By Shannon Montgomery
Sometimes the cost of owning a car can outweigh the convenience, and that’s when car-sharing services like Ottawa’s Vrtucar come in.
“Especially in Centretown, a downtown area, a car’s a real ball and chain – what do you do with it? You pay $180 a month for parking,” says Wilson Wood, Vrtucar’s founder and general manager.
Since its establishment on May 12, 2000, Vrtucar has signed up almost 500 members and boasts 18 cars and one van – nine of these are in the Centretown region.
Kate Preston-Thomas, a member of Vrtucar since 2002, says the service just made more sense than buying a second car.
“My son played hockey, and we did the calculation of how much it cost to do the trip,” she says. “To drive from our house to Brewer and back was only $10, which was the same as the bus.”
Preston-Thomas, who lives in the Glebe, says there are eight cars available within a one-kilometre radius.
Each Vrtucar serves 18 to 20 people and costs $2000 per month to insure, says Wood. That translates into a bill of approximately $8 per month for the consumer, as opposed to what Wood says is an average insurance bill of $65-$70 for most car owners.
Customers can book a car either online or by phone, and can reserve any of the available cars or the one van that are parked throughout Ottawa.
Vrtucar operates on a pay-as-you-go principle. All users give a $500 deposit to join the service, which is refundable if and when they leave the service. The customer then chooses from three different plans, which carry monthly fees of $36, $24 or $12, depending upon the plan. Customers pay a small fee per hour and per kilometre to make up for gas and insurance. On average, a Vrtucar user pays $85 per month. Compared to owning your own car, this translates into big savings.
The demographics that use Vrtucar are fairly diverse, but Wood says there are some trends. The average user age is 38, and 62 per cent are women – “proving once again that women are smarter than men,” he jokes. Many of the users have young families.
Generally, Vrtucar customers use the cars to buy bulk groceries, go to places like IKEA and for recreational purposes – Wood says they have a number of ultimate Frisbee players who have to get to a field that public transportation does not reach. The service also has a dozen lawyers, as well as other professionals, who use the cars for occasional business-related trips, he says.
Bridgehead coffee shops use the Vrtucar van daily to deliver food from their central kitchen to their four stores.
“Really, from a business point of view, it makes sense for us,” says Tracey Clark, Bridgehead’s managing director.
“Rather than having to purchase a vehicle and pay for the insurance when we only need a car for a certain amount of time, why not make use of a resource more thoroughly?”
She says the environmental and social aspects of being able to share a vehicle appeal to her and adds that since the company only needs the van from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. every morning, it is accessible to other users the majority of the time.
Wood says the majority of their fleet of cars is comprised of energy-efficient Toyota Echos, and they are considering the hybrid Prius car for their next purchase. He says they also have a deal with OC Transpo to sell the discounted ECOPASS, a monthly bus pass offered at a 15 per cent discount, to their members.
Currently, although Vrtucar is registered as a small business, it isn’t making any profits, says Wood. They work with a behind-the-scenes “green investor,” he says, and this support, combined with contributions from members, has helped the service grow to employ three people.
Wood has big dreams for the future, envisioning his cars resting on Parliament Hill for MPs to use, and in city parking lots.
“Ottawa should be able to support 60 to 70 cars,” he says.