Wheels for hire

URBAN LIFE:An environmentally-friendly car-sharing scheme in Dublin and Cork could get you mobile, when you need to be, sort of like the Dublin Bikes scheme, writes CATHERINE CLEARY

IF IT’S NOT bulbs, it’s the tyres. Then there’s the blinking petrol light. Worse still is the almost audible sound of euro dripping into the ground as our car sits outside the door for most of the week.

Owning a car in the city centre can be an exercise in frustration. So could a new car-sharing scheme offer a useful alternative to car ownership? A company calling itself Go Car has just set up in Dublin to offer a transport option it hopes will be as easy as picking up a city bike.

In its early stages, Go-Car consists of two Ford Fiestas parked just off Camden Street in the city centre. The company is hoping to expand it to 50 cars around the city, according to director Marc Rafferty.

He meets me on the street to explain how it works. Anyone over 24 years of age with a full driver’s licence with less than five penalty points can register online. A year’s registration costs €50. The company checks driving licences and then issues people with a blue and yellow Go-card, the size of a credit card, and their own Pin.

I have booked a car online the day before. When I arrive, I put the Go card up to a box behind the windscreen and the doors of the car unlock. In the glove compartment, there is a handset like a credit-card machine. Another Pin (which the user gets by phone text) is keyed into the handset. This releases the car key. I put it in the ignition and drive away.

So there it is. New car smell, full petrol tank, wipers where the indicators are. This is just like driving a hire car without the form-filling and day-long hire that involves. If I encounter any problems or get delayed, I can press a call button on the handset in the glovebox to talk to an operator and change my booking. Late return of the car gets you a €25 fine.

“We hope it replaces the second car,” Rafferty explains. “We wash the cars every two weeks, do all the repairs, servicing. The idea is that you only use the resources when you need them.” From next month there will be booster seats, so people with children can use them. After 18 months in Cork the company has 250 members, he says, both corporate and private.

“If you want to go to Kerry for three days you’d use Hertz or one of the other car-rental firms,” he says. “We are for journeys of 20, 30 or 40 kilometres. Say you wanted to drive out to one of the more remote suburbs to see a friend or collect something from a shop in Blanchardstown . . .”

After 50 minutes pootling around, parking, and arriving back, I have done just five kilometres. The cost of that comes to just under €6. I put the ignition key back into the handset and use the Go-Card to lock the car. The charge for your journey appears on a monthly bill. A longer journey of 20 kilometres in an hour would have cost just under €12. With three kids and grandparents some distances away, we won’t be getting rid of our car just yet. If we had a second car? The ad would be in Buy and Sell already.

See www.gocar.ie