What is Car Sharing?
A friend of mine recommended that I rent a car from Zipcar, instead of through a regular car rental company. What are the differences between going with a company, like Zipcar, and renting from Budget or Hertz?
Zipcar is a car sharing company, as opposed to a car rental company.
Car sharing is different from a traditional car rental in several ways: Vehicles can be rented by the hour, as well as by the day. Traditional car rental is only a daily basis only.
Getting a vehicle is not limited by office hours, as are traditional car rentals.
Users must be members and will have to be pre-approved to drive (background driving checks will be performed and a payment process will be pre-established)
Vehicles are generally distributed throughout the service area, and often located in places that are easily accessible by public transport.
The reservation, pickup, and return process are all self-service; usually done on a members-only website.
Insurance and fuel costs are often included in the rates. Members are typically responsible for leaving the cars clean for the next user, and many services provide gas cards so drivers can refill tanks that get low.
Hope this helps!
More info:
What is Car Sharing
Category Article Misc
