Discussion of Changes in the Australian Car Sharing System
Australia is one of the top ten countries which has maximum number of per capita vehicles.Car sharing has been growing rapidly since last two decades worldwide. Hence, it has a main stream mode of transportation for millions of people all over the world. The organisations are now running the car sharing system in around 1100 cities across 26 countries in five continents. Car sharing organisations are of several types profit company, non-profit company or community co-operative. For the case study, the city of Sydney is taken into consideration. As Australia is one of the top ten countries having maximum number of per capita vehicles the problem of parking the vehicle occurs. The majority of the work process in Sydney occurs in central part it is most difficult in finding the space for parking. According to 2011 census, the population of Sydney was more than 4.4 million. Car sharing is majorly occupied in Sydney’s inner core. 87 % of the total car sharing vehicles is located in the city’s inner core while the rest 13% is been occupied in the residential area. The car sharing sector in Sydney is mostly owned by private sector instead of local authorities or by ventures.
The majority of car sharing system takes place in the Sydney’s central portion, the problem of parking might occur due to less availability of parking space. This might also lead to problems while picking up the customers such as delay or location problems. This problems can be solved by implementing the Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the local authorities demanding parking space for its vehicles. The organisations can also do the joint venture with the construction company demanding some space allotted in the building constructed. Some parking slots can also be allotted on the curb side road. Due to implementation of this, it will reduce the problem of parking slot. When the government authority is planning to build a multi-storeyed building for parking, they can also allot a separate floor or some portion of it for the car sharing organisations. The parking space should be distributed equally all across the city so that customer can benefit and can book the vehicle at any place and time.
The other benefit for the customer is that it will reduce the waiting time. As the vehicles are equally distributed all cross the city depending on the maximum usage, the customers can pick up the vehicles at any place. Due to equally distributed vehicles, the duration between booking and arrival time is reduced. When the customer book the car through its website or app, the car can be reached quickly to a location mentioned by the customer. The places such as house, office area, shopping mall, and tourist spot etc. are some places where the customers can find the sharing vehicles easily.
The car sharing system is an important step to popularize the new technology in automobile industry. Even though per capita private vehicles are more in Australia as compared to other countries, the electric vehicles count is much lesser as compared to other vehicles. According to “research body climate works for the Electric Vehicle Council” there were only 2284 electric vehicles sold in Australia in 2017. It is equivalent to 1 in 500 new vehicles which are running on electricity. According to Melbourne Water’s ten year plan, electric vehicles leads to overall cost savings in maintenance services and fuel use which is estimated to be $2,000 to $3,000 per year.
Due to lack of electric vehicles in the market, the car sharing companies do not have much electric vehicles with them which are running on road. But in recent years, the electric vehicle count in Australia is increasing. The Government is currently building a 20 electric vehicle charging bays situated at UPark car parks in Adelaide. But while constructing the charging bays, various taxes are applicable. When the social capital in construction of charging units is introduced through PPP, it will set the objectives for taxation in PPP projects. If special tax allowance is implemented in the form of tax deduction, tax exemption etc. it will increase the number of charging bays constructed through PPP which will result in increase in electric vehicle in Australia rapidly. Tax exemption is given by South Korean government which has gained benefits through this process. Britain has added some tax breaks for PPP projects instead of implementing special tax policy for PPP projects. The tax policy can be co-ordinated with finance, banking, industrial development and administrative management so that car sharing projects can be promoted and can be orderly developed. To promote this development, practical implementation of electric vehicles is needed for green transportation development.
Through the scheme of tax policy, the construction of charging Bays can be done through PPP in Sydney around the city. Due to this, the car sharing companies can increase the number of electric vehicles which can gain access to this charging stations. As electric vehicles creates less pollution, a PPP can also be done between government and car sharing company to give them tax benefits. It will result in less travelling cost as compared to petrol cars. The tax can be reduced on the membership fee so as to increase the members for the sharing company. This will benefit both the customers and the company in terms of taxation.
To summarize, there are very few car sharing companies which are tied with some or the other manufacturing company. A joint venture can be done with all the manufacturing companies in Australia. It will encourage the Australian citizens to use the car sharing vehicles instead of using private vehicles. There are very few companies who use electric vehicles in car sharing. To increase the vehicle count of electric vehicles in car sharing, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) can be implemented with the manufacturing companies such as Tesla. For electric vehicles, a PPP can also be done with the government to allocate the charging points across the city which will boost the car sharing vehicle system to increase the maximum count of electric vehicles as these vehicles are much eco-friendly than petrol or diesel cars.
