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Last week's merger of the two largest national carsharing firms, Flexcar and Zipcar, will delay Ithaca Carshare's launch date. The Ithaca-based organization had been hoping to become an affiliate of Flexcar and to open for business later this year.
"We had been working since May on an agreement to become part of the Flexcar network while maintaining our own not-for-profit local identity," said Jennifer Dotson, Ithaca Carshare executive director. "Now we have learned that the new merged firm is not interested in that kind of model."
The two national firms have joined together to create a single
carsharing network under the Zipcar brand, operating in 15 major
metropolitan areas.
"We are extremely disappointed," said David
Lieb, president of the Ithaca Carshare board of directors. "A week
before the merger was publicly announced, we were still in contract
talks with Flexcar, with the understanding that we were ironing out the
last details that would have meant a launch this fall. This news came
at us out of the blue."
Before talks with Flexcar began, Ithaca
Carshare had planned to launch independently, but was stymied by high
auto liability insurance rates. "We were interested in the affiliation
because it meant access to affordable auto insurance, and included
eligibility for 18- to 20-year old college students," said Dotson.
Ithaca
Carshare has been looking steadily at alternative strategies, said
Dotson, including teaming with other independents. Ithaca Carshare is
part of a growing network of independent carsharing organizations that
has over 2,000 cars and 75,000 members in nine US and Canadian cities
and which recently agreed on a shared code of ethics.
"Carsharing
is a growing industry," said Dotson, "and there's great potential for
us to work with this group on insurance and on shared car access in
other cities served by independent carsharing organizations."
Dotson and Lieb reiterated Ithaca Carshare's unchanged commitment to bring carsharing to the local community.
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