How Can I Determine Which Car Sharing Service Is Right for Me?
Dear Lifehacker, I am considering doing without a car! I don’t like this idea, but where I am now, I will save some money. However, I still have the need to drive from time to time, such as at the grocery store or visiting my family. I have heard that there are many new short term rental services that can meet all your requirements. How should I choose?
Best regards, Sunday Driver
Dear Sunday Driver, you are right, there are many new services that cover the range from quick and easy taxi changes that can give you some wheels to get around town one way, to hourly rental services that are perfect for getting groceries or getting fast trip to IKEA. Both options are still more cost effective than traditional car rentals if you only need them for a short time.
Not so long ago, in this review, we looked at several options by name, so many of them have remained practically unchanged. However, the question of how to choose the right one for you is more difficult than just looking at the rates and choosing the company with the most beautiful cars. Here’s how you can make an intelligent decision.
Step one: find out what services are available near you
This is probably the most important factor for most people. If you are thinking about giving up a car, you should live where you can survive without a car, that is, people in the countryside, many suburbs and even some cities simply cannot do this. If you live in a big city or an area with well-developed transportation, it’s possible, but even then, no one likes to lug weekly groceries home on the train or load them into the back of a taxi or Uber.
To this end, we are going to focus on short-term rental services that you can manage as if you were your own. Zipcar , Car2Go , Hertz 24/7, and Enterprise Car Share are some of the most popular choices in this category. They all allow you to drive, pay for fuel, and charge you based on the time you have the car or the miles you drive, depending on the membership plan you choose. However, before choosing one, check the website of each service and see if they work in your area. Some may have regional programs for your “city”, but dig deeper – almost all of them require you to find your way to the pick-up location on your own, and it’s up to you to make it comfortable enough for you to pick up the car. the car when you need it, without having to organize your trip … just to get to your trip.
For example, in my area there is a ZipCar pick-up point and an Enterprise Car Share point a couple of minutes walk away, but Hertz is nowhere to be found. But I’m still lucky. Depending on your city or even your area, if there are no points of issue of a certain service near you, it will not start.
Step Two: Match Your Driving Needs With Affordable Rates
The next thing you need to do is think about how long you actually need to drive and how far you usually travel. If you’re only driving around town – having dinner, visiting friends, or crossing town (and don’t like the idea of taxi services like Lyft or Uber ), you might want to consider a one-way service like Car2Go. They are not the only player in this space, but one of their notable features is that you can take the car (if it’s near you, which is a bit like a roulette wheel, depending on your city), drive it wherever you want. need to. and then park it in any parking space or on any meter. It’s perfect for one-way trips or quick walks when you need to travel somewhere, but not necessarily back (at least temporarily). Also, cars tend to be small and easy to park (although not necessarily good for cargo or a batch of passengers.)
If your driving habits include round-trip trips of more than a few miles or a few hours at a time, or you want to choose some type of vehicle that you drive, you will probably need a car sharing service to give you more flexibility. … Zipcar, Enteprrise Car Share, Hertz 24/7 and similar services allow you to choose the type of vehicle (so you can take a ride big enough for your planned IKEA transportation), and membership levels are usually charged hourly. , pay for the fuel and give you a few hundred miles to play. Of course, most of these services insist that you return the car to its original location when you’re done with it (or at least park it in a different designated location), so they are great for running errands that might lead you to city trip.
Finally, if your driving needs involve occasional long-distance trips or trips that take more than a day, you are probably better off choosing a traditional car rental (for those trips anyway) or an owner-to-owner car sharing service. like RelayRides . While almost every car sharing service will flood you with weekend deals and weekend personal care promotions (and some, like Enterprise Car Share, give you discounts on full Enterprise rental rates), some are really worth your money. compared to what traditional rentals offer. By comparison, you pay for fuel, but usually you don’t have to pay for mileage, and you don’t pay hourly wages just to get through.
Step three: count and make a call
You can go through the last two steps and find that there is only one option for you, or that none of the options suits your needs. In such cases, you may be better off just leaving your car or abandoning it, but using other transportation services to get around, such as public transportation, bike rentals, or taxi and driver services such as Uber or Lyft. If you’re lucky, you have several options, and each one has different plans and membership levels that you can subscribe to.
All you have to do is do the math and figure out which membership plan – not necessarily for the company – is best for your driving experience and how often you would like to drive. In some cases, it can be a car wash (as a rule, each company’s plans are designed to be competitive), and it can all come down to which company has the best selection of cars to choose from, which one has the best rates for the car class. you need to drive (for example, carefully study the costs of driving SUVs, vans, and other large vehicles. These are usually more expensive than sedans or compact cars). It can also depend on how many miles you have driven. get it for free before you have to pay per mile, or what those per mile fees are. Don’t miss out on the fine print – this is the fine print that can determine if you feel like a member of a club that values your business and satisfies your driving needs, or if you have a ridiculous bill to pay every time you go to the grocery. score.
Optional: Don’t be afraid to subscribe to more than one service
Finally, don’t worry about your decision or think that you will be put into one service. Some car sharing companies do not charge a monthly fee (although most have a nominal annual membership fee), so you can subscribe to more than one and use the one that is best or available when you need to drive. For example, if you’re stuck choosing between Zipcar and Enterprise Car Share, see if you can get a membership discount or an annual fee waiver and sign up for both. Either way, you only pay for the wheel, and having two accounts gives you double the flexibility.
As with most important decisions, it’s important to do a good job and make sure you sign up for a service that suits your needs, but doesn’t hurt your wallet. However, before you do anything, think carefully about why you are abandoning the car, what options you will use and when, and what your driving habits actually look like. There is no guarantee that any of these services are perfect for you, or even available near you, but if you find one that works, go for it. You only have money to save.
Regards, Lifehacker