Member Article

Car Club scheme taking off in Liverpool

The Car Club scheme launched in Liverpool last October is proving attractive to city centre motorists who have clocked up thousands of miles of driving under the pay-by-the hour offer.

The scheme is operated by City Car Club, and in its first four months 150 members signed up to join the club, made 750 bookings and travelled over 10,500 miles.

The Liverpool operation started with a fleet of seven low emission cars and one van, which was added in January. It consists of several Toyota Aygos and a Toyota Yaris Hybrid which operates as an electric vehicle, reducing emissions.

It is estimated that, because of the use of the low emission vehicles, 0.21 fewer metric tonnes of carbon have been released into the atmosphere.

Councillor Tim Moore, city council cabinet member for transport and climate change, said: “These are impressive figures in terms of the use of the cars and as a result, the reduction in pollution.

“Most of the journeys are for short distances around the city centre or to nearby locations so to clock up this amount of travel in the first few months is phenomenal and proves the popularity of the initiative.

“We have been told that our car club is on track to exceed the size of long established car clubs in other major cities in terms of number of vehicles, their usage and booking levels

“It’s not just city centre residents who can benefit, an estimated 50% of commuters use their car to get into work and with this scheme, I am hopeful that more people will use public transport knowing they can use the City Car Club cars for business purposes throughout the day.

“It makes travel much more flexible and adds to the choice available to motorists – it is a scheme which shows great benefits to both motorists and the environment.”

North West City Car Club regional manager, Rebecca Bird said “City Car Club is delighted with the response from businesses and individuals in the first few months of operation in Liverpool.

“The savings the service creates are very welcome, as is the convenience of having cars and vans available 24/7 to hire by the hour.”

It is planned to expand the club to 20 vehicles by 2015.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .