Skip to main content

Why own a car, when you can go get?

Image
By

That's the slogan of one company providing an alternative to car ownership. Here's our experience with them.

Why not just have our own car?

Another time I'll write a full post about that, but suffice to say that car ownership is a pain in the neck. The servicing, the maintenance, the repairs, the parking, the traffic, the registration, the insurance, the cleaning...

For my wife and I, about 98% of our transport needs can be done on foot, by bike, by train, bus or ferry. Maybe 99% if you include rideshare. So we choose to avoid the pain (and cost) of car ownership.

However, car use (I think of it separately from car ownership) can be handy in certain situations. We had one of those situations last weekend. Here's how it went.

Booking a car

My wife signed up for GoGet, and booked the car online for the time window she needed it.

As a first-timer, she received her little membership card in the mail. On the day of the booking, GoGet sent her a reminder email about 20 minutes before the booking started.

Grabbing the car

The reminder email also gave the exact location of the car, which was about 250m from us.

It was easy to find with the orange branding.

As soon as the booking started, we could swipe the membership card over the built-in sensor behind the windscreen, to unlock the doors.

Inside, the car key itself was attached to the car on a retractable cord. Handy for never losing the key. :)


There's also a fuel card attached if the car need refilling. GoGet pays for the fuel, but we're charged a per-km fee to cover our usage.

Summary

GoGet seems most suitable for short, occasional uses within the city. Convenience trips more so than long driving.

There are also other options available including rental cars, Car Next Door and rideshare. This post is not intended to be an add for GoGet.

On this occasion my wife chose GoGet for the ability to have the car overnight and because car rental prices are a bit high right now. Also it was an advantage to pick up the car just around the corner, rather than at a rental company location.

Psychology of cost

It seems expensive when you first look at the hire cost. But the idea is that it's a replacement to owning a rarely-used car.

So while the hire cost may look high; when compared to paying for registration, insurance and servicing etc, it's quite affordable - if used only occasionally.

I guess that we're essentially splitting the cost of car ownership with the other users. Much better than having to pay the whole lot, when we rarely need a car.

Further reading

How to waste a year's wages (cars are a big chunk of it)

Subscribe to my monthly-ish email for updates of new posts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Man Down

By
How is it possible for a book to be depressing, supportive and hopeful all at once? Man Down looks at the problems men have today and how it managed to get this way. What price 'success'? It seems so many of the problems come from the external pressure to be a 'success' - whatever that means. Over time this pressure becomes internal and drives us to make decisions to satisfy that pressure, but which are detrimental in so many other ways. It can be the pressure to take a 'successful' career, though it's one we don't want or aren't suited for. Or to take a promotion, because salary is apparently success - or at least it buys all the things that signal success to others.  The promotion only means more pressure, less sleep, and poorer health. At the same time the extra responsibility takes away from our ability to exercise, take care of our health and form social connections. The lack of social connections means that retiring is one of the most dangerou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Colour me happy

By
One of the great things about reducing possessions is thing called 'helper's high' . It's that fuzzy feeling you get from helping someone else out. I got one recently by helping an old man lift heavy groceries into his car boot when he was struggling. But this is not about that. I was about to put some watercolour paints online for anyone who wanted them. Then I remembered a local community group where people do art therapy. I gave the paints to a contact who passed them on to the group. The next day my contact called me to say how much they were appreciated. One of the participants wanted to do some watercolour painting, but couldn't afford the paints. When my contact walked in with free paints the participant was overjoyed to be able to do her art. As far as 'helper's highs' go, this was a slightly removed one - I never met the actual person I helped. But still it was a buzz.
Post a Comment
Read more

Great small gifts

By
Often Christmas is about more, more, more. More spending, more gifts, more stuff. It's tricky for the person who is happy with less stuff. Three cheers for my family My loved ones have done exceedingly well this year. All the gifts I received on Christmas day could fit in one envelope - not including those that fitted in my stomach ;) . My free e-book 10 Great Gifts for People who Don't Want Stuff has a great range of gift ideas. Here are specific examples that are giving me joy rather than clutter. Hand-made gifts It's an unexpected treat to get something someone has put their time into making. A friend (and her 8 and 6 year old daughters) made us this collection of soaps. We'll appreciate them as we use them up. Held up to the light, they're amazingly colourful and bright. Even the bag they came in (courtesy of the kids) was fantastically cute. Vouchers Vouchers can be hit and miss. The tip is to go broad if you don't know the person well. Only ...
Post a Comment
Read more