Carsharing: Twice the Expertise = Twice the Service

Carsharing has been around since the late 80’s with CarSharing Organisations (CSOs) offering members access to a fleet of shared cars 24/7 from unattended self-service locations. Usage is billed by the minute/hour and by distance driven. Carsharing is environmentally friendly, one shared car removes 10 privately held cars from the road, and makes the chronic parking problems in many cities less severe. It is also much cheaper for users than buying a car, paying for petrol, insurance, vehicle tax and maintenance.

Yet for all these advantages carsharing is not widely used in a global context. Only forty thousand vehicles worldwide are used for carsharing at present out of a global fleet of over 1 billion vehicles. One of the main reasons for the slow uptake of carsharing has been the cumbersome nature of carsharing software. Often CSO’s buy software platforms that are overly complicated with pricing structures that are difficult for the end user to interpret and use. With modern life being driven by convenient easy to use apps, this complication is a considerable drag on the wider uptake of carsharing globally.

Noticing this difficulty two of the most experienced software providers for the car sharing industry, Good Travel Software and Mobility Systems & Services have agreed to work together to create a simplified platform for CSO’s to use in the near future.

Founded in 2010, in Dublin, Ireland, Good Travel Software is a leading supplier of mobility software for the automotive industry with clients ranging from some of the largest OEMs in the world to renowned car rental and car share operators.

Based in Rotkreuz, Switzerland, Mobility Systems + Services develops and delivers integrated mobility solutions and has a proven track record in the carsharing and technology market for over twenty years. Their customers range from the Swiss Mobility Carsharing operation and regional free-floating provider Catch-a-Car to the Australian Popcar and various other carsharing operators all over the globe.

Against the background of a rapidly changing mobility sector, both companies are convinced that a collaborative approach is a prerequisite for offering better simpler products to customers.

“As both of our companies have been in the marketplace for a long time, sharing our knowledge for shared mobility seemed logical to us.” says Marcel Amstutz, CEO of Mobility Systems + Services, about the initial idea of the partnership.

Peter Soutter, CEO of GTS, adds: “We decided not to compete, but to collaborate in making the most simplified user-friendly platform possible. The goal is to drive an increase in carsharing use through better customer experience.”

As congestion, climate change and pollution become ever more serious problems it is to be hoped collaborations of this nature can help reduce the worlds addiction to privately owned cars.

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