Whitehorse City Council has worked in partnership with GoGet Car Share to launch a car share trial in Box Hill.

What is car share?

Car share is a membership-based service that allows you to hire a shared vehicle for a short period of time. It's ideal for people who only need occasional access to a car. It is a flexible option that allows residents and businesses to reduce car ownership and dependence.

What are the benefits of car share?

Car Share has several advantages for the community, such as:

• Reducing cost of living pressures. Instead of owning a car (which includes the purchase price, registration, insurance, petrol etc), Car Share allows you to only pay for what you use.
• A Car Share vehicle has been shown to remove about nine privately owned vehicles from our roads. This frees up parking for others to use.
• Car Share members drive about 50 per cent less, reducing their carbon emissions and congestion. They also increase their amounts of walking, cycling and using public transport.

To get involved, sign up to become a member with GoGet. There are different membership levels you can choose from based on your needs.

Box Hill car share trial

The Box Hill Car Share trial began in September 2022, to run for 18 months. Council appointed GoGet Car Share as the operator and allocated three on-street parking spaces in Box Hill for its use.

When the trial began, there were 135 businesses and 396 personal members in Whitehorse registered with GoGet Car Share.

As of May 2023, membership had grown by 65 per cent with 208 business and 669 personal members.

Three cars were provided for the trial named Tino, Rudd and Mohammed, and their usage ramped up very quickly. In the first month, the cars were booked for an average of four hours per day, and there were 13 bookings.

The cars are now booked for an average of 6.7 hours per day and each car has an average of 21 bookings per month. The trial is already exceeding its usage target of four hours per day.

Based on these figures, Council and GoGet agreed to add another two cars to the fleet, with five cars available for members from August 2023.