(Car share [...]]]>

Daimler (Mercedes Benz), a German car manufacturer is launching a liftsharing pilot  in Ulm, Germany.  In 2008, Daimler and Peugoet started a pilot carsharing scheme again in Germany, the first car manufacturer to offer a car share service.  The new liftsharing operation called car2gether is the first time a car manufacturer has offered a ridesharing service.

(Car share means members hire a car by the hour, usually a car parked close to their home; lift or ride share means drivers planning to make a journey can get together with passengers looking for a lift.)

There is an excellent debate about Daimler’s motives for doing this here on shareable.net.

I think there are a few more key reasons why premium car manufacturers think it is worth investing in carsharing and liftsharing:

• Even though the implication of car and lift sharing is that fewer cars are required, the cars that are used will be used more heavily, favouring cars that are better built, (just consider how many taxis are Mercedes).

• Since these cars will be more heavily used, it also follows that people might consider buying higher specification or more luxurious cars.  So if Daimler’s schemes position them well in the car share/lift share market and this becomes mainstream then they can expect to increase their market share protecting them from a falling market size.  I believe that they are right to think this.  I often speak to people who, say, owned a boat outright, sold it, decided to buy a share in the same type of boat because then they could justify the cost, and then decide to buy a share in a higher quality boat.  This is  because they think the higher quality boat will last longer/depreciate less/cost less to maintain/give more enjoyment, and they choose to spend some of the saving from buying a share into this.

• Finally, it is good environmentally-friendly PR, something every car manufacturer is looking for!

The first piece is called the birth of sharing law and examines the wide range of sharing initiatives [...]]]>

I recently found a couple of great posts on Shareable.net by Janelle Orsi about how greater sharing will need changes to the law.  Lawyers will also need to develop the contacts and frameworks for many aspects of sharing.

The first piece is called the birth of sharing law and examines the wide range of sharing initiatives that people are now trying out.  As these become increasingly mainstream, some will definitely require some amendments to the law.  The second article looks at some specific areas that lawyers are examining, particularly things like:

• how to get small amounts of funding from large numbers of people, say 200 people investing $100 in a cafe, without needing to go through a complicated compliance process
• how to handle the taxation of bartering
• how landsharing works on a large scale
• who is the employer and who is the employee in a worker-owned co-op

So far, goodwill, sensible discussion before starting to share, and the small scale of sharing means has been little litigation.  But as the sharing concept grows, the laws and contracts governing the arrangements need to evolve.  I think they will.

This post on shareable.net about non profit organisations sharing to cut costs is one (of many) areas that I’ve always thought yours2share could easily facilitate: resources and services used by organisations.  And yet most people don’t even consider this, unless they know people well in [...]]]>

Someone on my wavelength!  I feel like yelling from the rooftops!

This post on shareable.net about non profit organisations sharing to cut costs is one (of many) areas that I’ve always thought yours2share could easily facilitate: resources and services used by organisations.  And yet most people don’t even consider this, unless they know people well in the other organisation or unless the economic drivers are very high.  In the former category, I know that health authorities often share resources and in the latter, I’m told that oil companies pool together to buy the most expensive spare parts rather than all carry one each of a part that rarely fails.  I’ve written a lengthy comment on the above post, so please read this if you want to find out more of my views.

In the article Janelle Orsi is only talking about not for profit organsiations, but I think profit making organisations can also get together to share.  The article above is actually the second of two parts.  The first part expands on the types of things that organisations could share.

If anyone wants to share accomodation, space, equipment, services or anything else with another organisation, please contact me and I’ll help work out exactly where to post the ad on yours2share and I’ll also work hard to publicise the request.

I’ve always hated the stupidity of planners’ love of zoning: separating work, home, retail and play so that everyone has to travel to do the basic things of life.  This has created suburban mazes where to only winner [...]]]>

Yet another article about how to design for social cohesion on shareable.net’s excellent website has got me thinking.

I’ve always hated the stupidity of planners’ love of zoning: separating work, home, retail and play so that everyone has to travel to do the basic things of life.  This has created suburban mazes where to only winner is the car manufacturer.  In one of my previous lives I was a public transport market researcher working with public transport engineers and economists, and we saw people trying to find public transport solutions to ridiculous traffic congestion caused by planning idiocy. This zonal approach has had many dismal effects including a reduction in social cohesion caused by isolation, and the environmental and social (time wasted) dis-benefits of commuting and having to drive to achieve anything.

I’ve long been the odd one of my friends: choosing to take the train or bus if it is easier.  And although I know live in deepest rural Norfolk (UK), where you really do need to own a car, I live in the centre of a small town.  London friends who come and visit are quietly impressed by the fact that my butcher, supermarket, doctor, dentist, pharmacy and lost more are all a few doors away.  Opposite is the bus to Norwich which takes 20 minutes.  I do have a car, but I don’t use it much.  As a result, we are quickly getting to know the people who live around us, and we’ve only been here three months. When I travel to London, which I do once or twice a month, I use the train.  It’s very civilised: I lots of work done, or read the paper, or sleep, or chat to other passengers.  You can’t do this in the car.

I hadn’t until today really linked my irritation with the reliance on the car and wish for social cohesion, to my strong instinctive wish to encourage as much sharing as possible.  But I realise that it is the same pull to greater social cohesion.  Every syndicate member I ever speak to tells me about the great community, shared responsibility, good buddies with a love of the same boat/car/horse/whatever.  Sharing, even in small private syndicates, creates communities.  By encouraging private syndicates, yours2share is creating communities and doing its bit for greater social cohesion.