How Moscow car-sharing works

Car-sharing – car rent per minute: rent and park back a car wherever you want

Car-sharing – is a car rent per minute. The idea is the following: cars are staying available in different city areas on the common city parking lots (not in specialized auto rentals), so that customer could rent and park back a car wherever he wants. 

To use the service one should register: send to the car rental company personal data and passport details and sometimes to come and sign an agreement personally. Then one should download a mobile app to search for a car and handle it, for instance to arm an alarm system. There are five car-sharing companies in Moscow. Each one offers different tariffs. 

Moscow car-carsharing companies tariffs:

The first Moscow per-minute car rental is Anytimecar. The same services are rendered by Delimobil promoted by Moscow city administration, Youdrive company and recently launched Car5 and BelkaCar. 

Car-sharing in Moscow starts from registration. The faster registration of client makes a car-sharing company more popular among customers. For the time being the shortest way from registration to the engine start is provided by Youdrive. 

YouDrive 
One of the leading goals of YouDrive was to create a service as plain as a day. Simplicity is a real strong point of this app. To register one need to sign an offer and acceptance agreement, enter standard personal data i.e. e-mail, name and birth date, then to take selfie with passport page with photo, both sides of driving license and attach to the appliaction from. 

In a couple of hours customer receives a message confirming you can start using the service. It is not the must to meet YouDrive representative and visit their office – it is enough to upload the abovementioned docs. 

To start driving customer should deposit at least 999 ₽ and then study the tariffs and terms of use and finaly start to search for the nearest car. 

Car rental YouDrive has above 170 cars at disposal: two and four-seat Smarts along with 5-seat A-Class Mercedes. There is no necessity to refill the car with a fuel in case the tank is above 25% full, if less then 25% the bill from petrol station should be sent to company mailbox. The amount will be transferred to customer’ account. If a customer leaves the car with empty tank he can be fined 2000 ₽. 

The main inconvenience of this service – customer can take and leave a car only within 3rd ring road and in some directions little bit further. For suburbs residents it is really a weak point. For instance service can offer to reach the nearest car by 90 min walk and customer has to go by metro to reach a car…But at the same time YouDrive cars are available for usage far from MKAD – within 250 km. 

User can book a car for 20 minute so that nobody could pick it up while he is reaching the chosen vehicle. Twenty minute stand mode is automatically switched on. 

Strong point of YouDrive is that you can leave the car in paid parking zone. This way you don’t need to waste your time searching free parking stall as it’s a crucial issue in Moscow centre and you won’t be fined for your car rental towed away for illegal parking. 

More tips if you are to rent YouDrive car... It is better to unlock the car not via the app but via phone agent as the app doesn’t work properly any time and you can lose money trying to unlock the rental via app. 

Once the car is opened the app offers to fill in special checklist concerning car condition: 

 Is there any damage on the car body?

 Does the car need car body cleaning?

 Is the interior dirty?

 Is there bad smell in the car?

 Are the radio recorder and battery charger in working condition?

 Are there any other drawbacks?

Then customer can find only welcome surprises: cans of frost-freezing in winter time, new wiper blades and set of paper towels. But forewarned is forearmed: car trunk can be jammed and there will be no access to these ‘surprises’…

The interior is usually clean, documents and insurance are packed in a special folder in a glove box. The only drawback you may stumble on is cigarette socket which doesn’t want to function. It means you may have problems with charging your cell in the car.

If you are to finish rent the same procedure whick took place while starting should be done: we just have to call the phone agent. 

Talking about money… Actually the amount spent for reaching a car rental parked somewhere not so close to your place and time wasted in Moscow traffic jams the cost of one journey within 3-5 km in Moscow centre won’t exceed 450-600 ₽ which are equal to the same journey by taxi.  At the same journey can be more profitable when there is no traffic jams and will make up around 150 ₽.

Registration on Anytime app is more difficult then previous one. As well security stuff checks your documents and afterwards you have to go to the office in  Barklaya St. to sign an agreement. However the procedure takes no more the 5-10 minutes. 

In the app you will see the car park on the map, where you can choose model you refer at the place you prefer. Car range is rather wide: you have even Renaut Kangoo option in case you are going to IKEA to furnish your apartment rental. 

To get to know the exact cost there is a service cost calculation. 

The system of payments is the same as for YouDrive: you should transfer 600 ₽. prepayment for KIA, Hyundai and Renaut and 2000 ₽ for BMW. The petrol issue is quite the same as in YouDrive, but there is no penalties for empty tank. Customer can refill the petrol on the patrol stations marked on the map:

The procedure is free. 

1. Choose a petrol station on the map. Call hot line: 8-800-775-26-64 and name:

• Plate number of the car 
• Your name
• Your location 
• Last four numbers of petrol card 

2. Phone agent will let you know a pin-code.
3. Your drive into a petrol station with a petrol card and go to a cash desk.
4. Start refilling petrol!
5. Refilling is post-paid except Gazprom-neft petrol stations. In the last ones refilling is pre-paid: first pay for refilling and then refill. 

The cars itself are conveniently located and they are equipped with such must-things as wiper blade and cell charge wires. 

Cars are easily opened via app. The app works in perfect order: there is even a useful blink-function. Car interiors are clean, the glove box contains all necessary documents. 

User’s feedback: 

Ekaterina Zaytseva, 35 years, manager
When I started the engine trip computer notified about flat tire. I left the car and noticed the tire almost was laying on the rims. 

There were no air compressor in the boot but on the way there were a petrol station where I pumped a wheel. I drove from Pervomayskaya to Paveletskaya sq. According to yandex maps it took around 30 min. I reached the destination for 22 minutes instead of 30 but stumble on unexpected unpleasant surprise: it was forbidden to stop renting the car on the paid parking zone, but all the centre is a paid parking zone. It meant I should leave the car and pay for rent until some other client will come to take it. It was incredible…

So is started searching a courtyard in the vicinities where the barriers still were not installed. It took about 20 minutes and I had to pay for that time. So the way took an hour taking into account the way itself, the  wheel pumping and search for the open courtyard to park and cost around 400 ₽. 

But actually according to the service teasers crucial parking issue is compensated by bonuses offered by Anytime. 
    Refilling the car for amount more then 500 ₽ you get 100 bonus point on your account. 
    Looking in carwash to wash a rental you get 600 bonus points. 
    Ordering complex car wash with interior cleaning – you get 1000 bonus points. 
    Friends forever! One friend invited – you get one hour rent free!

Delimobil
It is the most promoted service with the widest car rental rage. It has the greatest promotion from official ads on Moscow administration web-sites. It is interesting that Moscow administration has never mentioned about other car sharing services. Delimobil is named the first car sharing operator in Moscow by Moscow administrative official. Indeed this registration speed leaves much to be desired according to customers.

User’s feedback: 

Ivan Borovitsky, 27 years old, CEO of consulting company:

I installed the app and sent a request attaching all the docs in the end of 2015 when the project was just launched. When in February, 2016 I came back to Delimobil app and tried you use it the services requested all the docs for the second time and called support to speed up the procedure. But I received the confirmation that I can come to the office to sign the agreement not earlier then in a week after sending docs. 
But still I came to the office in Paveletskaya and signed necessary documents. I was offered to order car delivery but it costs 390 ₽. I got a precious message confirming I can use car rentals only in a couple of hours after signing the contract. 

I learned the tariffs and found out that in spite of tardiness Delimobil has the most simple and correct payment system. You shouldn’t deposit money as the amount spent for the journey will be written off after.  

Besides Delimobil cars have all this tariff info on “on board” – on the window.

As for petrol refilling it goes as follows: there is a petrol card in the glove box for Lukoil petrol stations which you can use to pay for petrol. You can look in petrol station voluntary. In this case company presents free 15 minutes.

The issue is that it is possible to refill only in Lukoil petrol stations but there are very few of them in Moscow centre. And also you have to call phone agent to get special PIN code. Sometimes it takes more then 10 minutes. But they promise to make up for this time. But nobody make up for the time spent for Lukoil petrol station search.

User’s feedback:

Petr Marmonov, 45 years old, front end developer

They told I can leave a car within MKAD limits, that’s fine. And the app works fine. Car starts, blinks, doors are opened/ closed smoothly. But friend of me told me that GPS signal can’t reach some areas, for instance between two buildings. It means you can’t close the doors and finish rent. When you call to phone agent he asks you to park the car in some other place. That’s a real fault. 

I was happy finding in the brand-new Hyundai all the necessary car accessories. It was pleasant also to find USB connect and I managed to charge my cell. Everything is in working condition, they even installed parktronic. The only thing disappointed me was dirty interior. 

I took the car to reach from Paveletskaya to Kholodilny lane, 3. According to yandex maps it took around 20 min. I paid 270 ₽. It is almost the same I could spend for taxi. 

Delimobil offers different promo campaigns and special offers but unlike Anytime car-sharing they are temporary. For instance having the car washed in the time frames from 10^th to 15^th day of a month you will get 600 bonus points.

But if you wish to get these points you have to take photos of the car rental before and after washing. But it is not quite clear if the time spent for car washing will be compensated.

Delimobil also tries to park cars closer to the centre on clients’ account. The ones who take their car rentals in the morning (6-11 am) and leave it within the Garden Ring get half of the amount charged for the journey. But as well this special offer is referred to definite time frames.

Car 5
The car park consists of 50 Hyundai Solaris rentals. The first thing you’ll notice Car5 and Delimobil design are quite the same.

As well the car rental is approved by Moscow authorities and named ‘second car sharing’ operator despite there are three more major car sharing companies. Besides phone agent assured there is nothing common between Car 5 and Delimobil. So let’s check how Car 5 can provide competition to other companies.

The first pleasant point customers do not have to come to company office to sign contract. Courier brings contract at any place convenient to a customer for 250 ₽ which afterward are charged to a client’s account.

User’s feedback:

Dmitry Osechkin, 32 years old, computer system analyst

I appreciate that registration procedure didn’t take much time. I could use Car 5 in a day after signing contract. But the closest to my place car was 40 min by bus.

When I reached the car and pushed the button “start rent” the meter started running but demand to unlock the car didn’t work while the app confirmed it was done. Only after 20 min talk with support agent the doors were unlocked.

The agent assured me that the time wasted for a 'smaltalk' to support will be returned to my account and I can use it for my needs.

So I headed from my place in Novogireevo for Lyublinskaya Street. The map showed around 40 min to reach the destination. I didn’t manage to start the engine via app, but manually. 

Then I came back to shut out the engine to check parking mode. As well I didn’t manage to do it via app but finally I locked it. I decided not to leave the car with started engine and pushed the button “finish rent”. The meter stopped running but the car wasn’t locked so I had to apply again to support. So my trip cost above 700 ₽. ”

Car5 as well as Delimobil doesn’t imply putting prepayment on the account. Customers can pay the rent just before next trip and there are no penalties for it.

Car5 for the time being is some kind of younger brother of all Moscow car sharing companies, little bit sloppy but at the same time not so demanding in returning the debts.

As for equipment, glove box of car rentals as well contains all the necessary docs and petrol card. 

Belka Car
The freshest Moscow car-sharing is Belka Car. Car park consists of 100 dark blue Kia hatchbacks which is to be replenished to 1000 cars. 

There is no need to sign contract in the office, it is enough to register on-line providing selfie and standard documents package. As usual app assures that time for registration won’t take more than 5 minutes, but as it happens in reality it takes not less than 24 hours to verify docs. 

Cars are parked within Moscow MKAD Ring Road. It makes the service more convenient for suburbs residents. Rental zone covers the area within A107 Road in Moscow area (Big Moscow Ring Road).

Documents for the cars, insurance and petrol cards are packed in a special folder in a glove box. As for tariffs Belka car has rather competitive prices and some specialties. Traditional 8₽ per minute, 2₽ per minute on standby mode and for customers who wish to park the car out of 3rd Ring Road limits – free standby mode starting from 11 pm and till 7 am. 

User’s feedback:
Natalia Zvyagintseva, 38 years old, housewife 

The closest to my place ia car was in Khoroshevskoye shosse, 15 near Begovaya metro station. So I had to reach the car by metro then to come back to my place to pick my beagle dog for vaccination.

I was happy to find button ‘blink’ in the app so I found the car comparatively soon. I checked car condition before starting rent as the app required, checked if all the docs are in the glove box. 

I was also happy to find that petrol tank is full and that interior and car body seemed to be brand-new as if I were the first who drove that car. 

Also I appreciated that KIA hatchback is rather spacious as I took my beagle and three of my children with me, 2 of them with child safety seats. And it was enough space for all of us! 

I paid for the trip Begovaya - my place (Oktyabrskoye Pole) - vet - back home around 650 ₽. I should say it is not too much for four people to say nothing of the dog. I suppose taxi would be much more expensive taking into account standby mode. 

Talking about future of Moscow car-sharing authorities mention that auto park will be supplied with robotic cars. But more realistic point of you that car-sharing market will be supplied with electro cars.

There is also a rhetorical question if car-sharing in future will be referred as public transport with it privilege to use dedicated lane.