Reflections of an Early Adopter Experience: Three Years of Car Sharing
As someone who runs a design agency, I'm always on the lookout for early adopters and interested in their experiences. It's quite amusing that I haven't considered myself as one until now. But on reflection, I've actually had the unique experience of being an early adopter. I hesitated to write this article for a long time, but my business partner Joeri encouraged and triggered me to share my experience.
Here in Belgium, it's common practice for families to have at least one or two cars. Owning a car used to define our freedom as my wife and I relied on it to take the kids to their hobbies (basketball, dancing, music school), go grocery shopping and bring enough supplies back to last at least a week, go on a weekend retreat, and more.
But three years ago, we decided to forgo our family car and make the switch to car sharing. You might be wondering why we considered such a crazy idea, especially since car sharing was a very new service at the time and is still a relatively unpopular choice amongst the masses.
Why did we take the plunge?
It all began when we calculated how much having a car cost us per month. Considering fuel consumption, insurance, taxes and the car loan, everything added up to more than €650 per month. This is quite a significant amount and got us thinking about ways we could reduce it.
At the time, we had an SUV because we needed to transport a considerable amount of luggage when we travelled. My wife questioned this choice and commented: "But we only travel once or twice a year, and we often take a plane to warmer places". I'd also noticed that since we live in a city, all our regular activities occurred within the vicinity (max 10 km). Was there really a justifiable reason to own such an expensive hulking vehicle to travel a few kilometres a day?
The fact that we live in Antwerp was another factor. Our local government decided to prohibit older gasoline cars, and those who continued to own such cars had to pay a considerable fine each year. As luck would have it, we owned an old but excellent gasoline powered SUV that we loved.
The car sharing experience
Long story short, we took a leap of faith as several B2C car sharing platforms emerged. The experience was exciting and delightful: we had a different car every time!
In the beginning, car sharing platforms offered high-end brands such as Audi, Mercedes, Volkswagen, and others. Unfortunately, many cars were stolen or destroyed as they were open to all, even to drivers who had just gotten their license. As a result, these platforms changed their policies and the high-end cars were gradually replaced with cheaper models. The car sharing experience declined even though the price didn't change.
As a founder (The Product Architects) and self-employed individual, I understood the economic necessity for the car sharing platforms to downgrade their models. Some of them even pivoted to a B2B model for company pool cars. My wife and I decided to continue using the car sharing platforms but to be honest, we still prefer the high-end vehicles we used to get.
Our perspective today
Today, we notice that our attitude and habits have changed over time. We now take a bike if we want fresh bread or to go grocery shopping in the mornings. Yes, even when it rains. We also walk more as a family. The kids used to complain about this, but now they love it (although it took several years to get to this happy place).
We sometimes miss the freedom of having a car at our fingertips, but life is more than manageable without it. If I'm ever in a hurry to get somewhere, I don't mind taking a taxi as it will never cost the equivalent of over €650 per month. We've recently realised that we now spend an average of €46 per month (I'm not even kidding) on travel expenses as a family.
When we tell friends and colleagues that we don't have a car, they tend to look at us as though we're crazy hippies singing kumbaya. Some asked us if we gave up our care for environmental reasons, but although we care about the environment, we aren't terribly committed and could probably do more (we aren't vegetarians for example).
Not having a car does create a form of stigma but luckily, we couldn't care less about that kind of thing. Like most families in Belgian cities, we only used our car 10% of the time and it mainly sat on our driveway consuming money while doing absolutely nothing. On a side note, not using a fuel powered car is terrible for the lifetime value and durability of the vehicle.
And what about the future?
As a company founder, I will probably purchase an "EV company car" in the coming years purely for tax reasons. After all, the benefits are just too attractive.
We also love the idea of a sharing economy as it boosts efficiency, reduces costs, and promotes change. Never again will we even consider using a car for a 900 m grocery impulse buy.
Unfortunately, the sharing system is open to abuse and many people abuse it. This abuse impacts providers' profitability, which is a pity since it is a very sustainable model and a likely future model for all of us. The question is, are we ready as a society to embrace such an economy?
