Individual Case Study

Name: Au Yeung Wai Yee                         Student ID: 15043897D

Q1. At first, customers, who rent a car, need to pay for the gases they use. They need to return a car with full tank. For car-sharing, the unit pricing has included the gas and insurance in the hourly fee.

And then, the reservation, pickup and return for car-sharing are all self-service, most of them also can be completed online. Besides, car-sharing is not limited by the office hours and the unattended access to the vehicles to the car.

Last but not least, vehicles in car-sharing will not be serviced after each use, for example, cleaning and fueling. However, in car-rental services, the service providers would have the post-use service to ensure the vehicle in the best conditions.

Q2. From the comparison, we can find that London and New York have similar city demographics with Hangzhou. There is a disparity in the number of bus lines among them. We can notice that this concept can be applied in Hangzhou and have a great potential for future development.

Besides, San Francisco and Boston account for the highest Zipcars to population ratio, around 0.0035 and 0.003. The transportation department in Boston requires the local developers and different relative facilities operators to work with car-sharing companies. This definitely show the importance of the local government involvement in the car-sharing service.

Meanwhile, the Hangzhou residents are too rely on the bus services. Nearly 8000 bus lines in this city, this may be the main cause of traffic congestion. When comparing with the city has similar demographics, the number of bus lines is a half of the number in Hangzhou. Transport planning is very important.

Car-sharing got a great success in Boston, It implicate the importance of promotion strategy in using car-sharing. China has always impressed as the kingdom of bicycles, it would be difficult for Hangzhou people to try car-sharing instead of using the existing transport mode.

Q3 .The main competitors of car-sharing service is the private automobiles. Cost-saving is one of the most important motivation for customers to join car-sharing services. Owning a car must have a higher fixed cost such as purchase cost, insurance, maintenance cost and parking charge. However, car-sharing offer people a chance to pay according to the level they use the automobile.

The Yearly Costs of Car-sharing Service Cost Costs of Car-sharing Service( 200hours and $40/h) 8,000 Other Increased Transportation Costs $2,500 Total $10,500 Cost savings $31,390 - For example, car-sharing versus private car, a person who drives a Volkswagen around 200 hours per year, he can save $31,000 in car-sharing. Driving Volkswagen becomes more financially feasible if the owner drives more than 980 hours per year.

Based on the research, $40 per hour charge would be appropriate for the business. It is affordable and also generates enough income so that the business is profitable. Per hour charge has the greatest impact on the revenue generated. Actually, revenue is mostly dependent on the per hour charge. There is a significant cash flow deficit in the early years of the service.