Bump in the road

Zipcar's departure leaves car club users scrambling

- Jasper Jolly

The Rotherhithe Community Kitchen has been delivering hundreds of cooked meals a week for the past two years to pensioners and vulnerable people in south London. But the volunteer group's plans have been thrown into disarray by the news that it will no longer have access to cars and vans from New Year's Day.

The group had relied on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that offered customers the ability to access its fleet of vehicles from the street using an app. It caused shock across London on Monday when it said it would shut down its UK operations from 1 January.

As a result, many of the volunteers will be unable to collect food from the Felix Project, a charity that gathers surplus food from supermarkets, restaurants and cafes. Obvious alternatives are farther away, more expensive or do not offer the same flexible hours.

"It's going to be affected massively," said Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen's founder. "We are worried about the logistical challenge we will face. A lot of people like our group are going to struggle."

The community kitchen's drivers are among more than 500,000 people in London registered as car-club members. The vast majority of those are likely to be customers of Zipcar, which has a near-monopoly in the city.

The planned closure, subject to consultation with Zipcar's 71 British employees, is a big blow to hopes that car-sharing in urban areas could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. Yet some experts also suggested that Zipcar's departure need not spell the end of the road for the idea in Britain.

Car sharing is prized by many urbanists and environmentalists as a way to reduce the ills associated with vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as 2-tonne dead weights on the side of the road for 95% of the time, using up space. They also require large carbon emissions to make.