City of Boston employees to use car sharing services

Zipcar, the leading car sharing network, has announced a new partnership with the city of Boston to launch a new fleet sharing programme called FleetHub. Through this programme, the city of Boston has combined vehicles once dedicated to city departments to create an interdepartmental fleet.
March 14, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
3874 Zipcar, the leading car sharing network, has announced a new partnership with the city of Boston to launch a new fleet sharing programme called FleetHub. Through this programme, the city of Boston has combined vehicles once dedicated to city departments to create an interdepartmental fleet. By deploying Zipcar's car sharing platform in these vehicles, as well as implementing the company’s self-service online reservation and secure vehicle access system, the programme will help the city gain new efficiencies and reduce costs. And with a focus on fleet modernisation and sustainability, the initiative will also help the city dispose of older, under-utilised vehicles. This will help efforts to modernise the fleet with alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles.

"Boston is always looking for ways to be more green, both in saving money and saving energy. This partnership with Zipcar helps us do both," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. "It will modernise the city's fleet, allowing us to reduce costs and operate more efficiently, providing fuel-efficient vehicles as well as the technology to maintain a convenient, web-based system for use by city employees."

Boston selected Zipcar as its fleet technology provider through a competitive bidding process. The programme will initially be launched as a six-month pilot, which the city plans to extend to more vehicles following successful implementation.

Zipcar's technology has already been adopted through similar initiatives in Washington, DC, and the city of Chicago. In 2009, Washington, DC became the first city to use the Zipcar technology in its fleet, allowing fleet operators to eliminate cars, save money and reduce emissions. DC officials estimate that they save more than US$1 million per year using the technology.

In March 2011, Chicago became the first in the US to integrate both the use of Zipcar technology in its existing fleet and Z4B (Zipcar4Business), the company's business transportation solution. According to the city's projections, the integrated programme could save Chicago hundreds of thousands of dollars in transportation costs over the next several years.

Related Content

  • USDoT looks at the costs and potential benefits of connected vehicles
    October 26, 2017
    David Crawford looks at latest lessons learned from the trials of connected vehicles in the US. The progress of connected vehicle (CV) technologies takes centre stage among the hot topics highlighted in the September 2017 edition – the first since 2014 – of the ‘ITS Benefits, Costs and Lessons Learned’ survey from the US ITS Joint Program Office (JPO). The organisation is an arm of the US Department of Transportation (USDoT).
    Read More
  • Xerox’s mobility app offers Mobility as a Service
    June 1, 2016
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at a new mobility app in Los Angeles and Denver that brings Mobility as a Service one step closer. Commuting today doesn’t have to require a single modal route. You can take Uber to the nearest light-rail station or a bus to the commuter line. Then on the other end of your trip, you can book a bikeshare the rest of the way to your office. For many who live in major metropolitan areas around the US this is a distinct reality as new ways to move from Point A to Point B continue to
    Read More
  • Lyft Green Mode option allows riders to request electric and hybrid vehicles
    February 14, 2019
    Lyft is launching a Green Mode feature within its app to provide riders in Seattle with the option to travel in an electric or hybrid vehicle. The move follows the company’s planned introduction of thousands of electric vehicles (EVs) onto its platform this year. Lyft says the deployment will allow its drivers to increase net earnings as it says the cost of travelling in an EV is half that of a petrol-powered car, therefore saving hundreds of dollars per month on fuel costs. Drivers can switch
    Read More
  • nuTonomy to test self-driving cars on public roads in Boston
    November 22, 2016
    US self-driving car startup nuTonomy is to begin testing its growing fleet of self-driving cars on specific public streets in a designated area of Boston. The company, which launched a self-driving car trial in Singapore in September, has been given permission to operate its vehicles in the city’s Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park. nuTonomy equips its vehicles with a software system which has been integrated with high-performance sensing and computing components, to enable safe operation without a driver.
    Read More

Highlighted Content