Free-floating carsharing users’ willingness-to-pay/accept for logistics management mechanisms
File(s)
Author(s)
Wu, Chenyang
Vine, Scott Le
Philips, Sandra
Tang, William
Polak, John
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The spatio-temporal flexibility of free-floating carsharing (FFCS) fleets leads to vehicle stock imbalances across the network. One set of strategies for managing fleet distribution involves incentivising users to participate in relocating the vehicles. The objective of this study is to establish FFCS customers’ preferences for each of four incentivisation mechanisms: 1) vehicle delivery, 2) paid relocation, and 3–4) incentivisation for alternate vehicle pick-up and drop-off locations. Survey data (n = 311; collected Sept. 2017) from FFCS users in Vancouver and Washington D.C. are employed to quantify willingness-to-pay/accept (WTP/WTA) for these mechanisms. We find that a majority of respondents report positive attitudes (“definitely” or “possibly” willing to use) toward each of the four incentivisation mechanisms, with alternate drop-off the highest (57%) and paid relocation the lowest (40%). Regression analysis finds that user experiences using FFCS are generally stronger predictors of WTP/WTA than socio-demographic features, with (intuitively) the frequency of FFCS unavailability the strongest predictor. Age is the strongest socio-demographic predictor, with the WTP for vehicle delivery increasing and the size of required incentives for alternate pick-up/drop-off locations decreasing with age. Finally, we performed k-means cluster analysis of respondents based on the times-of-week that they report experiencing difficulty finding an available FFCS vehicle, and identified four distinct segments of users. However, we found generally weak relationships between WTP/WTA and the specific time-of-week periods that unavailability is experienced.
Date Issued
2020-10
Date Acceptance
2020-06-16
Citation
Travel Behaviour and Society, 2020, 21, pp.154-166
ISSN
2214-367X
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
154
End Page
166
Journal / Book Title
Travel Behaviour and Society
Volume
21
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214367X20301885?via%3Dihub
Subjects
1507 Transportation and Freight Services
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2020-07-08