Zipcar is a for-profit, membership-based carsharing company providing automobile rental to its members, billable by the hour or day. Zipcar was founded in 2000 by Cambridge, Massachusetts residents Robin Chase and Antje Danielson. On October 31, 2007 Zipcar merged with rival Flexcar. By 2009 Zipcar has become the world's largest car-sharing service, sharing 6,000 vehicles between 275,000 drivers in 49 U.S. cities, Vancouver, Toronto, and London, representing almost half of all car-sharers worldwide.
Membership details
Members, called "zipsters", are able to view vehicle availability and reserve a self-service car via the internet, iPhone app, or by telephone, in increments as short as one hour and pay only for time they reserve. Zipcar vehicles report their positions to a control center using in-car technology. In the U.S. each reservation entitles the members up to 180 miles for each 24 hour period, while Canadian members receive up to 200 kilometers with each reservation for the first 24 hours, and 15 kilometers per each additional hour beyond the initial 24. Individual members can sign up for one of two different plans, the "Occasional Driving Plan" and the "Extra Value Plan".
Members are given an access card containing a wireless chip, called a "Zipcard", which will open the vehicle they have reserved only at the time they have reserved it. The reservation includes driver's insurance, a gas card for the car, reimbursements for fuel obtained at gas stations that do not accept the included gas card, and up to $15 in reimbursements for typical car maintenance items like car washes and window wiper fluid refills. When someone becomes a member, they can automatically reserve and use a Zipcar in any Zipcar city.
On May 1, 2007, Zipcar announced that it was ending its partnership with XM Radio and the service would be removed from its cars over the subsequent two months.
University, organization and business partnerships
Zipcar also offers its service for businesses (called "Z2B"), universities and organizations. These programs typically provide a discount on the annual membership fee. Additionally, the Z2B program provides discounts on Monday - Friday driving. They have also partnered with over 30 colleges and universities to provide students with access to their car sharing service on or near campus, the first being the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Zipcar Fleet
As of 26 September 2009, Zipcar's fleet consists of 29 distinct models from auto makers BMW, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo. Each vehicle has a home location: a reserved parking space located on a street, driveway, or neighborhood parking lot in the member's area. The locations of all Zipcars and models available at those locations are available at the Zipcar website.
Recently, Ford and Toyota have gained interest in working with Zipcar to take advantage of its large member base for testing electric vehicles and vehicles designed specifically for car sharing.
Embedded Technologies
Zipcars have RFID transponders located on the windshield that communicates with the car to lock and unlock the doors of the vehicle. Each vehicle records hours of usage and mileage, which is uploaded to a central computer via a wireless data link. The location of the vehicles is not tracked during a reservation for privacy reasons but is trackable and all cars are equipped with a "kill" function that allows the company to prevent the car from starting in the event of theft (it does not cause the car to turn off, for safety reasons). Zipcar also offers the embedded Information Technologies it has installed in its fleet as a fleet optimization service through its FastFleet service.
Plug-in hybrid vehicles
Further information: Plug-in hybrids in CaliforniaIn February 2009 was announced the launch of a pilot project to promote plug-in hybrid vehicles in Zipcar's fleet in the San Francisco Bay Area. This pilot is a partnership between Zipcar and the City of San Francisco. The vehicle showcased during the announcement was a Toyota Prius converted for plug-in capabilities with range of up to 30–40 miles of electrically assisted driving on a single charge. The program is aimed to provide Zipcar members with a convenient and cost-effective way to test drive PHEVs. The city installed a plug-in charging stations in front of San Francisco City Hall that can be used by the existing fleet of municipal plug-in vehicles and also for plug-in hybrids available through Zipcar and City CarShare.
History
- September 1999: Antje Danielson and Robin Chase discuss car-sharing company based on existing German and Swiss companies (see also Mobility_CarSharing).
- January 2000: Company formed.
- June 2000: First Zipcars hit the road around Boston, MA.
- September 2001: Washington, D.C. office opened
- February 2002: New York City office opened
- February 2003: Scott Griffith replaces Robin Chase as CEO.
- April 2005: Zipcar partners with XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) to provide satellite radio in all Zipcars.
- July 2005: Zipcar secures $10 million in funding led by Benchmark Capital.
- August 2005: San Francisco office opened.
- May 2006: Toronto office opened.
- May 2006: General Electric's Commercial Finance Fleet Services (NYSE: GE) gives Zipcar $20 million in lease line financing.
- September 2006 Toronto market is named fastest growing new market in company history
- November 2006: London office opened.
- April 2007: Vancouver office opened.
- May 2007 : XM Satellite Radio ends partnership with Zipcar and radios will not be available in Zipcars any longer.
- October 2007: Zipcar and Flexcar executives announce a merger of the two companies, with the Zipcar brand and headquarters replacing that of Flexcar.
- January 23, 2008 The merged Zipcar/Flexcar cancels service for the Southern California cities of Los Angeles and San Diego. Southern California college operations are left intact.
- July 11, 2008 Zipcar announces it doubled membership in past year, including the Flexcar members it acquired, and now has 225,000 members
- August 28, 2008 Rice University announced the introduction into the program in their goal of achieving as low of a carbon footprint as possible while providing additional transportation options for employees that carpool.
- April 8, 2009 announced a partnership with Zimride to allow Zipcar members to automatically post rides for carpooling on Zimride.
- June 8, 2009 announced iPhone application at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference. Application capable of honking the horn and unlocking the Zipcars.
Merger
On October 31, 2007 Zipcar and Flexcar announced their intentions to merge. The merged company will retain the name "Zipcar" and be headquartered in Cambridge. Zipcar's chief executive, former Seattle-based Boeing engineer Scott Griffith, will be chairman and CEO. Flexcar CEO Mark Norman will become president and chief operating officer. The merger will combine Zipcar's fleet of 3,500 vehicles in 35 markets with Flexcar's 1,500 cars in 15 markets.
Liability insurance
Zipcar provides $300,000 per accident in liability coverage for members over 21 years of age. Members at fault are responsible for the first $500 of costs related to the repair, recovery, and loss of use of any Zipcar vehicle. Members involved in accidents where fault is not determined, such as in states that require no-fault insurance, must also pay the first $500 of these costs. In other words, if the Member is at fault in an accident, or the Member is in a no-fault state, Zipcar's insurance will cover from $500 up to $300,000 in property damage or bodily injury. For members under 21, Zipcar provides insurance coverage at state-mandated levels.
Insurance coverage may vary depending on the region of use. For example, Canadian members in Toronto, ON are provided with $1,000,000 in liability coverage. Vancouver, BC members are provided with $2,000,000 in liability coverage. Both regions in Canada also include comprehensive and collision coverage in addition to liability insurance. It should also be noted that Zipcars traveling into Canada from the U.S. requires members to obtain a special insurance card from Zipcar. Canadian Zipcars traveling into the U.S. do not need the extra insurance card.
London, UK members are covered by a full comprehensive loss, and unlimited personal injury / bodily injury liability policy. Third party liability is covered up to a maximum of £20,000,000. Similar to Zipcar U.S., traveling abroad
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