Successful carsharing is not about technology, it’s about users

Article published in Dutch trade magazine “Management in Fleet & Lease”, Fall 2022

WeGo is known as the largest sharing platform provider in the Netherlands for the shared use of vehicles. Here, WeGo mainly focuses on company fleets and shared cars in neighbourhoods through different providers. WeGo does not provide sharing vehicles, but the technology needed to make vehicles ‘shareable’. Currently, about 8,000 cars, about 1,000 bicycles and some mopeds are equipped with the WeGo technology and this in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.

“WeGo ‘digitalises’ entire company fleets“, says Peter de Jong, CEO of WeGo B.V. in the Netherlands. “We ensure that company vehicles can be used efficiently by several people. Furthermore, we ensure that key handovers are no longer necessary and lost keys are no longer a problem. We ensure that the trip registration is in order and the vehicle condition is known through telematics technology, that damage can be reported, and vehicle cleaning can be ordered directly.” The vehicle is usually used via the user app but can also be used via the employee’s company card, for example.

This applies to cars as well as bicycles – both types of vehicles can be managed in the same platform. “For employees and also for fleet managers, all journeys are thus clearly broken down and accounted for. We can also provide the technology for company cars that only need a trip record for the tax office. Our Track & Trace function is used for this,” says De Jong.

Some major WeGo customers work with a ‘mixed’ platform where bikes and company cars can be managed and used with a combination of app and/or employee pass. These same customers often want drivers in the platform to be automatically synchronised with the employee database for security and accuracy reasons, and to be able to log in via single sign-on (SSO).

“Large companies also want driving licences to be checked online, not just at ‘onboarding’ when each new employee deposits their licence, but at every booking, without repetitive administrative work for the driver and fleet manager. WeGo can fully meet these requirements,” adds De Jong.

Support for fleet managers and drivers

Technology is one side. But what else is needed to introduce and implement carsharing as a successful mobility concept?

“Successful carsharing is not a question of technology, but a question of users. You have to take good care of them. Sharing a car should be as easy as owning your own car, or maybe even easier. Who still wants a key when you can unlock the car to an app? That’s why at WeGo we have always had a 24/7 helpdesk for questions of all kinds, which often go beyond “carsharing questions”. This support is enormously important, which is sometimes forgotten.

And of course, the whole process must be carefully prepared. Who is allowed to drive which vehicle? Which rates apply for business trips, and which rates for private trips? Who are the administrators, and what are their rights (read/write rights)? In addition, there are SLAs, data processing contracts and regulation of things like data security. The latter is very important, after all, we work with quite a lot of data relevant to data protection – it’s not for nothing that we received the ISO 27001 certificate for data security,” emphasises De Jong.

Among business customers of leasing companies, dealers or professional fleet management companies, the demand for flexible and sustainable mobility is growing. Requirements of all kinds can be implemented quite easily with WeGo technology – “networked cooperation” is an important factor in this respect. A win-win situation for both parties.

“Funnily enough, the scarcity of cars also accelerates the acceptance of carsharing. If no cars are supplied, the available cars are shared. Conventional leased cars that are not used efficiently often stand idle – with high monthly costs,” De Jong points out.

“A change in thinking has taken place and the acceptance of sharing a car with several people has become greater. In general, the mental barriers to carsharing are no longer as present as they used to be, concludes De Jong. “Insurance companies have now also realised that the claims profile of companies that operate corporate carsharing with only ‘known users’ is on average more favourable than that of leased vehicles rented directly by employees.”

Expensive e-car as family car

In addition to the success of corporate fleet carsharing, there are more and more requests from all over the country, e.g. from residents of a certain neighbourhood who want a shared car, and then preferably an electric one.

De Jong: “Only a few people can buy a new electric car – even a used one is often not an option. But with 10 or 20 people it is of course possible. We see that happening now. WeGo thus ensures that everyone has access to sustainable mobility and not only businesspeople. By the way, it is no longer the smallest cars that are then used as shared cars in the neighbourhood; we recently connected a Kia EV6 to our platform. The monthly income from such a vehicle is twice as high for the carsharing operator as it would be if the vehicle were leased. So, it can definitely be commercially worthwhile. This is mainly because the residents of the district pay a monthly subscription and often drive many kilometres per reservation – on average between 200 and 300 km.”

“Often several days are reserved, and the shared cars are also used during the holidays – at special holiday rates. The expensive electric car is now suddenly quite affordable as a shared car and now serves as a “family car” in many households. Some residents own a cheap small car on the side, but often they simply don’t have a car of their own anymore. Shared cars in neighbourhoods work all over the country, not just in the big cities. Everywhere in the Netherlands there are carsharing vehicles equipped with WeGo technology, in the city and in the countryside. It is usually not visible at first glance, unless the vehicles are marked with a corresponding “powered by WeGo” sticker – yet they are everywhere! So, you can see that carsharing is establishing itself”.