Photo courtesy of Vulog

Photo courtesy of Vulog

Vulog, a carsharing technology provider, is unveiling its new technology platform that enables drivers of ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, to use shared cars in free-floating services and other one-way fleets.

The announcement premiered during Vulog’s presentation at the Carsharing Association Conference in Montreal.

Vulog believes that the integration with ride-hailing platforms will drive shared vehicle utilization even higher, according to the company. It expects that select services will choose to make cars available for ride-hailing drivers in periods where fewer people use carsharing, such as at night.

According to Vulog, this new integration will benefit all parties involved:

Carsharing service operators: Higher fleet utilization leads to more revenues without impacting the consumer offering for individual carsharing users during high demand periods. In addition, cars being used for ride-hailing will serve as additional promotional tools for every rider getting picked up by a branded car.

Drivers: By using a shared vehicle, drivers can reduce their fixed costs, as they no longer will need to own a vehicle to drive for a ride-hailing service. They can now pay per hour whenever they wish to drive, with gas and insurance included.

Ride-hailing companies: By reducing the barrier to entry for drivers, more drivers will flock to the service and improve the offering by reducing wait times for ride-hailing users.

At most times of the day, free-floating carsharing will remain the only option to ensure maximum availability of cars, says Vulog.

“We expect this offering to open a new market segment to our clients, thus increasing fleet utilization and size in many cities,” said Gregory Ducongé, Vulog’s CEO. “The on-demand model has completely changed the way people consume transportation; we believe that ride-hailing drivers can and should have access to their tools on-demand as well.”

By facilitating this intersection between mobility services, Vulog provides a new tool for carsharing operators, which include vehicle manufacturers, car rental companies, parking lot operators, and other businesses.

This new ride-hailing integration adds another element to Vulog’s end-to-end white-label offering, which includes in-car hardware to report telematics data, back-end software to manage the fleet of vehicles, and mobile apps for both Android and iOS, according to the company.

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