Ride sharing service for schoolkids Schoolber

There is not a new ride-sharing app for schoolkids in Singapore named Schoolber Pte. Ltd. Positioning itself as school transportation service in Singapore, 3 months old company has just released its app and started operation before the new school season. Schoolber app allows parent-drivers and subscribing parents to find each other and negotiate rates between $70 and $150 per month, based on one or two-way rides and the distance traveled. The app also alerts parents when their kids are dropped off and picked up and track their kids through the journey.

The app has 800 subscribers for now and to increase it to 2,400; they are planning to pair up with car rental companies like WhizzCar and Popular Rent-A-Car. The elevetor pitch of the company is simple :

Private school transport for your child at affordable rates. Say goodbye to waking up early. No more long detours to pick up many students. No more paying fee for school holiday months. Go to www.schoolber.com.sg to register your interest now!

Parents would ask a lot of questions before letting a stranger to pick up their kids. For example, What happens if a driver does not turn up as scheduled? Schoolber says the drivers are profiled based on their commitment. Priority is given to parent driver with their child in the same school or nearby schools. This would highly reduced the chance of drivers not turning up as scheduled.

TodayOnline reports one schoolber driver on the service, a housewife named Wendy Loh. According to the news article, she will fetch two other children going to the same school — Tao Nan Primary — as her two children. The passengers live no more than 500m away from her house, the 37-year-old said. For sending the children to and from school, she expects to make S$220 per month.

Under Road Traffic Act (Chapter 276) Road Traffic (Car Pools) (Exemption) Order 2015, a car owner can now accept payment from passengers who carpool. It is however illegal for drivers to solicit for passengers on the road, in public spaces or parking lots. Destinations of passengers must be clarified before the journey and drivers cannot offer more than two rides per day.

Cheapest car rental rates in Singapore by iCarClub

iCarClub is Asia's first peer to peer Singapore car sharing market which let's private car owners to rent out their cars to others. Peer-to-peer car sharing thus lets a car owner to make money by renting his car, a big big liability in Singapore, while he/she is not using it. "Renters can get access to nearby and affordable vehicles and pay only for the time they need to use them" says Red Dot Ventures managing director Leslie Loh. Singapore based technology incubator has just invested $589,000 in iCarClub.

The Singapore-based startup has just started operations in Singapore in December 2012 and currently has more than 400 cars for rent and 3,000 members. iCarsClub doesn’t own or provide the cars. Cars are rented out by car owners. Hourly charges are around $5 for a Hyundai Getz to $200 for a BMW 520i.

A car owner who wants to rent out his car needs to sign-up with iCarClub first. The company then installs the iCarBox, a device which enables keyless entry and allows driver to track his/her car while it is being rented. The device is free of charge and allows the renter to unlock the doors with a phone app. The cars are connected to a central server which sends the locking command.

iCarClub allows car owners in Singapore to rent out their cars
while car renters to enjoy some of the cheapest car rental rates
in Singapore.

So what happens if dispute arises between car owners and renters? To minimize the disputes, iCarClub has a peer-rating system to identify errant members. And if a dispute arises, iCarClub step in to resolve the issues.

Great idea indeed. CarSharing can take 9-13 cars off the road and also help car owners to earn extra money    during the time they do not need their cars. The company claims that the car owners can make up to 1,000 SGD per month extra income by the service. Besides the car owners have full control over when and to whom you wish to rent their car. 

Car Sharing In Singapore

I personally do not own a car and do not see any current and future need to own one in Singapore. We live in a 25 km to 45 km city anyway. Everywhere is within reach with a very good transportation system of trains and busses and relatively cheap taxi rides and it is many times cheaper and shorter to take a train, bus or taxi to central places instead of going there by your own car and looking for a place to park. But this is of course not the only reason: cars are expensive here.  We have this thing called COE (Certificate of Entitlement). It is a program designed to limit car ownership and hence the number of vehicles on the country's roads. COE system requires residents of Singapore to bid for the right to buy a motor vehicle, with the number of certificates restricted. And many bid as if they cannot live a single day more without a car, even COE prices are on the roof. Well, crashed passed the roof to the sky actually. COE is now 4 times where it was just 3 years ago! And a 1.6 litre Japanese Sedan costs 100,000 SGD+ now. Yes, I am not joking.

Back in my country they are already expensive compared to USA but still car ownership is at least twice expensive here which physiologically prevents me to buy one even if I can effort to have one. Many car owners will not agree but truth is truth: A car is just a non-essential, ridiculously expensive item in Singapore. Majority knows this and stays away from buying one. So do not think that we mostly own BMW's here when you hear that BMW is the top selling brand. It is simply we majority do not own a car.

But this does not mean that there aren’t any times where a car is better than public transport. You just do not need to own a car to enjoy a car. Car sharing in Singapore is very well established and conveniently available when you need a car. It brings the services of a car without its really annoying problems: high loans to pay, finding a place to park, insurance, repairs, etc.

What is car sharing? Car sharing is sharing a car among a group of people. This is usually coordinated by a car sharing company that takes care of the headaches of a car like insurance, parking, upgrading while you only enjoy its service. As far as I know there are 3 car sharing companies in Singapore:  Car Club, WhizzCar and KahShare.  The cars from these companies are available in many HDB estates. And since car ownership is now beyond the reach of many they are increasing their car numbers.

According to KahShare web site those who rides less than 10,000 KM per year or not more than twice a week can benefit:

"A wide range of drivers can benefit from our innovative KahShare solution. Those who drive less than 10,000 km a year, or less than twice a week will find the flexibility of the KahShare system invaluable. For people who sometimes need a second car, or choose not to purchase a car at all, KahShare provides a vehicle for their occasional driving needs. Companies can also benefit from the KahShare experience, with a choice of alternate fleet cars and transport for sales staff."

How convenient is car sharing? According to a typical user it is very convenient:

“The best thing about car sharing is its flexibility, in terms of when and where I can get the car.” says a 47 years old Singaporean user. “I live in Pasir Ris where 3 Car Club locations are. In nearby Tampines, there are four or five. So it is very easy for me to get to a car.”[1]

But how frequent he fails to get a car? He says he only fails when he books at the last minute. Director and shareholder of Car Club Lai Meng conducted a study on their 65 cars in their fleet and average annual distance covered by the cars is 20,700 KM, not very different than a privately owned car: "Each shared car serves 25 drivers compared to 1 or 2 served by a privately owned car".[1]

Another very interesting and unique car sharing concept is peer-to-peer car sharing. In this model, the car sharing company do not own cars but facilitates a market where private car owners can rent their cars out to others when they are not using them. Singapore based peer-to-peer iCarClub just does this with some of the cheapest car rental rates in Singapore. iCarClub is Asia's first peer to peer car sharing market which let's private car owners to rent out their cars to others. Peer-to-peer car sharing thus lets a car owner to make money by renting his car, a big big liability in Singapore, while he/she is not using it.

[1] - Car Sharing Singapore Back In The Fast Lane - The Straits Times