With the rise, fall, and slow rise of gasoline prices in Los Angeles, many Angelenos are looking to buses, light rail, carpooling, biking, and their own two feet to reach their destinations. The rise of car-sharing on the West Coast also has enabled L.A. residents who don’t own a car essentially to “share” their wheels at a price that rivals those of car rental companies like Hertz, Enterprise, Avis, and others. This trend signals a potential reduction in business for those rental companies, and one of the world’s largest suppliers of rental cars is fighting to take the crown in the car-sharing sector.

Hertz Corporation has decided to jump into the car-sharing business with their own service, Connect By Hertz. The car-sharing market gained in popularity due to the innovating company Zipcar and later Flexcar (which merged with Zipcar in late 2007). Hertz hopes to bring in more customers and take the lead in the market over Zipcar, as well as U-Haul’s U-Car Share, and WeCar by Enterprise. Hertz, U-Haul, and Enterprise are each trying to tap into the Zipcar market, which could have one of two results: Zipcar could continue its expansion, weather the storm, and dominate the market that they helped to build; on the other hand, a company like Hertz has revenue that Zipcar doesn’t yet have to expand in a variety of places. In a recent article in the Boston Globe, Paula Rivera, the Hertz public affairs manager, laid in to the company’s wishes to take over public interest in car-sharing, and with their excess cash, that would mean forcing Zipcar out of the market.

The pricing for 18-24 year olds through Hertz’s service is unbelievably high: for 25 year olds plus, the hourly rental is $8.50, but one hour for those of us who are under the 25 bracket is from $16.00 to the maximum day pricing (the cost of renting a car for someone 25 or older). With that, Zipcar is cheaper for college students signing up through their university system. Hertz has expressed interest in targeting college students, but if those prices come to about the same for college students, I certainly will be passing on their services.
In a city like Los Angeles that is bustling and full of traffic/public transportation problems, car-sharing is a good thing: it reduces air pollution from an abundance of cars, decreases the carbon footprint, minimizes the number of cars on the road, as well as eliminates the cost of gasoline, car insurance, and upkeep that would follow if one actually owned the car they drive. It also means that in the event that someone has an important task to take care of, they won’t have to wait for what may feel like forever to get to where they are going.

I personally do see car-sharing as a great step towards cleaner air, but my concern with the future of car-sharing is highlighted in the comments made by Ms. Rivera: the idea behind car-sharing seems more about business and making money off of the public instead of doing something that is truly about helping the environment. It’s highly likely that other car rental firms will decide to jump on the car-sharing bandwagon, with one possibly coming out on top in the end.

Crushing competition would mean higher prices for consumers, who might turn away from something that is more green in nature, and return to high-priced, gas guzzling cars to get around, and that would be a big step in the wrong direction!