Why Car Sharing has a Problem with Reckless Drivers

Table of Contents

• Reasons for Reckless Driving in Car Sharing
• Why Reckless Driving is a Pain for Operators
• Possible Solutions to Prevent Careless Driving

The Hassle of Operations Managers

Imagine you’re the operations manager of a car sharing company. It’s Saturday evening and you’re at a birthday party hoping for some distraction after a stressful week. Just when you are about to take a bite of cake, you get a call from your head of operations.

One of your cars was involved in a crash downtown. Witnesses claim the young driver lost control of the car while trying to race someone at a traffic light and ran straight into a store window. Luckily no one was injured, but journalists are already bombarding your PR spokesperson with critical questions. Everyone wants to know how reckless drivers like these are allowed to use your cars without any checks and balances. And you don’t really have an answer to that. You still don’t know how to identify reckless drivers before accidents like these happen.

The Heavy Life of a Shared Vehicle

Invented to provide mobility without ownership and optimize urban mobility, shared vehicles are often targeted for misuse. Just spend a few hours on popular roads in a vibrant metropolitan area and you will probably see what we mean:

That one car with the windows down and loud music? Annoying.

The young driver who revs every few seconds and then accelerates for 10 meters? Dangerous.

The car barreling down the road at nearly twice the speed limit? Totally irresponsible.

The many branded cars perfectly following the rules? Not even noticed.

Reasons for Reckless Driving in Car Sharing

But why do people treat shared vehicles so badly? Why does a malicious group of people misinterpret the purpose of shared vehicles for speeding, joyrides and donuts? Here are some of the possible reasons:

Easy Access

Owning a car is expensive. Renting a shared vehicle isn’t, so it’s way more accessible. It is easy to register, upload your driver’s license and start your rental with just your phone. There is no need to wait at a rental’s counter or pick up physical keys. For most of the car sharing rentals, especially free-floating, there is not even a single service person involved in the process.

Going one step further, some people may also try to steal account data or trick the ID verification process to gain access with a fake account.

Lack of Personal Accountability

Similar to vehicle theft in car sharing, customers may feel less direct responsibility for shared cars. This can lead to reckless driving practices, as users don’t bear the long-term financial burden of repairs and maintenance.

This sense of disassociation can also manifest in users believing operators have no way of knowing how they use vehicles during rentals. Some may think that even if they damage the car, they can avoid consequences by falsely claiming the damage was already there or attempting to blame the previous customer. As a result, the burden of proof often stays with the operators.

Anonymity

Reckless drivers may exploit the anonymity of car sharing. Users often feel like the operator cannot possibly know what they are doing with the car. When hitting a parked car with a shared vehicle, a customer might simply park the vehicle at the sides, end the rental, and walk away. Identifying the individual through the license plate and then contacting the operator to determine who was renting the car at that specific time is a lengthy process.

This makes some users view car sharing as an opportunity for leisurely or carefree driving, often resulting in impulsive behaviors and a tendency to ignore road safety norms.

Unfamiliar Vehicles

One point we haven’t addressed yet: Not all reckless driving is done intentionally. Sometimes fast acceleration or unexpected braking is simply the result of a customer sitting in a foreign car. Car sharing services often accommodate a wide range of rather new (electric) vehicles or larger vehicle models like vans. Users might not be as familiar or comfortable with each vehicle’s handling and controls. Other customers may have not been sitting in the driver’s seat for years or maybe never before. Car sharing is a great alternative for inexperienced drivers (often 18-23), who just got their license. These young drivers need to get used to new models in a diverse fleet.

Why Reckless Driving is a Pain for Operators

All road users should adhere to speed limits and refrain from dangerous maneuvers to not jeopardize themselves or others. That’s a no-brainer. But for operators, careless and reckless driving comes with even more challenges:

Higher Maintenance Costs

Your cars are being put under more strain, with higher wear and tear on tires, brakes, axles and many other vehicle parts. You might think that problematic driving doesn’t affect maintenance costs that much, but you have to keep in mind that car sharing vehicles accrue mileage much more quickly than personal cars. So, problematic driving behavior really adds up quickly. Not to mention the considerable costs of a total loss.

Vehicle Downtime

Maintenance is always a pain for operators as it means taking vehicles out of service. Cars involved in an accident, whether it is a small or large one, won’t be available to generate revenue.

Safety Concerns

The more customers use cars for reckless driving, the higher the risk of accidents gets. If your brand becomes known for tolerating joyrides and other risky behavior, things might only get worse. Imagine there’s a social media trend around doing reckless maneuvers with your vehicles. This causes huge safety concerns for passengers, drivers, and pedestrians alike.

Insurance & Liability

The more accidents happen with shared vehicles, the higher insurance fees occur.

Each accident also involves costly legal entanglement with other parties. Even if you get customers to pay for their damages, you need to pay for repairs out of your own pocket initially to get the car back on the road. The consequence: A lot of capital is bound in these processes. It may not be lost forever, but it’s also not accessible, sometimes for a long time.

Brand Reputation

Last, but definitely not least, comes the negative influence on branding. Who will notice all your good customers driving appropriately through town? Probably no one. But a single car going 70 in a 30-zone with your branding at the side will surely gain attention, putting your entire brand into a bad light.

And that’s not all. For some people, negative publicity from bad drivers and dangerous maneuvers may question the car sharing concept in general. And we really don’t want this to happen.

Possible Solutions to Prevent Careless Driving

So, what can you do about it?

As younger customers cause most of the issues, it’s a logical approach to implement restrictions on drivers by:

a) Raising higher prices for younger drivers

b) Shutting the service off on weekends

Looking at car rental, this is exactly what operators do. Even if customers have to plan a rental, pick up the car and talk to a person (all factors that prevent spontaneous, reckless behavior), you typically need to pay a surcharge if you are under 25.

However, this sledgehammer approach will inevitably also hurt a lot of people that you want to keep as customers while not catching a 50-year-old speeding with your car. And it does not tackle the root problem. People that want to go for joyrides might lie about their age or do it during the week then.

A good solution needs to allow you to reliably target the small percentage of customers that drive so badly that they pose a real risk to the public, themselves, your vehicles, and your business.

This is where driving analysis features and driving scores get relevant. Fed with telematics data, these tools help you to monitor driver behavior and identify speeding, harsh cornering and other misbehavior in real time. When risky behavior is detected, it triggers an event in your fleet management system to keep you informed.

If you rely on a dedicated driving score, you don’t need to check each event manually. You will get an accumulated score that evaluates driving events in context. A lower score indicates commendable road courtesy. For those with higher scores, who persistently ignore speed limits or exhibit risky behaviors, the system allows for appropriate sanctions, promoting safer car sharing with your service.

Conclusion

It is a huge challenge for operators to handle careless driving with their vehicles. If you are looking for a solution to protect your vehicles and increase safety without punishing good drivers, INVERS is here to assist. With more than 30 years of car sharing experience, we constantly working on providing new solutions for the car sharing industry. To identify bad driving behavior, contact us now.