David Johnson Car sharing works best for short, ‘shuttle’ journeys, those that take only a couple of hours or so. Cost-wise, longer journeys will generally make more sense using daily rental, which is why we use both as appropriate.

The biggest cost advantage comes from the change car shar-ing programme has caused in driver behaviour.

Our business mileage has reduced by some 30% thanks to fewer trips being taken and a more regulated approach to business travel.

Stephen Cavinder It’s definitely more competitive using the car club mechanism of pay as you go. Daily rentals can be expensive, particularly if a user only requires the vehicle for an hour or so.

How do fleet drivers feel about using car clubs/car sharing schemes?

Tony Leigh We have had no requests to provide information about car clubs from a business standpoint. This comes back to journey patterns. For example, if you live in Huntingdon and you need to visit a client in Bury St
Edmunds, why would you travel to Cambridge to use a car club vehicle?

David Johnson Our employees were a little nervous at first, mainly because of the technology involved. However, the online booking system and access cards used by Enterprise are particularly user-friendly and we had some keen early adopters who soon became very positive advocates.

As a result, we’ve seen a very positive response across all those involved in the car-sharing programme.

Stephen Cavinder Car clubs or car sharing can take a bit of getting used to; many drivers don’t like it at first as they are used to jumping in any available vehicle at any time.

They have to get used to planning their journeys better and book vehicles in advance and then have to make sure the vehicle is returned on time for the next user which can lead to drivers booking vehicles for longer than is required.

What could be done to improve the use of car clubs?

Tony Leigh More locations. Outside London, Zipcar, for example, only has cars in four locations. That’s insufficient to serve the UK’s population.]