systems are in a way very strong but also completely useless. People love to be moral even if there is no point to it. It is really strange. So we changed our marketing. We stopped saying you have to get rid of something,' and started to say we offer you something. Our segment in the market really changed from the beginning when we had very ecologically advanced people, young, highly educated, who really thought about things. And now we are getting to the more normal people. We really have to do that, because ecological people usually don't have a car anyway. So we really want normal people. We just want to reduce the cars. DJ: So if I were to become a member, what kind educational material would I get? CP: The education is done by economic forces. If yo~'re a member, you will use the car when you need it. You will see on your bill that one drive is pretty expe~sive, and not driving is cheap. If you own a private car, it is just the other way around: car owning is pretty expensive and car driving is cheap. Most of the costs of the car is in buying it, losing the worth, paying taxes, and insurance. The most important thing is the loss of worth each month. If you buy a car it loses 300DM in one month, just being parked. You have 300DM less in one month. And you can drive pretty far with STATTAUTO for 300DM... and you don't have the stress, you don't go to the garage, you don't do anything. You just drive. When you drive it is pretty expensive but when you go by bus it is very cheap. So after you get your first STATTAUTO bill, people who had private cars will phone and say I never thought that STATTAUTO was so expensive! We tell them, we told you and you had the price list and car driving is a luxury. Drive less and you'll pay less... and then they do. This is the educational process. DJ: So, no education about bus or train schedules? CP: No. We don't have time. The people in Cologne do this, but they get money from the city. And it is really not necessary. Why should the people call you if there are bus and train employees whose job it is to tell you the schedule? Photos. A typical carsharing station's key access box mounted on the side ofa building. A magnetic membership card and key allow access to a locked drawer that contains all the station's car keys. After a drive, you put your time/ mileage logsheet in the STAITAVTO mailbox. DJ: Tell us about your members' group. CP: They don't do very much. Sometimes they have monthly meetings, but last month, they didn't meet. We had a meeting for all of them four weeks ago, because we have a contract with the users that when we change prices we have to ask them. And once a year, we ask them and then it is always a big discussion. DJ: Do you lose members every time you raise prices? CP: Yes, because there are 3 possibilities to raise prices. Either you raise 1) membership fees, 2) time charges or 3) kilometer charges. Every year you hit somebody too · hard. This year we raised the membership fees and now people are quitting who drive very, very little. They are members becau~e they want just the possibility of using the cars. Of course this possibility is worth something, but if the price goes up.... The new membership fee is 14DM per month. Last year, we raised kilometer fees. Then the people who drive RAIN Summer 1996 Volume XV, Number 1 Page 45
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