In large and medium-sized cities, there is low competition in this niche, which indicates the prospects for launching such a service. In addition, the demand for the service is only increasing. In big cities, it becomes unprofitable to own your own car. The vehicle requires a lot of regular expenses for fuel, parking and maintenance.
Thanks to a car sharing service, the client can avoid all the hassle and use the car only when they need it, without burdening themselves with additional costs. However, before you start your own business, you need to learn more about the specifics of car sharing.
What is the essence of business?
Car sharing is different from a taxi service or a long-term car rental service. Usually, the user registers in the car sharing system through the application, indicates their data, including a bank card, and gets access to information about the location of the company's cars.
The user chooses a car and picks it up from the most convenient point, after which payment is most often charged for each minute of use. After the trip, the client pays only for the time during which the car was at their disposal. Often, car sharing services rent parking spaces or entire parking lots in different parts of the city, so the client can park the car in a location convenient for them at any time of the day.
At the same time, the cost of using a vehicle according to this model is lower than taxi services, so the service is in high demand. The service provider is responsible for the maintenance of the fleet: car repair, gas station, car wash, support for the application and corporate car sharing software, execution of all documents, driver checks, tracking of all cars.
However, there are situations when a client accidentally or intentionally causes material damage to a car sharing company. For such cases, the user agreement should provide for the procedure for indemnification — this will protect the business owner from unforeseen expenses. Therefore, special attention should be paid to finding qualified lawyers to draw up a user agreement and draw up other documents.
Buy or rent a car?
Obviously, in order to launch a car sharing service, it is necessary to acquire a fleet of vehicles. The optimal number of vehicles may depend on city size, brand positioning, vehicle class, and other factors. Therefore, to begin with, it is necessary to conduct a study, determine the target audience, its solvency, and only after that start building a fleet.
Today, one of the most popular models for purchasing a car is leasing. Car sharing companies can rent cars of specific brands and classes with the possibility of further buyout of cars. But in this case, there is a problem with fleet renewal, because ideally, a business owner needs to change used cars every few years.
Therefore, car sharing companies are now increasingly renting cars from private investors. This allows you to optimize costs and save time on the preparation of the necessary documents. In any case, with corporate car sharing software, all processes are faster and more efficient. You can streamline all accounting operations, synchronize the cooperation of all departments, control reporting, maintain a database of customers, track the location and status of all cars using a single system — special corporate car sharing software .
Regardless of whether you buy a car or rent it, you need to take into account other costs, such as maintenance, paperwork, equipping cars with a GPS system and a special key and branding. This will help to more accurately calculate the budget and predict the costs for each car.
Development or acquisition of software
A modern car sharing service cannot do without multifunctional software. If you want to develop it from scratch, it will require a lot of time, effort and investment. It is necessary to find and assemble a team of experienced developers, create a mobile application, a platform for the company, think through all the details, engage in regular updates and maintain the service.
Therefore, car sharing companies often choose ready-made solutions, adjusting them to the needs and specifics of their activities. Today, there are many services available on the market that allow you to increase the efficiency of your company by automating business processes.
Corporate car sharing software on request often helps complete important tasks, put work processes under control, reduce risks, plan a budget and thereby increase the company's profitability. The specifics of car sharing software is that, in addition to standard business functions, you can automate processes related to vehicle rental: for example, track the location of cars, maintain a database of drivers, place orders, monitor the fuel level in a car or its technical condition.
The advantage of corporate car sharing software is also the ability to store all important information in a single system and control business processes at any convenient time and from anywhere. For companies that are already operating in the car sharing market, installing such software often leads to increased work efficiency, cost optimization, increased income and further development.
To successfully develop a car sharing service, a business owner needs to pay special attention to the methods of promoting the brand in order to attract as many users as possible. Marketing costs may differ depending on the model the business was launched on.
Car sharing by franchise. If you use the franchise of a company already known on the market, the promotion costs are significantly reduced, because brand awareness will be high from the start and you will not have to build audience trust. But in this case, you must pay a portion of your income to the franchise owner.
Your own car sharing brand. This path is somewhat more difficult, but it can bring better profits in the long run, which will belong only to the business owner.
At the beginning, it is best to contact professional marketing agencies in order to be sure of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. To attract users, you can use different tools and communication channels, for example:
targeted advertising in social networks,
in-app advertising,
native advertising on specialized resources and in the media,
collaborations with bloggers,
banner ads,
external advertising (bigboards, citylights).
Car sharing service is a promising activity area that opens up many opportunities for business. If you carefully approach each stage of creating a business, plan your budget competently, take into account the needs of the target audience, and work to increase efficiency, opening a car sharing service will pay off pretty quickly and become a source of good and stable income in the future.
Author
Phong Thai is a Web Developer, Web Coder for 20 years with PHP, JavaScript, CSS. He is the creator of JavaScriptBank.com - provide thousands of free JavaScript code examples, web development tips and tricks, helpful blogging guides.twitter@js_bank or connect with him on facebook@jsbank if you want. His websites for your knowledge: javascriptON.com , inOneSec.com , www.gomymobi.com