Steer Davies Gleave presents the key findings of the Carplus Annual Survey 2016

Steer Davies Gleave was pleased to support the launch of the ninth Carplus Annual Survey at their Annual Survey of Car Clubs 2016 launch event in London last month.

The Annual Survey of car clubs provides an evidence base for decision-makers on the benefits of car clubs. The Survey collects information from car club members and operators and has been conducted annually since 2007. Steer Davies Gleave has administered and reported on the Survey since 2012, producing three reports for London, England and Wales (excluding London), and Scotland.

On the night of the event in London (Tuesday 26 April), Ian Bewick Senior Consultant at SDG, provided a summary of the key findings in this year’s annual survey.

There are three types of car club operating in London:

• Round-trip car clubs, where cars are located in designated bays. At the end of the hire period, users must return the car to the bay they picked it up from.
• Flexible car clubs, where cars may be located on-street (but not in designated bays) or off-street and do not necessarily need to be returned to the same location where they were picked up.
• Peer-to-peer car clubs, where car owners make their vehicles available for others to rent.

The Surveys have consistently demonstrated the benefits of the well-established “round-trip” car clubs in terms of reduced private car ownership and use. However, this year is the first Annual Survey report that presents data and analysis on the usage and impacts of flexible car clubs introduced in some of London’s boroughs in the last two years. The results suggest that these new models are likely to have the effect of reducing private car ownership and use in the capital. 

The Carplus Annual survey report and all the presentations delivered on the night are available on the Carplus website.