How does carsharing work?
In the Czech Republic, ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab operates the HoppyGo P2P carsharing platform, which currently has more than 40,000 registered users who can rent or offer cars via a mobile app.
The app’s certainty, safety, speed and user-friendliness, says Dörner, are the four main requirements of people venturing into the shared economy. By speed, we mean the time between placing an order and getting confirmation of a vehicle. “We have found that if a car request goes more than two hours without a response, the user is highly likely to cancel it and look elsewhere,” explains Dörner. “No one wants the uncertainty of having to wait for, let’s say, five hours to see if they will get a car,” he explains. This situation can be avoided by the “reserve immediately” feature, which skips the need for the car owner’s confirmation to complete the booking. After each ride, both the owner and the driver evaluate each other on aspects such as the speed of communication, which makes it easier for subsequent users to navigate their way around the offers available.
In the sharing app, you can find a car that to pick up literally around the corner, so it’s not as if you have to get to some branch on the other side of the city as you would with a conventional car rental company. Also, the range of cars is often broader, depending on whether you want a particular car to get a feel for it, an impressive-looking car for business trips, or a practical vehicle for a family holiday or to move house.