Car Coop

The sharing model

Car Coop uses a model that we used for years with our shared camper van.

Every user pays a fixed amount of money per kilometer. If a user drives with the car the user will log the kilometers driven in the app. The app calculates the money that the user has to pay and adds them as debt in the users account.

Expenses like spendings for fuel, repairs, taxes and insurrances are logged as well for the user who spent the money. They will be added as credit to the users account.

When there is a disparity between expenses and kilometers driven (f.e. one user drives a lot but does not pay for fuel often) the app allows to log money flow between users. The user who receives money gets the money subtracked from the users balance while the paying user gets the amount added as credit.

At the end of a season (in our case, as the camper van is not operated in winter) the user group can decide how to deal with disparities. F.e. they can decide to keep them for next season or to equalize the different account balances.

The kilometer/mile price

The price that users have to pay will vary signficantly between vehicles and over time. With our van (A 24 years old Mercedes Sprinter, that consume ~10 liters of Diesel every 100 kilometers) we currently calculate with 30 cents(€) per kilometer. Roughly you could start with twice the fuel costs per kilometer and see if things work out. The app will calculate the kilometer costs estimation. But it will take time where the vehicle is operated until this number becomes useful. And of course every big repair can make things more expensive, expecially for older cars.

User groups

We have two different groups of users: "The crew" which takes care of the vehicle and drives the most. They pay a lower kilometer price as the have invested more (money and time) to make the vehicle availabe than the second group. "Guests" are the second group. Those are people who ask every now and then if the can use the vehicle. Most of them not more than once or twice a year. They pay a slightly higher kliometer price.

You can use groups in different ways of course. People with low income f.e. can pay a lower rate than people with higher income.

Advantages

The model is simple. No one has to worry about the amount of fuel in the fuel tank when different people use the car. Billing after a trip can be simply done by entering the start- and end-kilometer and any vehicle related expenses during the trip. It is also easy to set off the different cost types against each user.