Step 6. How to make your scheme financially self-sustaining?
Once you have determined your outgoings, you need to look at how you can generate income to help cover these costs. For more detailed information, check out our Community Car Share Business Case.
- Grant funding – there are usually a number of grants available, especially for the purchase of electric vehicles, but you shouldn’t rely on grant funding for on-going operational costs. Grant funding is usually short term and aimed at helping to set up new schemes.
- Pricing structure – you will need to set a pricing structure for hiring out your vehicle(s). This is likely to be your main income for the scheme. A pricing structure can be tailored to your local area and goals, for example you can have a standard membership fee and hourly rate, or you can have a higher monthly membership fee which gives those members access to the cars at a lower hourly rate. You can also have different pricing for tourists or people on lower incomes.
- Corporate use – it can be useful to get corporate members which will increase use during the working day, while private use is mostly in the evenings and weekends. Again you may have a different pricing structure for corporate members.
- Sponsorship – as your cars will be driven around your local community it can be a good advertising opportunity for local businesses. Although, as most people learn about a car club by seeing the car on the street, you need to make sure your branding is always prominent.
