Zipcar and the City of Boston Launch New Program to Provide Car Sharing Services for City Employees
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Zipcar, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZIP), the world's leading car sharing network, today announced a new partnership with the City of Boston to launch a new fleet sharing program called FleetHub. Through this program, a number of existing city-owned fleet vehicles will be outfitted with Zipcar's proprietary car sharing technology for use by city employees. This program is designed to help the City of Boston improve efficiency, promote sustainability, save money and modernize its fleet - all without sacrificing employee mobility.
Through the FleetHub program, 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 Zipcar's self-service online reservation and secure vehicle access system, the program will help the City gain new efficiencies and reduce costs.
With a focus on fleet modernization and sustainability, the program will also help the City dispose of older, under-utilized vehicles. This will help efforts to modernize 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 modernize 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."
"As a Boston-area company, we're proud to partner with Mayor Menino and the City of Boston to help implement an innovative approach to sharing expensive city assets and resources, while improving efficiency and sustainability and helping the City modernize an aging fleet," said Scott Griffith, Zipcar chairman and CEO. "By utilizing Zipcar technology through the new FleetHub program, the City of Boston will be able to reduce the environmental and fiscal impacts of operating dedicated departmental fleets, and joins smart city governments focused on developing smart solutions to complex transportation challenges."
The City of Boston selected Zipcar as its fleet technology provider through a competitive bidding process. The program will initially be launched as a six-month pilot, which the City plans to extend to more vehicles following successful implementation.
By utilizing Zipcar technology, the City of Boston will be able to design and configure its fleet footprint in real time for optimal utilization; manage hundreds of critical activities including preventive maintenance, fueling, billing, and fleet distribution; analyze usage and diagnostic data, automatically captured during every trip; and utilize Zipcar's robust, experience-driven analytics to stay on top of trends, ahead of situations and in control of its fleet.
Zipcar's technology has already been adopted through similar initiatives in Washington, D.C. and the City of Chicago. In 2009, Washington, D.C. became the first city to use the Zipcar technology in their fleet, allowing fleet operators to eliminate cars, save money and reduce emissions. D.C. officials estimate that they save more than $1 million per year using the technology.
In March 2011, the City of Chicago became the first in the country to integrate both the use of Zipcar technology in their existing fleet and Z4B (Zipcar4Business), Zipcar's business transportation solution. According to the city's projections, the integrated program could save Chicago hundreds of thousands of dollars in transportation costs over the next several years.
About Zipcar
Zipcar is the world's leading car-sharing network with more than 650,000 members and 9,000 vehicles located in major metropolitan areas and college campuses throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Zipcar offers more than 30 makes and models of self-service vehicles by the hour or day to residents and businesses looking for an alternative to the high costs and hassles of owning a car. More information is available at www.zipcar.com. Zipcar and the Zipcar logo are trademarks of Zipcar, Inc.
About Zipcar's FastFleet® Technology
FastFleet is Zipcar's proprietary car sharing technology that enables fleet managers to save money, reduce risk and promote sustainability by leveraging the same technology that powers Zipcar's consumer fleet. The FastFleet program empowers client fleet administrators to determine the numbers, types and locations of vehicles, which are then equipped with Zipcar's in-vehicle technology, wirelessly linking them to a dedicated server. Utilizing FastFleet technology makes reserving and driving a vehicle a seamless process for employees, while providing significant benefits to fleet managers as well. More information is available at www.fastfleet.net.
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SOURCE Zipcar
For further information: Colleen McCormick, +1-617-336-4342, [email protected]