As green shoots are beginning to appear in our economy businesses are now asking themselves how they might run more efficiently. A major expense often involves the transport needs of the company. This morning I attended the launch of a new corporate car-sharing initiative from Sixt Leasing designed to address this issue.

Conor Kelly, Managing Director of Sixt Leasing Ireland, explained that this service is a new mobility solution for businesses in Ireland who need their car service to operate on demand. What they provide to companies is an allocation of vehicles and a system which makes cars available to staff when they need them.

Businesses sign up to the service and outline their transport needs to Sixt. Based on this information Sixt will allocate cars to the company and those cars will be kept at the business address. Employees register for a key card to operate the vehicles supplied. A person within the client company is designated fleet manager. When an employee needs a car for an airport run, or to get to a meeting, they book the car through the fleet manager.

The car sends constant data back to the client company, recording everything from driving habits to fuel economy to the car’s coordinates.

Sixt estimates that a system like this could offer up to 30% savings in fleet costs. At the moment a choice of Peugeot vehicles are used for this service, including their electric vehicle – the iOn. Cars chosen by a company are for exclusive use by that business and they may choose which cars will comprise their individual fleet.

Mr Kelly also explained how businesses could off-set the costs of utilising the system by renting the cars to staff that require them for occasional personal use.

From what I can understand this service wouldn’t be too dissimilar in principle to the already operating GoCar system, except Sixt are pitching their services directly at corporate clients. They also differ in that they will actually give a fleet to a company or client to manage internally. Sources within Sixt have told me that their target for this year is to have 100 cars involved in this scheme. The question is whether or not Irish businesses are ready for a system like this. The answer will become clear over time.