The Florida Department of Transportation announced today that Hertz 24/7 was selected to bring a Carsharing Program to the Orlando. The program will allow residents to rent cars by the hour from various locations. The program is expected to start in October.
For the first phase, the city has identified six location in downtown (See Map Below). Each will have two vehicles for rental. Promotion of the Central Florida Carshare Program will be led by reThink, the region’s commuter assistance program, in close coordination with Hertz and the City of Orlando.
Rates will be between $8 – $20 an hour depending on the vehicle although a spokesperson with the Department of Transportation tells us they hope to be around $10 for most of the vehicles. The hourly fees will cover all expenses including gas, insurance, maintenance. Residents will be able to book vehicles via their mobile phone or the Hertz website.
The Charshare Program is expected to be used by commuters and residents for short trips throughout the day. It will also provide a much-needed mobility option for commuters riding SunRail and LYNX. Zipcar also bid for the contract but was not selected. The contract requires no funding from the state or city.
Map of location in the first phase:
Do you plan on using the Carshare Program?
Hertz 24/7? They should have gone with Zipcar… no kids are going to want to ride around in Hertz 24/7?! Sounds shallow but true, as this needs to be marketed as much as an image thing as it is practical. Zipcar is successful up North, but that’s because they offer neat, fun vehicles to rent. And it will be the youth market they should be after here. I hate to be a negative nelly, but I see this failing within the first year. They will have to give Zipcar, or something similar, a second look.
I rather bikeshare 🙂 Go green!!
Well, we get both this year! 🙂
Sign me up! I still maintain my Zipcar account from Boston, “just in case”. But I guess it’s time to switch!
love this idea i know this program will go over very well looking forward to it