I work in Boston, a city where someone recently paid $300,000 for a parking spot. Drivers are constantly circling as they hunt for an opening. Add the notorious aggressiveness of Boston drivers and the high insurance rates into the mix, and it becomes clear why this is one of the most expensive and difficult places in the nation to own a car.So it's probably no coincidence that this is where Zipcar was founded more than a decade ago. At first, the company that introduced America to rent-by-the-hour, pay-as-you-go car sharing grew slowly. Rivals saw it as a niche market for the ecologically minded and others who were willing to ditch their full-time vehicles.
But the advent of the smart phone has helped reshape the way Zipcar operates, greatly broadening its appeal. Launched two years ago, Zipcar's app for the iPhone has been downloaded by 400,000 people, who use it to locate the nearest available car and even honk its horn. That has made it much easier for customers to find cars wherever and whenever they want one. Now the company has expanded to 55 cities and 225 college campuses in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
To read the full, original article click on this link: How Mobile Apps Are Disrupting the Car-Rental Business - Technology Review
Author: Lauren Cox
