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You and your business: Zipcar

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Paul McLoughlin, who heads up car club Zipcar in the UK, explains to editor Ralph Morton why car clubs are big news for small businesses.

Zipcar is a car club. It is, says the UK boss, Paul McLoughlin, the world’s largest and fastest growing car club: 275,000 members in London and North America.

Members pay an annual membership fee to join. This provides them with an electronic swipe card – a Zipcard.

Once the card PIN and account is activated online, members can search and book cars based on availability. The Zipcard locks and unlocks automatically when waived over the windscreen reader for whichever Zipcar the member has booked. Keys can be found inside, tethered to the steering column.

Bookings are normally one to three hours – the maximum is four days. At the end of the booking, the car is returned to its parking bay. And that’s it.

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If the car needs fuel (three quarters empty) you fill it up using the fuel card in the driver sun visor. The cars are cleaned and valeted regularly by Zipcar’s in-house fleet team. And, as Zipcar is based in London, all reservations include the congestion charge plus 60 free miles, fuel, parking, and full insurance.

It’s all fairly painless. Paul claims that every Zipcar takes up to 20 private cars off the road – since members no longer need them. But if the car club idea is working for consumers, does it work for business?

Making car clubs work for small businesses

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Paul says Zipcar now has a business product: Zipcar for Business. It provides small businesses the opportunity to save money – they don’t own a car but can drive one – and it’s environmentally friendly. “It’s not like car rental, either,” says Paul. “There’s no paperwork. You can book the cars in London or from thousands available in North America a minute or a year in advance from your PC, any wi-fi link or your iPhone.”

Paul says Zipcar is an ideal way to replace a pool car – a car owned by a business for use by company staff when required. “Many estate agents use us for visits to properties. It saves them the cost of providing staff with a car or a pool car. They only pay for the use. And there are no parking issues,” says Paul.

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Lower business costs, eliminate company car tax

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But Paul believes that the benefits for small businesses go beyond the pool car.

“Zipcar can reduce your business costs, yet provide mobility. You are only paying for use. At the same time it meets all your company’s duty of care requirements – all our cars are serviced, clean and have business insurance.

“Employees can use the car club privately in the evenings and weekends – so there’s a benefit there, too. And I also think staff appreciate the environmental angle – it is a way of reducing your company’s carbon footprint.

“Finally, it’s good for both company and staff from a tax perspective. The reservations – as long as they are all for business – can be set against the profit and loss account, while your staff don’t pay benefit-in-kind tax on the Zipcar booking.

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“It makes the whole Zipcar car club concept ideal for small businesses.”

Typical Zipcar rental cars and vans

  • MINI Cooper
  • BMW 1-Series, BMW 3-Series
  • Audi A3
  • VW Passat
  • Toyota Yaris, Toyta Verso, Toyota Prius
  • Honda Jazz, Civic Hatch, Civic Hybrid and Insight

Zipcar in its own words

Zipcar is the world’s largest car sharing club. It provides an on-demand alternative to car ownership. Since 2000, when Zipcars first hit the road, 200,000 consumers and businesses have joined. Zipcar currently operatve over 5500 vehicles in London and 25 states and provinces in North American, including Boston, New York City, Wahsington DC, Toronto and San Francisco. Zipcar is also planning to expand into European cities such as Paris.

Zipcar offers the benefit of car ownership without the hassles or costs. For people who only need a car or a second car once in a while, Zipacar is more cost-effective than owning, renting or leasing a private vehicle.

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Zipcar pays for assigned parking, the London congestion charge, maintenance, insurance and petrol. Zipcar also guarantees members will get the exact car they reserve.

Zipcar has its world HQ in Cambridge Massachusetts, with UK and European headquarters in London.

You can visit the Zipcar website at www.zipcar.com

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