GoGet Car Share Ventures into Brisbane

Sydney car share company GoGet is venturing into the Brisbane market and introducing an Australian first technology.

GoGet has integrated its system to allow Go Card access. Once a new member signs up, they recieve a new Go Card with $15 credit loaded onto the card or alternatively they can use their existing card with a modified patch allowing access to the GoGet vehicle fleet. This innovative idea now allows Brisbane residents to access just about every mode of transportation available simply by using a Go Card.

Car sharing is a fast growing trend around the world and is now part of the fabric of most major cities. GoGet which is Australia’s largest car sharing network has exploded in size from just 3 vehicles and 12 members in 2003 to over 800 vehicles and 20,000 members Australia wide today.

Unfortunately, the Brisbane City Council remains unsupportive to the car sharing idea despite introducing Australia’s largest public bike sharing scheme.

Currently, Brisbane City parking policies are heavily weighed towards private car ownership, where sharing is not encoraged or allowed. Numerous other Councils in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide have embraced car sharing which is much cheaper then introducing other infrastructure intensive hire schemes. In fact it is a very affordable and quick regulatory change that allow car share vehicles to be allowed to park in designated street-side parking bays.

GoGet founder and director Bruce Jeffreys said,

“We’ve taken the initiative and the risk at commencing a service in Brisbane without this support but we can see that car share complements Brisbane City Council’s own vision for transport. At the end of the day, this is about reducing congestion, increasing public transport usage and allowing people to live without a car and not get stuck when they need one.”

Despite this, GoGet now has six vehicles located in CBD carparks.

Mr Jeffreys said GoGet plans to roll out another four cars soon and then keep growing from there.

“As we expand, Brisbanites will likely have access to the full-range of GoGet cars which include Alfas, Mini Coopers, utility vehicles, vans and Electric Vehicles, he said.”

Car sharing is also booming in large developments which have a high ratio of apartments without cars. Developers are now planning car share vehicles into proposed developments so that buyers and future residents have more transport alternatives.

South Yarra’s upmarket 21-storey Claremont building is the latest example of car sharing within a new residential development.

GoGet has a range of membership plans which vary depending on how frequent you might use the service.

GoStarter which has a once off $49 application fee is $0 per month, only paying for the hours and kilometres the driver uses.

What is Car Sharing?

Basically, it’s pretty neat because you book a car online then gain access to it by literally walking up to it usually on a street in your neighbourhood, swipe a card over the windshield, the doors unlock and the keys are inside. You drive off, use the car as you need and are billed by the hour. For the trip to the supermarket, you might book the Mini for an hour but for the trip to Ikea you might use one of their vans because you need to buy a bookcase and need the room in the vehicle. And you never pay for petrol, but fill the car up with a card in the glovebox.

GoGet’s aim is to provide a reliable, convenient and affordable transport service that:

• allows people to live without car ownership
• removes private cars from local streets
• makes car sharing an integral and fun part of living in urban environments
• means members don’t need to pay for fuel
• decreases car usage
• improves local air quality