Where Have All the Drivers Gone?

摘要

What do you do when you're the biggest parking company in a country where new-car sales have been on a gradual decline for the past decade? Koichi Nishikawa, the president of Japan's Park24, decided to turn about 7,000 of his company's 16,435 garages and lots around the country into spaces to hold vehicles available for short-term rental as part of a new car-sharing service. For a monthly fee of 1,030 yen, or about $8, members who sign up online or with a smart-phone receive a member card that functions as a car key. Vehicles are booked online or using Park24's smartphone app. Subscribers are charged in 15-minute increments. With 500,000 members, the car-sharing service has become one of the world's biggest.