View Full Version : Pay as you go car - may be of interest
Streetcar (http://www.mystreetcar.co.uk/) - basically a car pool system where you 'pay as you go'.
I can't drive but if I could it would probably make sense for me to use it sometimes rather than have a car, although they don't currently have a car in my neighbourhood.
People were handing out leaflets near work today about it - just thought I'd bring it to your environmentally-conscious attention!
sounds alright, although i do have car, seems to be for local stuff, and i use mine mostly when we go away at weekends...
I tried something like this in new york. Seemed like a good idea, but there was nothing in my immediate neighbourhood.
And it worked out pricier than a rental car.
I used a pay as you bicycle somewhere - in Berlin, I think - and that worked well.
bristle-krs
16-08-2005, 21:29
sounds like they're ripping off carplus (http://www.carclubs.org.uk/) (née car club network) - right down to starting up in ccn towns like bristol & oxford. their website doesn't even appear to acknowledge ccn.
Ah, I thought I'd heard of a similar scheme before - that'd be the one then.
butterfly child
17-08-2005, 09:31
Another variation on PAYG cars is shared ownership of garden tools...
Don't laugh, I'm being serious!
Another variation on PAYG cars is shared ownership of garden tools...
Don't laugh, I'm being serious!
No, that makes quite good sense for people who only need them now and then....
...lend us a trowel and fork, would ya?
butterfly child
18-08-2005, 14:09
No, that makes quite good sense for people who only need them now and then....
...lend us a trowel and fork, would ya?
I would, but we haven't got any.. I'll see if I can borrow a neighbours.. ;)
Rad Nance
19-08-2005, 02:17
Another variation on PAYG cars is shared ownership of garden tools...
Don't laugh, I'm being serious!
Cool, you never know when you might need them ;)
I'd heard about car-sharing schemes before and like the idea. It looks more cost-effective if you just want a car for a few hours, though. At £4-5 a hour, hiring for a day doesn't work out much cheaper than a conventional car hire place, as far as I can see.
Pay as you go cars have been around for ages. They are know as Taxi's :p
Here is a list of the car sharing clubs. I had a chat with a couple of them at sustainanble environment show in Greenwich Park a few months ago. These sort of things have been around a while, on a small scale. In London they are seriously hampered by a lack of locations where the car to be shared can be parked. They seemed to be a bit dependent on local councils providing special parking bays. The councils like the idea, go to the conferences, they want to be Green....but don't really move very fast.
Looks like some car sharing outfits might have started cutting deals with owners of private forecourts. A welcome development. :p
http://www.carclubs.org.uk/carclubs/carclubs-uk-contacts.htm#South%20East
Bumped because I just joined this. My card is in the mail and I should be able to book a car by the weekend. There's one in Brixton, off Acre lane opposite Tesco. Let's see how we do shall we?
scifisam
12-07-2006, 17:48
We use it a lot. (My GF drives, I don't). We use it to transport the drum kit when necessary, to help friends move house (they're only Golfs, so the capacity's not great, but still better than public transport for heavy things), and, once, to drive to Northampton on the spur of the moment. It works out very cheap, especially if you remember that it's free between midnight and 6am. It helps that we have a pick up point near my house. We've also been refunded money when the car wasn't there (refunded enough for a cab and then some), which has only happened once.
I don't think Streetcar are ripping anyone off, though. It's hardly a copyrightable idea.
AnnO'Neemus
12-07-2006, 21:12
isn't there another company called urbigo?
I've been using them for a couple of years. You do need to be careful that you don't spend more than you would on a conventional rental, but for picking your mum up from the airport at 7am, or doing a big shop they're brilliant - especially if you're lucky enough to have one parked round the corner.
Bumped because I just joined this. My card is in the mail and I should be able to book a car by the weekend. There's one in Brixton, off Acre lane opposite Tesco. Let's see how we do shall we?
Let us know how it goes, Crispy - this sounds like a great idea now that we've got a little'un and jumping on buses just became a whole lot harder.
I found out they've got a pay as you go car rental system going on in DC now.
trashpony
13-07-2006, 15:02
My friend does this - she reckons it's brilliant. The £4-5 an hour covers your petrol too apparently :)
christonabike
13-07-2006, 15:03
Mrs Miggins and I use Streetcar, it's pretty good and only five minutes cycle from our house
:)
kyser_soze
13-07-2006, 15:14
Well I was looking at the prices for CityCarClub and their charges are at least on a par with the cheapest hire places.
Hmmm...think I might join one of these...
how are they for driving long distances, if you're going away for a weekend, or for a week, is there a limited time you can hire them for? if it was reasonable i might be tempted to get rid of my car
christonabike
13-07-2006, 15:19
Streetcar is not meant for long distance use
Streetcar is not meant for long distance use
ta!
guess i'll be keeping the car, we go away a lot at weekends and for a week sometimes on uk holidays, main reason I keep the car really...
trashpony
13-07-2006, 15:23
how are they for driving long distances, if you're going away for a weekend, or for a week, is there a limited time you can hire them for? if it was reasonable i might be tempted to get rid of my car
My friend has taken hers out of London overnight but she said she wouldn't want to do it for longer than overnight as it's £5/hour. For a week, you'd be better off hiring one.
I used to work with this woman who worked out the cost of hiring taxis and hire cars vs the cost of running a car in London and they ditched the car.
There's a flat fee of £10 for midnight to 6am, and you can only be charged for a maximum of 10 hours per day. it therefore costs £60 per 24hrs if you have it for extended periods. It's also 20p (ish) for every mile over 30 miles you do per day.
All of which makes it useless for long distance travel. Which is what trains and coaches are for anyway. I'll only be using it for big shops, moving flats etc. Can't imagine I'll use it more than once every month, if that. But it'll be nice to know it's there whenever I need it - which is the best thing about a car.
I just signed up. Will report back also.
Blimey, that was efficient. Signed up online, got a phone call 5 minutes later, will have my card and PIN in 5 working days, but I can use the car in the meantime if I want, cos they can unlock it remotely. Spooky.
christonabike
13-07-2006, 15:42
That is why I like them
All the instructions are easy to follow and I could even work the radio in the car
:)
There's a flat fee of £10 for midnight to 6am, and you can only be charged for a maximum of 10 hours per day. it therefore costs £60 per 24hrs if you have it for extended periods. It's also 20p (ish) for every mile over 30 miles you do per day.
All of which makes it useless for long distance travel. Which is what trains and coaches are for anyway. I'll only be using it for big shops, moving flats etc. Can't imagine I'll use it more than once every month, if that. But it'll be nice to know it's there whenever I need it - which is the best thing about a car.
trains and coaches are useless if you're going somewhere with poor public transport, which we often do, which is why we have a car:)
Ah well, can't win 'em all :)
But with this, my bicylce, and public transport, I've got nearly all the transport bases covered. And it (probably) costs me far less than running a car all year round.
Ah well, can't win 'em all :)
But with this, my bicylce, and public transport, I've got nearly all the transport bases covered. And it (probably) costs me far less than running a car all year round.
probably, yes, i don't drive a lot over a year, maybe 4000 miles or so, primarily it's the weekends away, and a few weeks a year when we rent cottages in remote spots, at the moment it's just more convenient for me to own a car as we like going to remote spots...
EastEnder
14-07-2006, 09:37
at the moment it's just more convenient for me to own a car as we like going to remote spots...
We like you going off to remote spots as well.
:p
Blimey, that was efficient. Signed up online, got a phone call 5 minutes later, will have my card and PIN in 5 working days, but I can use the car in the meantime if I want, cos they can unlock it remotely. Spooky.
Card arrived yesterday. Might take the car out for a spin later :cool:
scifisam
16-07-2006, 21:14
There's a flat fee of £10 for midnight to 6am, and you can only be charged for a maximum of 10 hours per day. it therefore costs £60 per 24hrs if you have it for extended periods. It's also 20p (ish) for every mile over 30 miles you do per day.
All of which makes it useless for long distance travel. Which is what trains and coaches are for anyway. I'll only be using it for big shops, moving flats etc. Can't imagine I'll use it more than once every month, if that. But it'll be nice to know it's there whenever I need it - which is the best thing about a car.
We pay nothing overnight, and £2.50 per hour, but that might be because we signed up quite a while ago. I know the prices have changed, and I vaguely remember my GF telling me that they only applied to new members. We've got it from 11pm a few times, which has cost us a grand total of £2.50 per night. We've also driven to Northampton on it; it worked out at £45, including fees and extra money for going over the usual mileage, which sounds a lot, but it's not so much when it's between 3 people, takes you door to door and avoids unreliable train routes (partic. weekend engineering works).
One reason we use it is that my GF lost the paper part of her driving licence, which hire car companies require but Streetcar doesn't. It also doesn't add stupid fees if the driver is under 25, like most car hire firms do.
Basically, it's not a cure-all, but it fills a niche in the transport system.
A tip: if you have the car cleaned at a car wash, it's paid for on your Streetcar card (same as the petrol), and you get a free hour (or 2, I'm not sure). You can do that a maximum of once a month.
Well, I used this for the first time last night. Had a gig to go to in Muswell Hill. We're house (and cat) sitting for someone at the moment, and seeing as it's also in N London we thought we'd easily be able to pop over. No no no! Tfl journey planner says get a tube, a train, a bus, walk, a bus, walk etc. So I say "Hang on, I can drive!" - so with one hour to spare, I booked the car, grabbed directions off google maps and that was that. Dead easy to get into the car. Realised we needed an extra hour towards the end, so went back to the car, pressed the phone button and got straight through to the call center so I could extnd the booking. Full marks out of ten so far!
Well, I used this for the first time last night. Had a gig to go to in Muswell Hill. We're house (and cat) sitting for someone at the moment, and seeing as it's also in N London we thought we'd easily be able to pop over. No no no! Tfl journey planner says get a tube, a train, a bus, walk, a bus, walk etc. So I say "Hang on, I can drive!" - so with one hour to spare, I booked the car, grabbed directions off google maps and that was that. Dead easy to get into the car. Realised we needed an extra hour towards the end, so went back to the car, pressed the phone button and got straight through to the call center so I could extnd the booking. Full marks out of ten so far!
How did it work out, cost-wise? Was it cheaper than taking a cab? If I thought the service would work out cheaper than cabs, that might clinch it for me...
Well, we used it for 4 hours, so that's £20 - probably a bit cheaper than two cabs for the distance (round trip of 15 miles)
Plus the benefits of leaving bang on the time we wanted, with no hanging around. Also quieter and comfier ride, cos I don't drive like a lunatic cab driver :)
That works out quite well. I'm wondering if it might be worth a go for certain trips... although I'm thinking of using it for nights out when I don't want to rely on a cab. It would mean I wouldn't be able to drink, though :(
EastEnder
18-07-2006, 12:59
That works out quite well. I'm wondering if it might be worth a go for certain trips... although I'm thinking of using it for nights out when I don't want to rely on a cab. It would mean I wouldn't be able to drink, though :(
Cool - you can be the designated driver for urban parties.
We'll all get utterly bladdered and you can do a big round trip, driving us all home.
:cool:
exosculate
18-07-2006, 13:17
Sounds good this.
What happens if you damage the vehicle?
Cool - you can be the designated driver for urban parties.
We'll all get utterly bladdered and you can do a big round trip, driving us all home.
:cool:
You'd soon regret it when I start driving erratically and banging on about everything that's wrong with this country – just like a real cab driver.
And I will play Heart FM really loudly too :cool:
Sounds good this.
What happens if you damage the vehicle?
Insurance is included in the hourly rate. Hefty £500 excess though. You can reduce that by paying a monthly fee.
From the back of the widely read and recycled Lambeth Life newspaper.
www.carclubs.org.uk
New members offer: Quote the reference LAMBETH when joining and get £20 of free driving time.
Seems to be a fooking great idea and maybe I should get a license (never bothered since getting banned many years ago) for those occasions when a bus won't do.
:cool:
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