The Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC), under the direction of Dr. Susan Shaheen, have released their car-sharing outlook for 2014. Despite the entrance of peer-to-peer application based rideshare companies, the outlook for carsharing remains steady. Angelenos are still patiently waiting for LADOT to select another carshare provider since Hertz bailed on their awarded contract.
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As always, carshare operators need to add as many members as possible, in order to remain profitable. It is a widely known fact that roughly 8-10% of the total membership are regular users, so marketing strategies will need to be revised to include more advertising with established media in their respective markets and beyond.
Highlights include:
- As of Jan. 1, 2014, there were approximately 1,462,056 car-sharing members sharing 21,459 vehicles in the Americas (19 programs in Canada, 24 in the U.S., 1 in Mexico and 1 in Brazil).
- In the U.S., 1,228,573 members shared 17,179 vehicles among the 24 car-sharing operators.
- The 19 Canadian car-sharing operators said 224,523 members shared 4,174 vehicles.
- In Mexico’s car-sharing program, 5,634 members shared 50 vehicles.
- For Brazil, its car-sharing operator claimed 3,326 members shared 56 vehicles.
You can read the full report by clicking here. If you are thinking of starting a carshare operation, you may want to consider using this new all-in-one service called Rent Centric.