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Flexicar news >> Car-sharing moves into the fast lane

Car-sharing moves into the fast lane

21st September 2007

Flexicar featured on ABC's Inside Business program.

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JAYNE EDWARDS, REPORTER: As the costs of owning a car continue to climb, a new business idea has started in Australia: car sharing. One of the pioneers is Flexicar, and its growth is moving it into the fast lane.

MONIQUE CONHEADY, CEO FLEXICAR: The business model is I guess car rental meets a gym, so it's like car rental but it's membership based.

Car sharing is a concept for inner city people. It gives them access to a car when they need one, without all the costs and hassles of car ownership.

JAYNE EDWARDS: Flexicar was started about two years ago by Monique Conheady and some university friends, only one of whom is still actively involved in the business.

MONIQUE CONHEADY: The start-up phase was relatively long. We talked about it a lot at dinner parties and at the pub before we actually knuckled down to writing a business plan.

JAYNE EDWARDS: They entered a business planning competition, then spent months developing the wireless technology that allows the cars to be accessed remotely.

MONIQUE CONHEADY: The profile is inner city, working professionals, don't own a car, catch public transport to work. We then have the second car market, so inner city couples and small families that have 1 car and occasionally need a second. And then our third part of our target market is inner city businesses.

To become a Flexicar member you join online, you get a membership card, then you make bookings online. You swipe your smart card across a reader, it unlocks the doors, it deactivates the engine immobiliser. You jump in, the key's in the vehicle. Our costs cover everything, we cover the time, your distance, your mileage, your petrol, your insurance, registration.

JAYNE EDWARDS: Cars are parked in designated spots in areas close to shopping strips and public transport hubs.

Members pay an up-front joining fee plus a monthly fee, and hourly rates for car use.

MONIQUE CONHEADY: So we offer a different alternative to businesses, to either one, owning a fleet or the opposite, taxis or car rental.

JAYNE EDWARDS: The costs to Flexicar are the lease of its fleet, petrol, insurance, maintenance and cleaning.

But there's rarely a problem with the cars being damaged or left untidy.

MONIQUE CONHEADY: We do visit the cars each week. We clean them, we do the maintenance at the scheduled kilometres. Because our members use the cars regularly they have much greater attachment or a much greater care of the vehicle that they would say with traditional rental, which they'll never see again.

JAYNE EDWARDS: Turnover is growing quickly.

MONIQUE CONHEADY: This time last year we had 12 cars, and 300 members and 12 months later we have 45 cars and 1200 members so growth's been almost 400 per cent in the last 12 months.

It is a low margin business with high volume. So that's why growing quickly is really important for us. We need to get our car numbers up, our membership numbers up.

JAYNE EDWARDS: Broader environmental benefits are also being promised, if overseas experience is reflected here.

MONIQUE CONHEADY: Its estimated that one carshare vehicle takes anywhere between 6 and 10 vehicles off the road. The other thing that it's shown is members of a carshare service tend to increase their use of walking, cycling, and public transport use, because they think about the real costs of a car.

JAYNE EDWARDS: Running a business has always been a goal for Monique Conheady, with her ambition driven by her father.

MONIQUE CONHEADY: He started his own business in his mid thirties and always said that he wished he'd started it earlier. So when I worked for 10 years for multinational organisations he couldn't quite understand it and kept saying when are you going to do your own thing, Mon?

I think there's a lot of new businesses coming out in this I guess sustainability space. You can't open the financial review at the moment without seeing some article on climate change or a price for carbon, these things are going to happen, and I guess businesses like ours, and you know small businesses are seeing that, and trying to make an opportunity there, as are big businesses.