Car pool agency
Carpooling agencies (also carpooling services) are organizations that arrange carpooling (also carpooling opportunities ). These car pools are mostly carried out by car , although there are also carpooling centers for trains and planes.
History and concept
The history of carpooling agencies has been shaped by the change in demand for carpooling, their state funding and the development of the technology on which they are based. While the operation of car sharing agencies was previously designed primarily for the daily commute and thus for groups of work colleagues and was politically promoted, modern vehicle sharing agencies often do not arrange private, usually irregular or irregularly composed car pools for typically long distances closely related persons.
The beginning of the history of organized car pooling is often dated in the literature to the year 1942. That year the United States began extensive funding for car pooling to save gas for the war effort. With the increasing motorization of society, however, the car turned back into an individual means of transport. When large American corporations began operating in-house carpooling centers in the 1960s to reduce traffic jams in commercial areas and to save company parking spaces, the targeted formation of carpooling became increasingly popular again. At that time, the assignment was still made by collecting personal data and manually assigning compatible partners.
In response to the energy and oil crises of the 1970s , the US government supported the organized formation of car pools, among other things by setting up high-occupancy vehicle lanes and through corresponding legislation. Similar efforts to promote carpooling were also made in Germany in the period that followed . At this time, the first commercial, independently operating telephone carpooling centers were also created. The early phase of the internet finally enabled the operation of digital notice boards and the first automated allocation algorithms.
The modern understanding of a car sharing agency is shaped in particular by online ridesharing agencies such as the French provider BlaBlaCar or the former German provider Mitfahrgelektiven.de. These can be assigned to the sharing economy . Based on this understanding, Lukesch defines online car-sharing agencies as organizations whose purpose is to convey “groups of people who (want to) get together to share a car for private purposes on the basis of driver-initiated planning”.
Recently , concepts for the spontaneous mediation of car pools have also been developed ( dynamic ridesharing ). In contrast to the previously discussed ride-sharing centers, where car pools are typically planned a long time in advance, "dynamic ridesharing" arranges car pools whose participants are already on the road ( e.g. as (car) drivers, taxi users or pedestrians) . The switching takes place with the help of mobile communication devices between the users registered with the car pool agency. An automatic transfer of suitable offers and inquiries is established through a network service. The routes are optimized so that the deviation from the driver's originally planned route is minimal. Like a navigation system , the detour to the meeting point is determined for the driver immediately after the mediation. The position is often tracked by GPS- enabled devices so that the locations of the participants are automatically recognized.
functionality
Mediation
In order to form compatible driver-passenger groups, it is necessary to collect information on offers (“Which driver goes where and when at what price?”) And demand (“Which passengers want to go where?”). This exchange of information can take place, for example, locally via notice boards (e.g. in offices, clubs, universities) without the involvement of a car sharing agency. Since this form of information exchange can be tedious, car-sharing agencies offer to collect offers and requests and to establish contact between suitable drivers and passengers. As the customer network grows, the probability of an assignment being successful also increases.
In order to initiate the brokerage process, the users must first submit information about their journey or what they would like to travel to the car pool agency (start / destination, date, time, etc.). This information is collected in a database . Matching algorithms are then used to determine compatible pairs. If two interested parties fit together, they will be given the opportunity to contact us (e.g. via the message system of the car pool agency or by mobile phone number). The car pool agency can typically pay for the establishment of a contact by charging an agency fee. However, there are also other business models, e.g. free advertising-financed offers, subscriptions, usage fees, etc.
In addition to individual car sharing agencies, there are also portal offers that bundle the offers of several individual providers and make them accessible via a meta search engine .
Fare
After the successful journey, passengers typically pay the driver a fee in order to contribute to the costs of the car pool. In the case of internet-based car sharing agencies, the driver specifies the amount of the cost sharing when entering his travel information so that interested passengers can compare the different "prices" of several compatible drivers before contacting them. In most cases, the amount of the cost sharing is linked to the distance to be covered.
Spontaneous mediation
Newer concepts for the spontaneous mediation of car pools ( English dynamic ridesharing ) are implemented via mobile devices such as smartphones or navigation systems . Here the participants are already on the road.
Such a service must offer at least two functions:
- Creation of spontaneous car pools between registered users using mobile communication devices.
- Automatic transfer of suitable offers and inquiries through a network service. The routes are optimized so that the deviation from the driver's originally planned route is minimal.
Further possible services:
- Automatic payment of the route-dependent fare to the driver from the passenger's account, minus an agency fee.
- Indication of the detour to the meeting point for the driver immediately after the mediation, like a navigation system.
- Position tracking by GPS- enabled devices so that the locations of the participants are automatically recognized.
- Possibility of dividing a route into several vehicles so that a passenger can change.
Such an offer was made available by Flinc until the end of 2018 .
motivation
The motivation of a user to turn to a carpooling agency to arrange a car pool can be justified for different reasons. The following reasons are given in non-exhaustive form:
- Passengers typically contribute proportionally to the travel costs ("travel allowance", "petrol money"), which from their point of view can be lower than alternative travel prices (e.g. bus, train, "travel alone") and from the point of view of the driver to cover his costs already planned trip contribute.
- Depending on the quality of the assignment, passengers can reach their destination with fewer circumstances (e.g. driving to the exact street address instead of the destination station; possibly less need to change trains) than with an alternative transport mode.
- If alternative modes of transport cannot make an (attractive) offer (e.g. train strike, pilots strike), the use of car-sharing agencies becomes more attractive.
- Those involved in carpooling ensure greater utilization of vehicle capacity. This is effective in terms of environmental protection , as long as the passengers refrain from using their own car.
- Getting in touch with (strangers) people while driving can be perceived as entertaining.
Legal status
In agreeing a car pool, for a cost sharing is provided by the passenger, usually one can legally bound will be accepted. The legal status of the ride goes beyond a courtesy, as would be the case with picking up hitchhikers. Thus any deviation from the Mitfahrvereinbarung legal consequences entail, for example, by deviations from the agreed services (destination, cost, no-show at the meeting point ( english no-show )). The injured party may be entitled to claims for damages .
Atypical carpooling agencies
In addition to arranging car pooling, there have recently been other forms of car pooling:
- After the introduction of the weekend ticket valid for up to five people throughout Germany and similarly designed country tickets , ride sharing centers also developed in rail travel.
- Companies like Wingly offer the opportunity to privately market the capacity of an aircraft in the style of a ride-sharing scheme. Such companies are also known as "shared flight centers".
Web links
- Link catalog on the subject of car sharing at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
- Link catalog to other ride sharing agencies in Germany of the MetaMitfahrPort
- Link catalog on the topic of ride sharing for train rides at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
- Lectures and discussions on the topic of "ride sharing" at the EcoSummit (English)
- Technical description of a modern spontaneous ridesharing system (not commercial) (PDF; 1.3 MB)
literature
- Nelson D. Chan, Susan A. Shaheen (2012), Ridesharing in North America, Past, Present, and Future, in Transport Reviews, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 93-112.
- Volker Handke, Helga Jonuschat (2013), Flexible ridesharing: New opportunities and service concepts for sustainable mobility, Berlin / New York: Springer.
- Maximilian Lukesch (2019), Sharing Economy in Logistics: A Theory-Based Concept for Online Ridesharing, Wiesbaden: SpringerGabler, also dissertation at the University of Regensburg .
