July 15, 2024
Sara Davies
8 Things To Know About Car Sharing
It’s becoming increasingly important to reduce emissions, make greener fleet choices and combat the cost of living crisis. Car sharing schemes are having a renewed sense of relevance to business owners, their fleet managers and employees alike.
What is Car Sharing?
Car sharing involves multiple employees travelling together in one vehicle rather than each in their own car. Car sharing may be referred to as carpooling. It can be relatively informal, involving one person always being the sole driver for others, or a group taking it in turns to drive to work. Car sharing can also be delivered through more formal schemes, with some businesses offering their employees access to a car club or rental service whereby they rent the cars as and when they need them. Our guide gives you more information about the various types of car sharing and their benefits.
8 Handy Things To Know:
1. Car Sharing Can Cut Fleet Costs
Companies can reduce the number of vehicles that they own or lease by sharing them among employees rather than allocating a specific car to each driver. By operating what is effectively their own car club, renting the cars to employees for the hours or days that they need them, companies can cut fleet costs substantially.
This pay-as-you-use model can work well if you have a number of employees all needing cars at different times for different uses but who also don’t necessarily need a car at all for certain periods of time. Drivers reserve vehicles in the same way they might book other services within your business, such as booking a meeting room.
Some of your employees may not need the use of cars when they’re working from home, for example, or may only need to use a car when travelling on business. Or perhaps they don’t need a car at all when travelling on business and this takes up a large proportion of their working week while the car sits unused on the drive.
These on-demand business vehicles may be part of your owned or leased fleet - or rented from a car rental firm. They may be for the business’ exclusive use or shared with other businesses (though this can bring with it new considerations and possible complications).
2. Schemes Come In All Shapes and Sizes
As we’ve outlined, there are a few different ways that car sharing can be facilitated and whether you’re an employee or an employer, it’s useful to find out the differences.
Employers can set up open car share schemes, which are open to others outside of your business but we don’t generally recommend these as they can require more management. However, an open car share scheme can work well if there are several businesses in the same building or area who choose to operate a combined scheme.
A closed scheme only operates within your business for your employers. If you have a particularly large business or one based across several sites then you might choose to reduce this to a particular location or department.
Regardless of whether you opt for an open or closed scheme, schemes can be formally or informally run. An informal car pooling scheme is one that is arranged by the staff themselves and can be easily operated with little input from your fleet management team.
A more formal scheme generally requires administration by your fleet team, or through an external third-party software. This is a great option to consider if you want to promote car pooling and have a lot of staff across different departments who might not interact and realise they live close to each other.
3. Car Sharing Reduces Fuel Bills
Whether you are an employer looking to reduce the cost of employee mileage reimbursements to staff, or an employee who pays your own fuel bill, the costs of refuelling your car are always lower when shared. There are two ways an employee might see their fuel bill reduce; either by reducing the amount of travel and refuelling by sometimes getting a lift with another employee - or by having others contribute towards the cost of the fuel by sharing the journey.
4. Car Sharing Reduces Grey Fleet Use
Replacing grey fleet vehicles with car sharing means a lower carbon footprint as well as reduced costs. Employee mileage claims, and where applicable parking expenses, will also reduce if staff are being reimbursed for using their own cars.
5. Sharing Journeys Relieves Pressure on Parking
Whether you’re an employee or an employer, the pressure to find a car parking space (or enough spaces for all your employees to park) can add more than a little stress to your day. Car sharing means less employees needing to find spaces for their cars and less hassle and expense for employers reimbursing public parking costs or paying for larger premises to extend the amount of parking space on offer. Not only does it reduce the parking demand but also the number of vehicles on the road and congestion around the premises.
6. Car Sharing Reduces Your Carbon Footprint
By sharing journeys, both businesses and their individual employees are becoming more sustainable and reducing their carbon footprint. This is both in the interest of the individual and the employer in meeting their corporate sustainability strategy.
Air quality for your employees and surrounding residents in the area around your business can be significantly improved through reduced emissions. Fewer cars also lower the noise pollution in an area which helps improve the sense of well-being of the people living and working there.
7. Car Sharing Encourages a Sense of Belonging
Car sharing is a great way for your employees to get to know each other outside of the office and can allow staff from different teams to interact when they might not otherwise. Employee engagement is an important part of any business and this is a fairly simple way to encourage inter-team connections.
In addition, various studies have shown driving in rush hour congestion can negatively impact mental health, due to the stress involved, particularly in heavy traffic. Sharing driving through a car share scheme means a reduction in the number of stressful driving experiences for a many of your employees, helping lead to an overall improvement in their quality of life.
8. Insight is Important for Success
If you’re an employer looking to set up a car sharing scheme, it will be important to know how it fits in with any existing schemes you may have. You may also want to think about any particular promotions or incentives you will offer to staff taking up the scheme and how long you’ll want these to run.
How feasible will it be for your employees to take up the schemes? If you want to set up a pay-as-you-use car club model you’ll want to analyse the existing car usage among staff and perhaps issue a questionnaire to your employees so you can better analyse their usage prior to deciding how many cars you’ll need in your total fleet to cater to demand. You may also need to consider differences between departments in the ways teams operate and travel.
Which Scheme is Best for You?
Schemes such as car clubs and car pooling can relieve a business of a substantial cost and administration when compared with the traditional methods of providing company cars. However, many car sharing schemes still require administration and may bring with them a host of new considerations.
Within a car club scheme, for example, employers and employees alike may occasionally be affected by issues such as staff members reserving cars they then don’t end up using, or overrunning slots they’ve booked, causing someone else not to receive their car in time.
Vehicle condition will also need to be closely monitored to ensure problems during one hire aren’t left for the next user, as well as transparency if any damage occurs.
Wessex Fleet are experienced in helping with all types of car sharing schemes and any other fleet management needs. You can reach our team on 01722 322 888.
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