Zipcar expands at TCU with car-sharing catching on in North Texas

A green sign hangs above two parking spots at an off-campus student apartment parking garage near Texas Christian University.

The sign, about the size of a movie poster, reads “Zipcar lives here. Join at zipcar.com.”

It marks the latest place where a relatively new breed of driver — those who prefer to “car-share,” or rent a car for hours at a time, rather than own an auto — can find some wheels.

Zipcar, a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group since 2013, now operates more than 10,000 vehicles, mostly in the United States but also in France, Great Britain and other countries. The new location in Fort Worth is the second on or near TCU; the other is on the north end of campus near Main Drive and the commons, where one Zipcar is parked.

Dallas-Fort Worth has been somewhat slow to join the car-sharing trend, despite being a region of roughly 7 million residents — fourth largest in the U.S., according to Census Bureau figures. But the Metroplex’s reputation is changing, as it now is home to more Zipcars than Austin, which was an early adapter in car-sharing.

However, it should be noted that a competitor known as Car2go also operates several hundred small Smart Cars throughout the Austin area.

The number of people attracted to companies such as Car2go and Zipcar that offer on-demand services, usually accessed through a smartphone application, is growing fast throughout North Texas, many trend spotters and other observers say.

“I see people using those cars all the time,” said Baraka Crayton, manager of the GrandMarc at Westberry Place apartments, the newest location where Zipcars are parked near TCU’s south end. The Zipcars have been in use at GrandMarc since October.

“It’s a great program for students from out of state, students from other countries, anyone who doesn’t own a car,” he said. “Uber and cabs can be pricey. With Zipcar, it’s always available, and you don’t have to return it to a rental center. You just return it here at home.”

How it works

Zipcar began in 2000 in Massachusetts, and has grown as large swaths of Americans of all income levels have gained near-universal access to wifi and smartphones. The company was bought by Avis in 2013, which dramatically expanded the potential size of its fleet, Zipcar also provided Avis with a link to a new base of mostly young customers who either couldn’t or wouldn’t rent cars the traditional way.

Zipcar arrived at TCU in 2012 and added four cars to the University of Texas at Arlington earlier this year.

To use Zipcar, drivers must first pay an application fee and get a Zipcard, which looks like a credit card. Users then reserve a car online for a specific time period, usually for an hour or two at a time or for 24 hours. When they arrive at the vehicle, they wave their Zipcard at a special sticker on the windshield, which triggers the car doors to automatically unlock.

The ignition keys are kept on a tether attached to the steering column at all times.

Fees vary, but big discounts are available for college students. TCU students, for example, can take advantage of an offer that allows them to register for a one-time fee of $15, and then rent cars for as little as $7.50 an hour or $69 per day.

Students use the cars for a variety of reasons, including to go on dates, grocery runs (sometimes pooling their money to share the cost of a car) and even weekend trips to see the parents, said a Zipcar fleet manager who was seen cleaning the TCU cars on a recent weekday afternoon.

Users are limited to 180 miles per day, and Zipcar pays for the gas. If the tank is below a quarter full, users are asked and expected to fill the tank for the next person, using a Zipcar company gas card that’s always kept inside the vehicle.

Users are also insured by Zipcar during their rental. The vehicles are available 24 hours a day.

There are a handful of drawbacks. For example, drivers who return a vehicle late can face a steep fee, since the cars must always be available for the next customer. Also, it’s not uncommon for users to complain that previous drivers left the gas tank empty or returned the vehicle filthy — although Zipcar has a hotline to report such problems, and a reputation for reimbursing customers for those inconveniences to keep their business.

In Fort Worth, Zipcars parked at or near TCU can be used by anyone with a Zipcard, although as a practical matter most customers are in fact students or faculty or staff members, said Nathan Huber, the company’s market manager in the region.

Texas trend

Zipcar now has 51 vehicles available for hourly or daily rental in the Metroplex, said Huber. The two newest members of the fleet are a Ford Focus nicknamed “Henman” and a Volkswagen Golf dubbed “Vision.” The company has a tradition of naming its vehicles.

GrandMarc at Westberry Place is able to offer the Zipcars as a perk for its residents — several hundred students in a five-story building, Crayton said. Zipcar agreed to place them at GrandMarc in exchange for permanent use of two parking spaces on the ground level of the parking garage.

Huber is optimistic the Zipcar fleet will continue to grow, as more areas of Fort Worth gain a reputation for walkability. One area he pointed out for these changes was West Seventh, an extremely popular shopping and restaurant area with cycling trails and upscale multi-family housing west of downtown Fort Worth.

“As these cities become more walkable, it’s getting to the point that people can go from two cars to one car in their home, and we (Zipcar) can supplement that,” said Huber.

Zipcar is now at 500 universities, including several in Dallas-Fort Worth including TCU, the UT-Arlington and Southern Methodist University, he said.

Cars for sharing are also available at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and several Dallas Area Rapid Transit stations in parts of Dallas with substantial foot traffic, including the Inwood/Love Field and Mockingbird stations, he said.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Zipcar expands at TCU with car-sharing catching on in North Texas."