Everything you need to know about car sharing in Australia

‘Car sharing’ (or ‘carsharing’, if you’re more the compound word type) may bring about mental images of teenagers on their Ps desperately negotiating with their parents to be granted access to the family car on the weekend, but the truth is it’s something far more harmonious. 

‘Car sharing’ is, in fact, a type of car rental aimed at replacing car ownership, where people rent cars for short periods of time - typically by the hour or by the day - from car-sharing companies, and the transaction is done via an app. 

Car-sharing services differ from standard car-rental services in a number of ways, including the fact that reservation, pick-up and return are all self-service style, which means office hours are no obstacle since you can book any time. Users do have to be pre-approved before they’re able to drive a share car, of course. 

Car sharing also shouldn’t be confused with ‘car pooling’, a type of ride sharing where a driver shares a journey with one or more other passengers - sometimes for a fee - so that they don’t have to make the same trip in their own car, thus contributing to traffic congestion and car pollution (BlaBlaCar is a popular car-pooling service overseas - primarily in Europe - but it’s not yet available in Australia). 

Also, an important note if you’re travelling: the Brits call car pooling ‘car sharing’, and car sharing there is known as ‘car club’ (just to confuse things). 

If you’ve ever thought “I’d totally let a stranger drive my car”, then car sharing might be a feasible way to make some money from your car rather than have it sitting stationary, slowly depreciating in value in real time.

Advantages to using car sharing include carbon-footprint reduction, having access to a wider range of models and types of vehicle - you can treat yourself to a convertible, or even rent a van, should you be going through the horror of moving house - and anyone who travels less than 10,000km a year will likely find that car sharing turns out to be a cheaper option than actually owning a car (remember that dread word, ‘depreciation’? You can kiss it goodbye.)

Although there have been variations on car sharing as far back as 1948, modern car sharing emerged in the late-1990s in the US, but soon spread to to other global markets with dense urban populations such as Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and Turkey.

It arrived in Australia in the early-2000s, and those that want to carshare in Australia now have several services to choose from (although some car-sharing companies that were mooted to set up shop in Australia, like Daimler’s Car2Go, never quite got off the ground). 

1. GoGet

The first car-sharing service in Australia launched in the Sydney suburb of Newtown in 2003, and it’s now Australia’s biggest car-sharing network, operating in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney. Members pay a yearly fee ranging from $12 to $49 depending on need, and hourly rates start at $6.70/hr plus $0.40/km (daily rates start at $76 and include 150km at no charge). 

2. Flexicar

Rebranded from Hertz 24/7 in 2016, Flexicar has locations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart. Flexicar guarantees the vehicles in its car fleet are less than three years old, and members can either book cars by the hour starting at $8.50/hr, and non-business users pay a $49 annual fee ($35 for students), although annual fees are returned as driving credit. 

3. Popcar

Popcar (not ‘pop car’) is one of the smaller car sharing services, with around 180 cars available from the cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Byron Bay. Subscriptions and fees start at $19.90 per month plus a $10 joining fee for rates of $5.50/hr plus $0.40/km (or $59/day with 200km included), to no monthly fee, a $25 joining fee and rates of $9.90/hr plus $0.40/km (or $80/day with 200km included). 

4. Turo

Beginning in Boston in 2010 as RelayRides, Turo bills itself as ‘the world’s largest car sharing market’ and is a peer-to-peer car-sharing company that connects private owners wanting to rent their cars (as of 2020, Turo has 14 million members and 450,000 vehicles listed, operating in 56 countries). Prices start at $25 per day, and customers can get a full refund if they cancel up to 24 hours before their trip is set to start. 

5. Car Next Door

Operating as a kind of Airbnb for cars, Car Next Door is a peer-to-peer car-sharing service that currently operates in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, the Gold Coast, Hobart, Canberra and Perth. There are no joining fees, and once you’re approved you’ll have access to 1,300 cars across Australia, which you can book by the hour or by the day. Rates start from $5/hr or $25/day, with a $6.99 booking fee and $0.21/km distance fee.