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The
City-Wheels car
club in Swansea is the first car club in the UK to specifically
serve housing association tenants. It was set up by Swansea Housing
Association in February 2001 as a marketing incentive to promote City Living
- a project to encourage people to move back into the city
centre. City Wheels cars
are also used by Housing Association staff for both business and
personal use, and membership is also offered to two other
businesses who form part of a flagship mixed use development.
Rising property prices mean that social housing is increasingly an option for a much wider group of people: 70% of City Living tenants are working. The remaining 30% include disabled people, retired people and those who are not working. However, incomes are generally lower making car ownership more of a luxury, and living in the city centre - with everything accessible - makes it less necessary.
Cars
City-Wheels has chosen compact city cars -
Smart cars, and Daewoo Matiz's.
The vehicles are all parked in marked bays in the
underground car park of one of their key city centre developments
which also houses the HA offices. The insurance for the car club has
been added as an extension to the Swansea HA fleet policy. This,
together with emphasis on the not-for-profit nature of the scheme,
has kept the costs down.
City-Wheels is a medium tech scheme: the cars are fitted with BackTrak - a black box that records user, time, date, mileage, fuel used, average and peak speeds, and also acts as an immobiliser. This is convenient for both users and administrators: there's no paperwork to fill in each time the car is used, and data is downloaded to automate invoicing. The extra security provided has impacted on insurance costs. Car keys are kept in a nearby safe, to which members have a key.
Administration
Swansea HA staff run the club: Corporate Services deals with
membership enquiries and enrolment, as well as marketing and PR. The
company receptionist takes tenants' bookings - by phone, e-mail or personal visit. The Finance Department sends out the
invoices; all payments are made by direct debit. The on-site
concierge and office cleaners are responsible for minor maintenance
and cleaning. Vehicles have a full valet on a regular basis.
City-Wheels has a partnership with a local car rental company for longer bookings or for different vehicles including more powerful cars for longer journeys and people carriers etc.
Lessons learnt
Due to protracted negotiations getting insurance, City Wheels
was not launched until some time after tenants moved into the
flagship Old Post Office development where the car club is based;
this meant that tenants who depended on a car already had one,
making initial take-up slow. However, this slow but steady start
enabled teething problems and minor organisational issues to be
sorted properly. Increasing restrictions on parking in the city
centre will probably encourage more members.
Incentives for staff use have ensured good take-up; once the club
was launched, provision for staff parking in the underground car
park was removed, giving staff the convenience of going downstairs
to use a City Wheels car, rather than walking ¼ mile up the road to
use their own car.
The club is now an integral part of the Association's marketing
policy both to new tenants and staff, and a major new marketing
scheme will be launched by the end of the year.
The future
The car club is proving a success, and Swansea Housing Association
is considering extending the club to other of their developments
which have secure off-road parking. In the meantime, these tenants
can book City-Wheels vehicles and collect them from the city centre
site.
Although car club
membership is being offered to businesses operating from the same
building as Swansea HA, there are no plans to extend car club
membership to residents in the vicinity. Swansea HA is very clear
that its main role is to provide affordable housing; the car club is
an extra service for their tenants, and is manageable within their
existing infrastructure. However, there has been a lot of interest
in City Wheels from people who are neither Swansea HA tenants nor
staff and it would be interesting to see if a resident wide car club
would generate enough members to be profitable.
Member profiles
Swansea Housing Association
Swansea Housing Association set up City-Wheels to meet its own business needs as well as to provide mobility for city centre tenants. It has replaced the company's pool cars as well as providing a convenient option for staff who formerly used their private vehicles for business use. In all, 25 staff, including directors, use the vehicles in connection with Housing Association business.
Andrew Dendle, Swansea HA City Living tenant, 40
"It's cheaper than running a car"
Andrew no longer owns a car and has started riding a bike since he joined City-Wheels 18 months ago. Membership of the club enables him to do voluntary work once a week, as well as to visit family and friends. He is hoping that he will be able to use the van for work in the near future. The convenience and easy availability of the cars means that he is sometimes tempted to use the vehicles for very short trips, which makes the City-Wheels half-day pricing structure an expensive option for him.
Caroline Williams, Public Relations Officer, Swansea Housing Association
"My friends think it's a great idea and wish they were eligible to join too!"
Caroline has been a member of City-Wheels since the very beginning and was one of the innovators of the project. She makes the most of the club, and describes her car club use as 'almost daily for work and most weekends for private use'. She says 'it's great to know that I can just pick [a car] up whenever I need one and not be paying to leave one parked outside my home for hours on end.' Caroline finds the club cheaper than both owning a car and cheaper than commercial rental, which she used previously. However, the most enjoyable benefit for Caroline is the opportunity to use the Smart Car, which she describes as 'fun to drive, funky, economical and so easy to park - even motorbike style…nose to the kerb'.
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For more information see City Wheels website |
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