Zipcar vehicle rental makes debut in Maine

Zipcar has made its debut in the US state of Maine, setting up its car share services at Bates College. The least expensive vehicle available for rent is the Toyota Prius, which costs $7 per hour, including both insurance and gasoline. Taking into consideration that freshmen form an important component of any university campus, students as young as 18 are permitted to rent a vehicle from Zipcar. Nevertheless, in order to take advantage of this offer, students or faculty members at Bates College must pay an annual registration fee of $35, which allows them to rent cars on an hourly, or daily basis throughout the academic year. Zipcar is now also present at Yale University and most observers predict that within the next few months, the firm will operate at up to 50 American colleges and universities.

Zipcars is rapidly expanding its services across the country, along with other so-called car-sharing operations. These firms have the potential of revolutionizing the car hire industry in the United States and some larger companies—like Hertz—are already considering adopting Zipcar’s model of renting cars for periods shorter than a single day.

Zipcar has determined that despite earlier concerns about students using rental cars in a reckless manner, such as after consuming large quantities of alcohol on weekends, students who hired vehicles have been responsible and the car sharing firm has not experienced any major problems. Zipcar has been present at American universities for the past six years. The program was first launched at Harvard.

www.zipcar.com