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Sophie
Pierce |
Writer and Broadcaster |
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Rural car clubs are
helping to save time, money and the environment, finds Sophie Pierce On an autumn
afternoon on The club started
in 2002, with one car and six members.
Now it has five cars stationed in three towns on The idea is that
those who join have the benefits of access to a car, without the cost and
responsibility of ownership. They pay
a monthly fee, book the car out when they need it, and pay according to the
time used and mileage travelled. Car clubs are
traditionally found in cities and urban areas, but Moorcar is aiming to prove
they can work in the country too. Most
people who live in rural areas end up having two cars, but many members of
the car club are now one-car families, and use the club car as their second
vehicle. There are five
families involved in the Chagford-Ashburton school run. They use a seven
seater vehicle which belongs to Moorcar and is stationed in Chagford. One of
the mothers, Vicki Cairns, says that becoming members of the car club has
enabled them to sort out a school run that was becoming increasingly
problematic. “Last year, with six
children attending school fourteen miles away, we were faced with having to
do the school run in two cars, involving double the journeys and double the
expense. We thought the car club could
be the answer.” Although two of
the families still have two cars, the rest have either one or none. Lizzie
Jamison is a no-car family. “If it
wasn’t for the club, I’d have had extreme difficulty getting the children to
school. It’s also a cheap way for me
to get access to a car.” Helen Shea is
another mother involved in the school run; her family has one car. “I have two children at different schools
and we would almost certainly have had to get a second car if we hadn’t had
the car club option.” The cost of the
school run works out at just under £11 a journey – so it costs each family
£11 per week. It’s hard to produce a
like-with-like comparison with the costs of owning a car, but the RAC’s
latest estimate of the average cost of car ownership, when things like
insurance, servicing, fuel and depreciation are taken into account, is £102 a
week. Another member of
the club is Anna Peachey, who lives in Ashburton. She and her husband own one
car between them, and use the club car as their second vehicle. She spends about £20 a month on the car
club, as opposed to £203 a month on the family M reg Nissan. Anna works from
home and doesn’t use the club car every day.
Her husband uses the family car to commute to work most days; Anna
uses the club car for school runs, occasional business trips and days out
with her children. She wouldn’t want
to go back to having two cars, which she now views as an expensive
luxury. “When you’ve each got a car
you each have the indulgence of being able to jump into it whenever you
want. This requires a little more
planning, but it’s so much cheaper.
It’s also a lot more environmentally friendly, because it means there
are fewer cars on the roads.” However Anna
realises that if she and her husband both needed to commute to work, things
might be different. “The club car
works really well as a second car, but I don’t know if I could rely on it as
a main vehicle”, she says. Rural car clubs
are still in their infancy. There are only eight nationwide, in just three
areas, the South West, The question for
the car clubs now is can they move from being government or charity funded
initiatives to self-funding schemes?
Like many things, it’s a question of critical mass. Back in Nicky Scott, a
member of the club, says it’s not easy. “It’s a bit of a chicken and egg
situation. We need more cars to have a varied fleet so it’s really useful for
people. Then they’d feel confident about getting rid of the second car.
Another problem is that people are still in denial about how much their cars
really cost them.” The co-ordinator
of Moorcar, Jeremy Farr, agrees. But
he believes the club can become self-sustaining. He says they need a total of ten cars
stationed in five towns on With traffic
growth on rural roads now greater than in urban areas, and parking becoming a
problem even in small market towns, it’s likely that alternatives to the
private car may become more important in future. Although car clubs are unlikely ever to
work in very isolated areas, Jeremy says he’s proved they are a viable option
in rural towns. “We’ve demonstrated
that we can make it work. We’re not trying to make people give up cars; we’re
asking them to re-think their car use. And that could benefit us all, in
terms of lower costs, less pollution, and easier parking.” CLUB RULES ·
Monthly membership fee of £12.50 ·
Trips are booked on the car club website ·
Members are billed for each trip, according to time used and distance
travelled (for example for a small car you pay £1 an hour and 15 pence a
mile) ·
Car is collected from its designated parking bay in the centre of
town; keys are kept in a nearby key safe. ·
Useful websites: www.moorcar.co.uk;
www.carplus.org.uk |
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