Cohaus NZ car share notes, and insurance article

[Janet Murphy]

Hi everyone,

Josh Yeats' recent carshare talk was so interesting I thought I should send the notes to everyone. They are pasted below. You can also find them on our cohousing carshare spreadsheet under MEETING NOTES.

Josh sent me an alarming article in The Guardian about "car share clubs" in the UK losing their last insurer. We all could be at risk of that since most insurance companies won't work with us. 

If anyone would like to poll our group to see which insurance companies we are working with, and present it at one of our gatherings, that would be great. It would also be valuable to find out who insures Zipcar, Colorado Carshare, Community Car, and other carshare schemes.

I have started a list of insurers (one so far!) under the RESOURCES tab on our spreadsheet. Please add any information you have.

Janet

====

Josh Yeats, Cohaus NZ Car Share Webinar  March 16, 2024

Notes by Sam Spofforth

Link to document

Introduction:

• Car Share is awesome to share about. 

• Janet informs me that our carshare at Cohaus is the 2nd largest cohousing car share in the world.

• Josh, originally from Australia, now lives in New Zealand.

• Cohaus has 20 apartments, and was a redevelopment of an inner-city parcel of land.

• Apartments are mostly owner-residents, 3 of 20 are currently renters.

Beginnings:

• Car share has been operational from day one.

• Car park is adjacent to the complex, not too large. NZ has minimum parking space requirements – about 1 space per unit.

• Half the people coming into the community didn’t own cars; many used public transit, bikes, etc.

• Cohaus has 9 car parking spots for 20 units. Six shared cars are stored in space-saving “stackers.”

• Cohaus did research on car ownership, surveys, park on street? Wanted to understand transport habits of people in the community. 

• They worked to get exemption from local minimum space regulations, and they were successful in reducing required spaces! Very fortunate and allowed for more space for gardening.

• Six households that owned a car before Cohaus now DO NOT own a car. 

• Some decided they wanted to sell their car upon moving. 

• Now, the community has a net of one less car. (There were three less, but two people have bought private cars.)  

Buying Vehicles: Note $1 NZ = $.61 US

• Cohaus set aside money as part of the $20 million project for car acquisitions as part of the development  budget. This was beneficial to successfully getting the scheme setup and running. It turned out to be very smart to build into the budget. ($75K to spend on six cars, plan from beginning was six cars, three sets of identical cars.) 

• Have 3 car stackers that accommodate 2 x vehicles each. Total cost of stackers ~ $90k NZD Stacked the same type of car on top of each other. Participants reported that Phoenix Commons (Oakland CA) and PDX Commons (Portland OR) also have car stackers.

• Two EVs, plus four cheap fuel-efficient hybrid gas cars.

• 2 x Nissan Leaf 2016 30kWh,and 4 x Priuses (2 x compact Prius Aqua, 2 x larger wagon style Prius Alpha). The wagon styles go the most distance but the fewest bookings, popular for family trips.

Using Vehicles:

• Various use cases for cars. The hybrids are great for long trips, including families who need to pack for trips. EVs are better for short trips. This is borne out in the use data.

• Curious fact - the cars we sourced are worth as much today as when we bought them 3 years ago – EVs are under high demand, fuel efficient used cars also.

• Negotiating with car dealers is easier when you’re in the market for multiple vehicles. Key was buying multiple cars from the same source. They got a much better deal, leverage buying multiple cars. 

• Nissan Leafs are the most frequently used though their average booking is a shorter duration and distance and recoup the marginally least revenue.. Hours are just slightly more and mileage is more per unit for gas cars. This has generated use charges that are fairly comparable. Leafs booked more often, but travel less miles.

• They do take cars on holidays. There is a soft-rule for 7 day maximum but exceptions by arrangement. Can choose larger cars for these family trips.

• Being so “car rich” in the system means it’s easier to count on taking them on long trips.

Insurance:

• Initially a bit tricky but worked this out through trial and error and a good insurance broker.

• Cars are owned by the association, the overarching body for the community. That type of legal entity is less familiar to insurers and car dealers. It is rare for this type of legal entity to own vehicles.

• Some misinformation about insurance. Someone told them this is a “commercial operation,” like a taxi service – requiring much more expensive insurance. The community didn’t take this approach. Insurance broker they chose was more knowledgeable. Ended up with a standard business insurance policy for vehicles. Priced slightly higher than for individuals, but not as much as taxi service.

• At the start, they didn’t have collision insurance on all vehicles. Decided to partially self-insure at beginning, but then upgraded insurance to be comprehensive on all vehicles.

• There have been accidents and claims. Comprehensive insurance for all vehicles has definitely proven to be worth the cost and provides peace-of-mind for everyone. 

Fees:

• They use a mixed model with a subscription fee plus usage fees. All residents paid a flat fee whether they use cars or not. It turns out that every household has used the service at least once, though a small number are very infrequent users. The carshare scheme is credited as a benefit to everyone because it helped maximize the green space that could be preserved on our site.

• Year 1 – higher fixed fee and a cheaper usage rate, for simplicity and due to unknowns. They collected $10K in fixed subscription fees for Year 1 ($600 for 2 adult households, $400 for single adults) 

• Year 2 and so far beyond - halved the subscription fee ($5,000 total, $300 or $200 per household per year) 

• Usage rate is 30 cents per km, and 80 cents per hour with a daily maximum duration charge of 12 hours ($9.60).

• The tariff model is about right, and has not changed for more than 12 months. Will be tweaked slightly to keep check with inflation and rising fuel/road charges.

• nd NZ$.80 per hour is about US$.49

• So a max of 12 hours would be about US$6 per day

• “Reserve” for capital accumulation to replace cars is built into the financial model. This assumes straight line depreciation of ~$6K per year (across the current fleet of 6 vehicles)

Other User Costs:

• They have fuel cards to pay for gas. (Factored into expenses, the costs automatically go on to bill, then these are paid.

• Electricity: Network of charging stations, but not usually used. Cars are charged at home.

• 12 hour max per day, ends up being $9/day.

Systems and Processes (we touched on these and hope to have Josh back to discuss them)

• Use GPS transponders that are plugged into all cars. These are mass-market devices with 4G mobile SIM cards. Reasonably low cost to purchase upfront.

• Total upfront cost for the Software and Hardware (GPS transponders) was ~ $2,000 NZD.

• Annual operating cost for the GPS & Booking platform is $3,600 NZD.

• There are 2 x software platforms that are integrated

• Smartrak (GPS) tracks where the cars are, and where they get used. https://smartrak.com/

• Poolcar is the booking app/calendar. 

• Managed to find off the shelf fleet management systems. It works well enough. Has a calendar view, Smart phone app for booking, then generates data, links to GPS trackers.

• After 2 years, Invested $7K in electronic key management system. Good investment. This literally holds keys and ties these to bookings.

• Hardly ever happens that there are no cars, but on those rare instances, people can borrow a private car.