Car2Go

Welcome to the new development of future mobility. Well in case you were wondering what sort of irrelevant foreword to this note that was, do bother no more, because it was the tag line introduced by Car2Go which is a service provider established in 2008 by Daimler AG in cooperation with the city administration of Ulm. As regards to this information, Car2Go service can only be found in Ulm and this is plainly just a start because Daimler AG aimed it merely as a small project whether it could work. When it does work, Daimler AG will also develop the similar service in other cities in Germany soon as well. First of all, I should stress that this is neither plugging nor publicity to certain service, but this will serve only as information for the readers about how interesting the whole idea behind the establishment of this company was. Basically, Car2Go is just no other than a general car rent company, such as Sixt, Budget Vermietung or others. However, unlike other companies which if you want to rent their car, you have to rent it at least for 24 hours and you still have to pay for the rent even if you don't drive it. Additionally, you have to pay for the fuel as well aside from the basic cost. With Car2Go, things are a bit different and the initial idea was to provide cars which can be rented by many people in a specific area, they can get in the car anywhere they want and the most amazing thing is, they only have to pay only when they actually use it. People behind this project intended to create something fresh, something new, something different which represents the individual form of urban mobility. At first, it might sound theoretically impossible and the concept will be much too complicated, especially when it comes to billing issue and what if when the car is being stolen, because people can get in anywhere they want and that means there will be no service desk or whatsoever. But those pessimisms are today just a matter of history since Daimler AG with cooperation with Ulm's city administration managed to pull out the visual interpretation on sheets of paper into a pure reality.

What they have done is painting 200 units of Smart Fortwo with white and the blue tridion frame, then garnishing them with "Car2Go" stickers all over the body. The amusing fact is, the principal of one can get in the car anywhere he/she likes is really applied, they had reserved several special parking slots for these cars and they are mostly in the city center. For instance in the main train station, Stadtzentrum, on street side and city administration building (Rathaus Ulm). To use this service, firstly you have to register your driving license at the lower ground of Stadhaus Ulm, which is just on the opposite of Ulmer Münster city center. There, just like any other registration, you will need to fill a form containing your name, address and that sort of private details. You might additionally require a debit card of a certain bank, because the rent will be collected every time you drive the car and Car2Go deduct it at the end of the month from your bank account. The registration takes just about 10 minutes and once it is finished, you will get a special chip which is duck taped to your driving license and it will be used as the car key to both lock and unlock the door. I tried the service several times and it works perfectly. I just had to stick my driving license to the car's windscreen and the special chip reader will register my identity to unlock the car. After car is unlocked, I just hop in, get the ignition key from the glove box, input my PIN number to the touch screen display, start the engine and set off. The car can be driven in or even out of town, however the rent can only be ended if the satellite navigation detects that the car is parked in Ulm. Otherwise, your car will be regarded as in use and the bill keeps running. If I have finished driving the car, I can park the car anywhere in Ulm I want as long as a parking space which is especially reserved for Car2Go; it is not a parking restricted area; it is a free parking slot. If I do stupidly leave the car in a slot which requires a parking ticket and wave off, the cost for towing the car or for paying the parking ticket will be charged to my account. Blimey! After turning the engine off, I simply put the ignition key back into the glove box, then stick my driving license again on the windscreen to lock the car.

"I would take into account that Daimler had channeled ingenuity"

Obviously as a sensible part of business interest, the rent is started when I unlock the car, not when I start the engine. So, that means even if I just sit in the car answering an incoming phone call with the engine turned off, the cost is actually still running. In case if I had to get out of a multi-storey car park building or refuel the car, Car2Go provides each a special card for refueling the car and getting out of the car park building. Price starts at 19 cents per minute and it gets cheaper when you drive longer, an hour drive costs an agreeable 9.90 Euro and a day costs 49 Euro at maximum. This is essentially quite a good value of money because the suggested rent has been included with insurance and fuel, which means one doesn't have to care about refuel cost because Car2Go pays for that. It is also asked to maintain the cleanliness of the car. In a stupid case if your dog vomits in the car, a whopping charge of 50 Euro to cleaning cost will be billed to the account. Speaking of billing, customers could check their driving record on the internet by logging into Car2Go website. Everything is clearly documented, including the location of where the start point and the destination; how far do the customers have driven the car; trip time; cost and etc. Customers can also make a reservation around 24 hours and tell the operator their current position, then they will locate the nearest available car. Car2Go claims that the nearest car takes no longer than a three-minute walk which is essentially a very bold claim because according to my experience, I required much more time than that. The reason is, Daimler only provided 200 units of Smart Fortwo around Ulm to support their project, however I figured out that there are currently more customers rather than available cars since sometime when I need one, I couldn’t find one that is available in the Car2Go reserved parking spots or any where on the street side. Even if one is available, it is sometime occupied or reserved for other customers. Moreover, the 200 cars are not all operated because some of them also need to undergo maintenance and cleaning in the workshop.

All things considered, this is in all probability a brilliant idea of how to offer a public transport and yet still combining the individual sense of driving in a car. I would take into account that Daimler had channeled ingenuity, which is an astonishing solution of how to enhance the mobility of urban community and with a support of modern technology, the service also has a clever organization in managing customers’ account, bills and necessary documentations without any niggling faults. It is also cheaper than any other car rent companies and more practical because the car can be parked everywhere where. Well literally not everywhere, but at least the car doesn’t have to be returned in a specific place. Additionally, it also saves our precious planet since people only drive the car when they really need it and not just clog the street with a massive car with only one passenger in it. I mean there are 200 cars available, there must be more customers than this figure and it is impossible that all customers need a car at the same time. So, this program also does well to environment and reduce carbon dioxide produced from the cars these days. As far as I can see, there are only two drawbacks: Daimler might need to add some more cars in the near future because I am sure the number of Car2Go members keeps growing every month. The other is this project should also be applied in other major cities as well, like Berlin, London and Paris. Or maybe even the much polluted city in other part of the world such as New Delhi, Mexico and Jakarta. It is genuinely a great idea and I absolutely support it. As I said and since this note is not a plugging, for more information please refer to Google and type Car2Go. Until the next posting, enjoy!