

(Rates vary depending on the type of vehicle.) Each car rental includes a complimentary gas card, so customers pay nothing at the pump to refill their ride. In return, Zipcar members can rent cars from $7.75 an hour or $69 a day. How much it costs: Membership fees start at $7 a month or $70 a year. All reservations include up to 180 miles of driving per day. It also offers dedicated parking spots in many areas.

What it includes: Zipcar covers the cost of gas, insurance, and maintenance. Members book reservations through Zipcar’s website or mobile app, which they use to locate the rental car. Each vehicle has a reserved parking space (called a ‘home location’), where it must be returned with at least one-quarter tank of gas. the windshield of their chosen rental vehicle to unlock and lock the car at the start and end of each reservation. How it works: Zipcar customers pay a monthly membership fee in exchange for a Zipcard, which they scan on a device under. To help you narrow down your carsharing options, we’ll look at three of the biggest players in the industry: Zipcar, Turo, and Car2Go. Still, ‘if you’re a traveler, you have to research what businesses operate at your destination,’ Cooley adds. Indeed, by some estimates carsharing prices are about 30 percent lower than car-rental rates. In particular, the rise of carsharing services has revolutionized the way people get around.Īs of May 2019, carsharing was available in 59 countries, according to an industry analysis by movmi and the Carsharing Association (CSA), with 236 carshare operators in 3,128 cities.īut why choose a carsharing service over a traditional car rental company like Enterprise or Hertz? Pam Cooley, executive director at CSA, says it often boils down to cost: ‘Carsharing is usually cheaper than car rental companies,’ she says. Travelers today have no shortage of options when it comes to renting a car.
