Blog 1 - Transportation Group - Zipcar

As my original company (JustShareIt) turned out to be a dud, as a group we decided to replace it with Zipcar.  While Zipcar is technically not a p2p company, our group decided to use it as a company we can benchmark our other two p2p car sharing companies (Getaround & Turo) against.  My customer experience overall was positive and is outlined below-

Booking the car

              Upon leaving our site visit to Uber, I was able to look-up on the Zipcar app cars near me.  I found a Honda Fit that was two blocks from the offices we left. 

Picking up the car

              We were provided instructions via the Zipcar app to enter an apartment building garage where we met valet and they collected the car for us.  To open the car we had to use the Zipcard (see photo), the app would not work to open the car on the first go.  The process was seamless and we were out of there within 5 minutes.

The car & trip

              The car was clean and in good condition.  The gas tank was ¾ full.  We used it to drive around SF for a bit (see photo) and then back to our Airbnb where we parked it on the street while we got changed for the baseball game we were attending.

 Returning the car

              We returned the car to the same location we picked it up from.  The exchange was a little confusing as when we arrived, we were not sure whether we just left the car or had to let valet know it was back.  Eventually a valet attendant came over and let us know we could just leave the car.

Follow-up from company

              After the trip, Zipcar sent an email with details including miles traveled and cost of the trip including the option to contact their help center with any issues (see email cut-out below).

Overall experience

              Overall the experience was positive, some of the key areas of good practice for our p2p companies to follow included-

-          -The follow-up email with trip details

-         - Directions to the car were precise & accurate

-          -Tank had sufficient gas & car was in good condition

-          -Pickup was smooth

Some areas for potential improvement include-

-         - Being able to open the car originally with the app (card was needed for first opening)

-          -Better instructions when dropping the car off (i.e. speak to valet or just leave car in x-spot)