was cost," Ms. Ciuk said. Over all, however, "we don't need to own a car. There's no reason to."
Ms. Holmes, the Victoria craftsperson, sold her car a few years ago, but realized she still needed wheels occasionally to buy groceries or take her goods to craft fairs. So last summer she joined the Victoria Car Share co-op, and books the Toyota Tercel that's parked near her home -- by phone or online -- about once a week. She has access to any of the other nine vehicles the co-op has sprinkled around greater Victoria, if the Tercel has been booked.
At $2 an hour or $20 a day (the hourly rates are lower than Zipcar because there's also a 34-cent-per-kilometre charge), she's even used it for short camping trips. A logbook in the car keeps track of each user's trip and bills are sent once a month.
"I think it's the way of the future," Ms. Holmes said. "A big part of getting rid of your car is not just the hassle and the money, but you're becoming part of the solution [to global warming]."
She's also very keen on the co-op structure of the organization. She had to buy $500 worth of shares to join, but through the co-op meets "like-minded individuals" also concerned about the environment.
Car sharing was pioneered in Europe: the first co-ops were set up in the mid-1980s in Switzerland and Germany. The first Canadian organization was Quebec City's Communauto, established in 1993 and now boasting about 10,000 members in Quebec, Montreal and other centres in the province. It started out as a co-op, but is now privately owned. Within a few years, Vancouver's Co-operative Auto Network and Toronto's AutoShare sprang into existence, along with co-ops in some smaller cities. Now there are about a dozen cities in Canada with some kind of car-sharing organization. Some have just a handful of cars, while those in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver run fleets of more than 100 vehicles.
Scott Griffith, Zipcar's CEO, thinks it's now mainly the economics of car sharing that attract people who live and work in big cities, use public transit and don't need a car.
"In the beginning it was very much a grassroots initiative, focused on early adopters who were interested in the environmental benefits, largely," he said. "We're well past the tipping point now into a much larger population."
Zipcar is now in 10 markets, including Toronto and London, England. It has 2,500 cars in total (about 150 of which are in Toronto), 80,000 members and $40-million in annual revenue.
AutoShare had Toronto to itself for 10 years before Zipcar arrived, but president Kevin McLaughlin acknowledges a competitor in the market has dramatically boosted the profile of car sharing over all.
"The reality is that they've been good for us, and for the most part they will be good for any smaller company [they come up against], because they raise awareness," Mr. McLaughlin said. "You just have to be ready to not get sunk by the wave."
*****
The price of sharing
Pricing plans for car sharing vary tremendously, even within individual organizations. Most co-ops -- and some for-profit firms -- require a substantial upfront deposit, which is refunded when the member leaves.
Vancouver
Co-operative Auto Network
Membership fee: $500
Usage fee: $2 an hour, plus monthly charges and fees per kilometre that depend on which package the member chooses. More-frequent users can choose a higher monthly administration fee and lower per-kilometre charges.
Montreal
Communauto
Membership: $500, plus a $10 key deposit
Usage: Communauto has annual dues of anywhere from $35 to $350 a year, depending on the package chosen, plus per-kilometre rates of between 16 and 29 cents and a rental rate of between $18 and $24 a day (hourly rates are also available). Users who pay a higher annual fee get lower per-kilometre rates.
Toronto
Zipcar, AutoShare
Membership fee: Neither firm has a large upfront deposit
Usage: The annual fee for a basic plan is $55 at Zipcar and $25 for AutoShare. Hourly rates are considerably higher than at the co-ops: around $11 on Zipcar's "occasional driving plan" and $9.50 on AutoShare's "basic plan." There is usually no fee for the first 150 kilometres of each trip. Fancy or specialty cars have higher rates.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007CORRECTION
Toronto's AutoShare car-sharing service charges a $250 deposit, a $100 one-time membership fee and a $25 application fee, for a total initial cost of $375. The rival Zipcar service charges a $30 application fee. Incorrect information about upfront fees was published on Dec. 28.
