ram, WeCar, launched on Sept. 8, allowing students to rent a car for any length of time to run errands, drive to other cities, take a camping trip and more.
“The thing that makes students not want to bring their own car to campus is if they have access to a car when they need it,” said Fred Cheever, chairman of the Environmental Sustainability Council (ESC).
The ESC proposed the WeCare program in late 2010. According to Cheever, four different car-sharing companies presented their programs to members of the sustainability council, representatives from the DU Undergraduate Student Government and the parking services department staff.
In the end, DU chose to partner with St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the largest rental corporation in the U.S.
“We really tried to address DU’s issues as it related to overall concerns of vehicle sharing,” said Brian Smith, director of business rental sales for Colorado. “We covered how it could not only achieve Enterprise’s goals of green initiatives, but also the goals of DU.”
Enterprise launched the WeCar program in 2009 as a way to move towards more green initiatives. According to Smith, WeCar has been successful because Enterprise was already an established car-rental vendor that added car-sharing to its business model.
“We look at everything and are very thoughtful about the decisions we make, about not only our partners, but the product itself,” said Smith.
Smith said he believes the DU community will benefit from the WeCar program since it provides an alternate form of transportation to students who don’t necessarily have access to a car on campus.
“The idea is that you can have 10 people sharing one vehicle instead of 10 people having 10 vehicles,” said Smith. “It can reduce vehicle congestion, parking, accidents — all the things that go with that.”
Cheever also said that the WeCar program will help students reduce their carbon footprint.
“It won’t work for everyone, but it will work for some people,” said Cheever. “It will work for staff who are able to conveniently commute to campus by mass transit but are reluctant to do so because they want to have a car available for errands and emergencies.”
According to Buddy Knox, manager of parking services, the WeCar program is meant to be another “piece of the puzzle” when it comes to discouraging students from bringing their cars on campus.
“You’re not paying for a car to sit in a parking lot for a week when you’re only using it two hours a week,” said Knox. “You have a car when you need it, and when you don’t, you don’t have to worry about it.”
The WeCar program is available for anyone who is over 18 and has a valid driver’s license. Those who sign up will be given a membership card they can use to open the WeCar.
The keys are kept inside the vehicle. The car can also be reserved online in order to prevent another person’s access to the car at a particular time.
Members who damage the WeCar vehicle or get into an accident are responsible for up to a $1,000 deductible.
They are also responsible for any tickets they might acquire while driving the car. The cars are non-smoking, but pets are allowed inside.
There is also a credit card in the car that the patron can use for gas or to wash the car if they feel they “thoroughly trashed it,” Knox said.
“It’s the ‘good neighbor’ thing,” he said. “If you look and see that there’s only a gallon of gas left, it would be the polite thing to do to fill up the car.”
The WeCar program charges an annual membership fee of $35. Hourly rates are $7.50 and weekday daily rates are $55. Registrants also receive $35 of credit towards a car-rental upon signing up. Anyone interested in joining the program should visit www.
