Carsharing Providers Research Articles

Algorithms supporting carsharing service using the example of Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform

Purpose of Study: The objective of this study is to explore the role and effectiveness of algorithms in supporting carsharing services, with a specific focus on the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform. By analyzing the algorithms utilized in the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform, the study seeks to provide insights into their effectiveness in improving service quality, optimizing resource utilization, and meeting customer demands. The research objective also includes identifying potential areas for further algorithmic improvements to enhance the overall performance and sustainability of car-sharing services.
 Methodology: The paper was prepared with the use of the critical literature review method mainly in the field of sharing economy. In this method, the researchers examined academic and professional literature, articles, publications, and relevant documents related to car-sharing services and algorithmic implementations in the sharing economy sector. These sources served as valuable references to analyze and assess the role of algorithms in the context of the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform and its impact on service efficiency and customer satisfaction.
 Main conclusions: The identified algorithms play a crucial role in the efficient functioning of car-sharing services. Vision algorithms are particularly important in monitoring vehicles, verifying users, managing the rental and return process, and ensuring safety. The designed and developed product, a complete system platform for carsharing service management, has been partially commercialized and deployed in the Panek CarSharing 2.0 service, which was launched on April 4, 2023. The investor and main recipient of the system continue to work on system development and the final implementation of the production version of modules that are still under development. The completion of work and full commercialization of the product, either as a complete system or individual modules, is planned for mid-2024.
 Application of the study: The findings of this study have practical implications for the carsharing industry and its stakeholders. Carsharing service providers can benefit from the insights gained in this study to improve their operational efficiency, enhance user experience, and optimize their service offerings. The study's analysis of the algorithms supporting the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform can serve as a guide for other carsharing providers in developing and implementing similar technological solutions.
 Originality/Novelty of the study: This study focuses on the algorithms supporting the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform, which is an innovative and advanced carsharing solution. The study delves into the functionalities and features of these algorithms, highlighting their significance in optimizing carsharing services.

Panek Carsharing 2.0: An innovative sharing economy platform for efficient and sustainable mobility

Purpose of Study: To investigate and evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform as a solution for mobility needs Furthermore, The research aims to analyze the features and functionalities of the platform. assess its impact on the efficiency of car-sharing services and evaluate its contribution to sustainable mobility practices Followed by providing insights into the benefits and limitations of the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform and identifying areas for improvement to enhance its efficiency and sustainability in the context of shared mobility.
 Methodology: The paper was prepared with the use the critical literature review method mainly in the field of sharing economy. In conducting a literature review, the researchers examined academic and professional literature, articles, publications, and relevant documents related to the subject matter. These sources provided valuable insights into the current state of carsharing platforms, with a particular emphasis on innovative approaches in the sharing economy sector.
 Main findings: Sharing economy and shared mobility are rapidly growing areas with the potential to transform resource utilization and transportation. The sharing economy allows for more efficient use of goods and services, while shared mobility enables flexible and convenient transportation options. Benefits of the sharing economy and shared mobility include sustainable resource utilization, reduced congestion, and financial savings. Panek S.A. aims to enhance their Panek CarSharing service by implementing innovative algorithms and modules to improve safety, optimize fleet management, and enhance the overall user experience.
 Application of the study: The application of this study in the carsharing market can provide valuable insights for carsharing providers, policymakers, and researchers. Carsharing providers can utilize the findings to enhance their service offerings and business strategies. The study can help identify key factors that influence customer preferences, usage patterns, and satisfaction levels, allowing providers to tailor their services accordingly. Policymakers can use the study's insights to inform regulations and policies that support the growth and sustainability of the carsharing industry. Additionally, researchers can build upon the study's findings to further investigate specific aspects of the carsharing market, such as pricing models, customer behavior, or the impact of carsharing on urban mobility and environmental sustainability. Ultimately, the application of this study can contribute to the development of a more efficient, accessible, and sustainable carsharing ecosystem.
 Originality/Novelty of the study: The originality of this study lies in the innovative approach taken by PANEK S.A. to enhance and develop their Panek CarSharing service. By leveraging modern technologies and innovative features, PANEK S.A. strives to improve their offering and create a more attractive experience for users.

Longitudinal, qualitative-empirical insights into the development of carsharing

Although sharing has for a long time been a well-established principle to deal with resource shortages on a private level, the important impact of establishing sharing as business principle has only recently been highlighted by business practice as well as research. Sharing can be considered a relevant means to easily enhance resource endowment – nevertheless, making use of sharing in a business context calls for the employment of new, innovative business models. In this paper, we have a deeper look at the evolvement of carsharing business models as we present insights from a longitudinal qualitative-empirical study of six carsharing providers. We employ a process perspective to dig deeper into firm-level influence factors that are core elements of strategic renewal and drivers of subsequent business model innovation. Additionally, we show how strategic activities of the different market players are linked to each other and how this interplay affects our case firms. Our paper sheds light on the strategy renewal-business model innovation interface and contributes to strategy process literature and to business model innovation research.

A Decision Model for Free-Floating Car-Sharing Providers for Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chains

For green and sustainable supply chains, transportation resilience is a critical issue. Car Sharing is an effective way to improve transportation resilience. The emerging car-sharing industry continues to attract a lot of investment, but few companies in the industry are profitable. Indeed, numerical experiments based on dynamic models in this paper showed that it was challenging for a car-sharing company to be profitable. As the numerical experiments followed the fractional factorial designs, from the factor analysis, it is suggested that a new car-sharing business first study the external business environment. Even if the external environment is sound, the company still needs to pay attention to internal operations management. Moreover, when the company decides the number of cars it owns and the fleet size, it should consider factors including variable daily expenses, maintenance costs, salvage value, and commission.

Towards blockchain-IoT based shared mobility: Car-sharing and leasing as a case study

The shared mobility concept is seen as disruptive and transformative for the automotive industry. Shared mobility is changing the way we choose our travel mode, from just owning a car to e-hailing, car-sharing, and other relevant mobility solutions. There is a growing interest of car manufacturers (original equipment manufacturers or OEMs) in car-sharing as an expansion strategy. Similarly, blockchain technology is seen as another disruptive technology, which can potentially change how the data is stored and accessible via its immutable, transparent, and trustworthy features. Motivated by these two current trends, this paper aims to explore how blockchain and IoT technologies together can drive shared mobility forward. We have presented a high-level architecture for a blockchain-IoT-based platform for promoting shared mobility combining car-sharing and car-leasing. We also demonstrated a prototype implemented from the OEM’s point of view by developing a blockchain-IoT-based platform streamlining car-sharing and leasing processes by taking into consideration of primary stakeholders (such as OEMs, a peer-to-peer car-sharing provider, leasing company and insurance provider as well as public authorities). This work also demonstrates that the design of such an integrated platform depends on the right balance between the key design principles (such as security and privacy, authenticity, traceability and reliability, scalability, and interoperability) in the context of car-sharing platforms.

Carsharing Business Models’ Strategizing Mindsets Regarding Environmental Sustainability

Carsharing is seen as one of the most promising business model innovations for transforming the mobility system towards sustainability. Yet, carsharing businesses are faced with similar sustainability paradoxes as business in general; whether a company’s business model is pushed towards sustainability depends on its strategizing mindset. However, few studies have addressed the strategizing mindsets of carsharing providers. The present study addresses this gap with an empirical assessment of (1) the relevance of environmental sustainability in the strategies of carsharing corporations compared to their proclaimed vision and (2) the underlying type of strategizing mindset, i.e., corporate purpose and vision. In using a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard approach in a reversed manner, accompanied by an objective hermeneutic methodology, we reconstructed strategy maps out of two distinct carsharing business models, unveiling for each company its strategic reasoning, its understanding of corporate purpose and its underlying strategizing mindset. The results reveal that none of the carsharing businesses follow a mindset that orients their strategy to a systems-based view and accordingly do not provide solutions to environmental problems. The study not only adds to our understanding of carsharing companies, it also introduces a conceptual framework that allows the investigation of purpose in comparison to vision, revealing a company’s strategizing mindset.

Providers and Practices: How Suppliers Shape Car-Sharing Practices

Social practice theories can be useful for studying changes in mobility systems as regards automobility practices. However, many studies address the demand side and the user practices of consumers, without examining the supplier side. This Norwegian study focuses on the role of providers in car-sharing practices, using data from household interviews with car-sharing users, stakeholder workshops, and interviews with providers of car-sharing services. How are car-sharing providers shaping car-sharing practices, and with what implications? How do business models and platform technologies affect car-sharing practices? The results show how new car-sharing service companies, in addition to established firms such as car dealers and car rental companies, affect car-sharing practices by offering several alternatives for accessing cars. The implications of this are discussed, noting how car-sharing practices are shaped by car-sharing providers in the recursive relationship between practice-as-entity and practice-as-performance. The conclusions offer a critical view of how the providers contribute to various kinds of car-sharing understandings, as well as the implications for policy and practitioners.

Different business models – different users? Uncovering the motives and characteristics of business-to-consumer and peer-to-peer carsharing adopters in The Netherlands

Carsharing is regarded to play an important part in the transition towards a more sustainable mobility system by changing how cars are used and transportation needs are met. Carsharing adopters own less cars, ride less car kilometers and depend on multiple transportation modes for their travel needs. There has been considerable interest in understanding the characteristics and motives of carsharing adopters. Yet, studies have been mostly limited to small-scale surveys, covering only specific cities or organizations and focusing on traditional B2C carsharing, disregarding the growing popularity of P2P carsharing through online platforms. This study contributes to extant research by investigating whether characteristics and motives differ between B2C and P2P carsharing adopters, and broadening the scope of the analysis to include an entire country (The Netherlands) and different carsharing provider types. First, our findings suggest that B2C and P2P carsharing adopters are rather similar in their characteristics but differ in the frequency in which they make use of carsharing and public transport. Second, we provide novel insights into the characteristics that influence a car owner to become an adopter of P2P carsharing as a provider. We find that car owners who already shared their car informally outside an online platform are also much more likely to provide their car through an online platform. We conclude with describing policy implications of our findings. Regulation should focus on shaping favorable conditions for a connected multi-modal transportation system instead of specific regulations for each carsharing business model.

Car sharing as a solution to urban mobility problems in india

Urban commuters are faced with diverse problems ranging from traffic jams, parking congestions, ownership responsibilities of vehicles etc. Urban mobility is in need of means that address the contemporary problems of the commuters and provide ubiquitous accessibility. This is the reason behind the success of car aggregators in urban regions of India. Car-sharing is an alternative to personal vehicle ownership. Car-sharing refers to accessing a car for money typically with the help of an online application. Car sharing provides an experience of enjoying all the benefits of a car without ownership responsibilities. Although there are many car-sharing providers around the world but remarkably car manufacturing companies like BMW, Ford, GM and others have also launched car sharing programs. This study is restricted to the car sharing programs launched by car manufacturing companies. Though such car sharing facilities by car manufacturing companies are not yet available in India yet this study attempts to identify its preference among the urban masses. The emergence of a few car sharing providers in India has been witnessed but the operational models are usually restricted to round trips. Many car manufacturing companies are using innovative car-sharing models like peer-to-peer model and fractional model which has enhanced accessibility and convenience. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions towards car sharing and its features in relation to the contemporary problems faced by commuters in Delhi NCR (India). The study also provides cluster level analysis based on the problems faced by commuters in order to map them to the solutions presented by existing and innovative transportation models. The findings of the study reveal that a huge majority of the commuters feel that Car Sharing Program could be an appropriate and better solution to the mobility problems. Moreover, a majority of them (62%) tend to prefer car sharing over online ride sharing cabs (like Uber). Notably, a majority (68.6%) of the respondents who usually commute through these online app based ride sharing cabs display preference for car sharing. This provides a plausible prognosis that car sharing models have a potential to capture a sizeable portion of the market from existing car aggregators (which is in accordance with the findings of Bert et al., 2016). Future research in this area could focus on the current trends related to existing car sharing models operating in India and its future. Also, any transition with regard to the perception of ownership of vehicles can also be taken up for further research

A two-phase optimization method for a multiobjective vehicle relocation problem in electric carsharing systems

The paper focuses on one-way electric carsharing systems, where the fleet of cars is made up of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the users can pick-up the EV at a station and return it to a different one. Such systems require efficient vehicle relocation for constantly balancing the availability of EVs among stations. In this work, the EVs are relocated by workers, and the issue of finding a trade-off among the customers’ satisfaction, the workers’ workload balance and the carsharing provider’s objective is addressed. This leads to a three-objective optimization problem for which a two-phase solution approach is proposed. In the first phase, feasible routes and schedules for relocating EVs are generated by different randomized search heuristics; in the second phase, non-dominated solutions are found through epsilon-constraint programming. Computational results are performed on benchmark instances and new large size instances based on the city of Milan.

Sustainability and Gender: a mixed-method analysis of urban women’s mode choice with particular consideration of e-carsharing

Abstract Women in urban areas have specific requirements for their daily mobility. Car sharing service are mostly used by men as shown in studies from different countries. This study aims for understanding specific reasons and requirements of respective trips in women’s every day live to help dismantle hurdles, which hinder women to use carsharing services. An innovative methodological approach connects directly to the current discussion of daily mobility and socio spatial theory. In this study, five cases of women living in Berlin within the business area of free-floating carsharing providers with and without battery electric vehicles will be analysed. All of them hold a drivers’ licence and fit in the profile of early adopters of E-carsharing. For seven days, their trips were tracked with gps tracking devices, while they were asked to note the circumstances of the respective trips. After this period, they reported in semi-structured interviews what was important to them to make their mode decision. In addition, the respondents were asked about their possible experiences with sharing services and expectations to shift their mobility away from a privately-owned vehicle to sustainable e-mobility. Objective GPS-tracks are connected to subjective interpretation of every-day mobility of the respondents. All trips are visualized, and colour coded according to mode choice and specifically purposes and influencing factors of the respective trips. Different maps with groups of similar trips show that women have their preferred mode for respective trips and can be explained with gender typical social roles. Especially, expectations of and experiences with carsharing with and without battery electric vehicles are shaped by factors because of gender typical tasks. Women’s preferences even in modern urban areas can be explained with their gender typical tasks due to their social roles. It becomes apparent, that there are gender-based hurdles in carsharing services with and without electric vehicles, which categorially exclude many women.

Carsharing business models in Germany: characteristics, success and future prospects

Carsharing provides an alternative to private car ownership by allowing car use temporarily on an on-demand basis. Operators provide carsharing services using different business models and ownership structures. We distinguish between cooperative, business-to-consumer (B2C) roundtrip and one-way, as well as peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing. This paper characterizes these different types of business models and compares their success in terms of diffusion using a comprehensive database of all 101 German carsharing providers in 2016. The key result holds that fleet size is significantly different across business models ranging from a few cars (cooperatives in small towns), to a few hundred (B2C roundtrip in larger cities), to over a thousand (B2C one-way in largest cities), up to multiple thousands (P2P across the country). By analyzing for each operator the number of cars per capita in the city they operate in, we do not find significant differences across business models indicating the viability of each separate business model type. Hence, we conclude that business models will continue to co-exist for a while, although some of the business models may well converge in the longer run due to Internet-of-Things applications and the introduction of self-driving cars.

Deployment and utilization of plug-in electric vehicles in round-trip carsharing systems

ABSTRACTElectric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) can reduce gasoline consumption, but increase vehicle acquisition costs and introduce operational constraints. We develop a comprehensive approach to EV/PHEV deployment and utilization in round-trip carsharing systems. First, we formulate and solve the tactical problem of utilizing a mix of gasoline vehicles and EVs/PHEVs to serve trip demand, using Mixed Integer Programming optimization to estimate the minimal gasoline consumption in a computationally efficient manner, and simulation to assess the effect of reservation order on realized gasoline consumption. Second, we use these results to inform the strategic deployment of EVs/PHEVs in the carsharing fleet, using meta-optimization. We implement our approach using data from a large carsharing provider. From the perspective of a carsharing operator, our results suggest that replacing some portion of existing gasoline fleets by EVs/PHEVs would result in gasoline savings likely to outweigh upfront investments and the constraints on vehicle utilization that it creates. Moreover, we find that easily implementable heuristics can capture some of these benefits, and that the integration of vehicle utilization patterns into the design of EV/PHEV deployment strategies can result in added benefits.

Moving in time and space – Location intelligence for carsharing decision support

In this paper we develop a spatial decision support system that assists free-floating carsharing providers in countering imbalances between vehicle supply and customer demand in existing business areas and reduces the risk of imbalance when expanding the carsharing business to a new city. For this purpose, we analyze rental data of a major carsharing provider in the city of Amsterdam in combination with points of interest (POIs). The spatio-temporal demand variations are used to develop pricing zones for existing business areas. We then apply the influence of POIs derived from carsharing usage in Amsterdam in order to predict carsharing demand in the city of Berlin. The results indicate that predicted and actual usage patterns are very similar. Hence, our approach can be used to define new business areas when expanding to new cities to include high demand areas and exclude low demand areas, thereby reducing the risk of supply-demand imbalance.

Critical success factors of carsharing and electric carsharing: findings from expert interviews in Continental Europe

Private car ownership in the context of the ongoing urbanisation is creating challenges concerning environmental pollution, high energy costs, and limited and expensive parking. As a reaction to these negative impacts, companies are developing new transportation alternatives to private car ownership. One alternative is carsharing that provides individuals with cars from a fleet on an as-needed basis. In this regard, electric carsharing presents a suitable approach to sustainable transportation and is predicted to increase in the near future due to the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This paper aims to examine critical success factors of carsharing and electric carsharing services by performing a literature review and evaluating identified factors with expert interviews. For this reason, we conduct expert interviews with carsharing providers, automotive manufacturers, and scholars in the field of carsharing research from Germany, Austria, and France.

Critical success factors of carsharing and electric carsharing: findings from expert interviews in Continental Europe

Private car ownership in the context of the ongoing urbanisation is creating challenges concerning environmental pollution, high energy costs, and limited and expensive parking. As a reaction to these negative impacts, companies are developing new transportation alternatives to private car ownership. One alternative is carsharing that provides individuals with cars from a fleet on an as-needed basis. In this regard, electric carsharing presents a suitable approach to sustainable transportation and is predicted to increase in the near future due to the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This paper aims to examine critical success factors of carsharing and electric carsharing services by performing a literature review and evaluating identified factors with expert interviews. For this reason, we conduct expert interviews with carsharing providers, automotive manufacturers, and scholars in the field of carsharing research from Germany, Austria, and France.

The Impact of Carsharing on Car Ownership in German Cities

Carsharing, currently growing strongly in Germany, is an important instrument for sustainable urban mobility. The present boom is mainly due to so-called “free-floating carsharing”. Whilst the environmental effects of station-based carsharing have been intensively studied in the German-speaking context, to date there have been hardly any empirical findings on the effect of free-floating carsharing.Using the example of DriveNow and Flinkster in Berlin and Munich, this article examines to what extent free-floating carsharing leads to a reduction of car ownership compared to station-based carsharing. Based on online surveys (n=819/227) carried out within the “WiMobil” project (9/2012 – 10/2015), descriptive analyses and two binary logistic regressions were performed.The findings show that station-based and free-floating carsharing leads to a reduction of private cars but to different degrees (DriveNow 7%; Flinkster 15%). The shedding of cars is influenced by the frequency of use of carsharing and the increasing membership of station-based carsharing providers. Furthermore, for many people of both systems carsharing is an important reason not to buy a car. But there is also a significant proportion of people planning a car purchase. This is true especially for car-savvy persons for whom car ownership is very important. Thus, carsharing can be an important factor for sustainable urban mobility. In order to maximize the positive effects of carsharing, it is of central importance to reach additional user groups such as women and elderly people with private car ownership.

In free float: Developing Business Analytics support for carsharing providers

As a rapidly expanding market, carsharing presents a possible remedy for traffic congestion in urban centers. Especially free-floating carsharing, which allows customers to leave their car anywhere within the operator׳s business area, provides users with flexibility, and complements public transportation. We present a novel method that provides strategic and operational decision support to companies maneuvering this competitive and constantly changing market environment. Using an extensive set of customer data in a zero-inflated regression model, we explain spatial variation in carsharing activity through the proximity of particular points of interests, such as movie theaters and airports. As an application case, as well as a validation of the model, we use the resulting indicators to predict the number of rentals before an expansion of the business area and compare it to the actual demand post-expansion. We find that our approach correctly identifies areas with a high carsharing activity and can be easily adapted to other cities.

Drivers of carsharing diffusion in Germany: an actor-centred approach

Carsharing increasingly gains ground as a transportation mode in Europe and the world. The present paper contributes to the literature by studying the roles and interplay of market and non-market actors in the diffusion of carsharing. It applies an actor-centred framework to the context of market development of carsharing in Germany, considering the perspectives of carsharing providers, customers, and politics. Data from secondary sources, national published printed matters, and survey data are used to analyse market and non-market actors. Results from the customer survey show that motives of convenience and value matter more than ideological motives such as environmental awareness. Findings at the provider-level correspond to this result, as even ‘traditional’ companies adjust their services to improve their usefulness. The analysis of public policy measures indicates that only marginal national level political action has been taken. This finding is in stark contrast to other European countries, such as the Netherlands or Italy. The synthesis of relations between the different market and non-market actors reveals that infrastructural variables are a key determinant for carsharing diffusion. In view of the recent growth of carsharing services infrastructural provision becomes even more salient. Disposing of the critical resource of parking space, political actors can catalyse the ongoing process of cross- and trans-regional diffusion.

Exploring carsharing usage motives: A hierarchical means-end chain analysis

Recently, carsharing has entered a phase of commercial mainstreaming as carsharing providers and urban transportation planners aim at broadening the customer base. In this context, knowledge about the motives of carsharing usage is essential for further growth. Based on a qualitative means-end chain analysis this paper therefore explores usage motives, thus expanding the existing insights from analyses of usage behavior. In a series of laddering interviews with users of a US carsharing service, the underlying hierarchical motive structure is uncovered and four motivational patterns are identified: value-seeking, convenience, lifestyle, and environmental motives. Implications are drawn for applying these insights.