Car clubs

Car club schemes offer members the use of a vehicle on a ‘pay as you drive’ basis without the inconveniences and costs of car ownership. Kensington and Chelsea Council currently works with two operators who provide a range of Car Club services in the borough to residents, visitors and businesses for journeys that cannot be made by walking, cycling or other public transport.

Benefits of car clubs

Car clubs offer members a cheaper alternative to car ownership, as well as community benefits such as reduced traffic, improved air quality and reductions in on-street parking demand.

Each year the charity CoMoUK publishes an annual report outlining the benefits of Car Clubs based upon membership surveys. These surveys, along with a summary of all the benefits, can be found on the CoMoUK website.

Currently the borough operates two distinct types of car club; fixed bay and floating.

Fixed bay car clubs

The Borough has over 210 on-street car club bays. Car club members can pre-book a vehicle from its dedicated bay, usually for a period ranging from 30 minutes up to 2 days, and then return it to its bay once the rental period has finished.

Two operators, Enterprise, and ZipCar, currently operate this type of service in the Borough. Most residents have at least one bay for each operator near their home, with the majority of residents within a three-minute walk of at least one car club bay.

Floating car clubs

Floating car club vehicles do not have dedicated bays but can be left in any on-street residents parking bay. These vehicles are not required to display a physical parking permit but can be easily identified from the branding of each service provider (as shown below).

One-way floating

ZipCar Flex operates a floating car club service which facilitates one-way journeys. This allows members to pick up any Flex vehicle within their locality, drive to their desired location, and then leave it within any residents parking bay within the Borough or in any other permitted bay in their wider operating area.