Companies already drive a third of the kilometres and people are combining public and shared transport more
The year 2021 marked a revival in perhaps all areas of society, and Autonapůl carsharers started to drive more again after a somewhat subdued pandemic year in 2020. For example, Brno's cars continue to grow the number of kilometers driven and more cars in the Comfort category are being used.
The data also reveals that our carsharers are increasingly combining different modes of transport. We have seen that people are increasingly using cars from cities other than their city of registration.
After a pandemic decline, the number of kilometers travelled increased
The total length of all journeys made by Autonapůl cars last year reached 1,257,498 kilometres. This is more than 60,000 km more than in the pandemic year 2020. Compared to 2019, this is a slight decrease, which occurred especially in the most pandemically critical months last year, when strict anti-epidemic measures prevailed from January to March.
Autonapůl's fleet of shared cars circled the Earth more than 31 times last year.
The fleet size for 2021 remained at eighty cars, which we moved between cities to meet our carsharers demand, especially during the strong holiday and Christmas demand. For 2022, we plan to strengthen the fleet with nearly 20 new cars.
Thanks to the fact that Autonapůl users do not have to report foreign trips in advance, the map of foreign trips of our fleet remains rich (alphabetically): Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine.
Our cars save parking space
According to research, each of our 80 cars replaces 15-18 privately owned cars.
The main motivation for carsharing for us is saving public space in cities and giving it back to the people. Every car needs a parking space - and that's then missing here for a park, elsewhere for a playground or whatever else. What's more, shared cars are used by Autonapůl users an average of 35 % of the time each day, whereas privately owned cars are only driven an average of 5 % of the time.
Many Czech cities are aware of the space savings of their streets and car parks. Brno, České Budějovice, Liberec, Pilsen and Prague therefore offer discounted parking in city centres to carsharing users. Autonapůl constantly evaluates the car utility in each city and zone to ensure that the car load remains efficient - that is, that the cars are driven as much as possible, parked as little as possible, and that the carsharers always have a free car available.
Public transport and carsharing as partners, not competitors
Individuals, families and companies use a combination of public transport with the possibility to rent a car in a city other than their home. There are up to a tenth of such trips a month and the trend is clearly growing.
We are also continuing to promote the combined use of transport. In short, this means that we offer advantages to users who travel with public transport between two where then use our cars. Not only do they save money for carsharing, but their emissions are also lower.
Our carsharers who also travel with ČD saved CZK 95,250 in 2021 for shared cars, almost CZK 14,000 more than in 2020.
This is because they apply the discounts they get in the ČD Points programme for buying train tickets to their invoices. Last year, we pilot tested a similar principle with the bus carrier Flixbus, where our carsharers received a 15% discount on fares and a CZK 250 discount on invoices and rides with Autonapůl.
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The number of corporate customers is growing
Czech and Moravian companies are increasingly using the car as a service. Case studies with our corporate customers show that they especially appreciate the time efficiency, carefree and transparent use of carsharing for travel within their business, company or non-profit organisation.
Počet kilometrů ujetých firemními zákazníky roste, loni jejich cesty tvořily 32 % ujetých kilometrů, přitom jen 23 % rezervací. Dokážou tedy sdílená auta využít velmi efektivně.
The number of kilometres driven by corporate customers is growing, last year their journeys accounted for 32% of kilometres driven, while only 23% of reservations. So they can use car sharing very effectively.
New simplifications and technical tweaks
The year 2021 brought several new features to the app for users. We've simplified the reporting of potential car breakdowns or damage, which can now be photographed and reported via the mobile app. It is also possible to enter (scan) receipts into the system that could not be paid by cashless CCS card in the car - for example, fuel abroad. No need to write anything out in pen and send emails.
We also get all new cars with a mobile phone mirroring function on the infotainment screen and try to favour automatic transmissions when choosing cars. Just as our carsharers want.
All new cars have already received the new Invers on-board units, which respond instantly to instructions in the mobile app and offer more precise car orientation on the map. So you can find and unlock cars faster. We're also gradually equipping older cars with the new units, and so far they're available in 14 % of them.
Newly registered users then appreciate paying the registration fee via the modern Global Payments payment gateway. We plan to extend the gateway to invoice payments in 2022.
The partnership helps our carsharers and the issues that matter
Autonapůl's motto is: "Creating space for people. Together." And we mean it. That's why we regularly participate in the Bike to Work Challenge, both as event partners and participants. We share the theme of using public space with AutoMat, which organises the challenge. We have been cooperating together since 2014.
Another partner in shared mobility, Rekola, is popular in cities. Switching between public transport, car-sharing and bikesharing is a natural fit for us and we see it as the future of urban mobility. We've been in this together since 2017.
For the second year, we are also the sustainable mobility partner of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. Together we touch on important topics and issues.
As a cooperative that originally came out of the non-profit sector, we perceive that one of the problems in the Czech Republic is the over-indebtedness of the population. That's why we got involved in the "Milostivé léto" project, which can help with debt.
We also cooperate with Palacký University in Olomouc, where we are involved in research on barriers to the use of carsharing.
We listen to our carsharers
The helpline has a person available 24 hours a day to help out of a difficult situation or to listen to what is important for sharers, what they need.
We organise polls among our users, inform them in newsletters and on social media.
The aim is to offer people a better service. That's why we also buy cars with towing devices, roof racks, child seats to use for free, adjust the size of the parking zones of the cars, and buy cars that match the wishes of the Autonapůl fleet users.
Future plans
In addition to increasing the coverage of cars with modern on-board units, we are preparing to renew part of our fleet.
One of the trends abroad is to favour those who drive efficiently, safely and with respect for the environment.
We intend to use new data analytics to further improve the fleet and the distribution of cars in cities, as well as to make the registration of new users smarter and faster.
The growth of carsharing is also supported by car company bosses. Services like Netflix are also offering inspiration. They are thinking about how to offer a similar payment model to carsharing users.
This is just a short list of the trends we are watching and considering whether and how to include them in our Autonapůl services. It is one of the challenges of 2022.
Many new people have discovered and shared the benefits of carsharing in the past year. Businesses have found that "car as a service" is often more profitable for them than the commitment involved in acquiring a new car.
We want to encourage all of this this year as we continue to create space for people.
Thank you for being with us.
Creating space for people. Together.
