Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Vehicle Sharing

[Douglas G. Larson (ddhle]

> Does anyone have a community car that everyone shares? If so:
> How do you handle the insurance? Is one person the owner who ostensibly
just allows others to use the car?
> Does the community own the car, and, if so, what kind of insurance do you
get?
> How do you pay for maintenance and insurance?
> Does the entire community support the car or only those who use it?
> Do people pay for each use?
> How do you make sure the tank is kept full?
> If it's paid for only by those who use it, is there a distinction between
households that have a car and use it as a backup and those who use it as
their only car?

At Songaia Cohousing we have had sharing of sorts. I own a Ford pickup which
I allowed to be for community use. Its handy for hauling things and it had
heavy use.
I am the legal owner of the truck. In the first few years, the system looked
like this

 1) Any licensed driver could use the truck for any purpose whether for
community use or personal use.
 2) A clipboard with a  log sheet was kept in the truck. Drivers would enter
any use on the log recording date, start mileage, end mileage, total miles,
checked a box that indicated personal use or  
    community use, if that use was for the community a brief description of
what it was for. 
 3) If a user needed to put in gas, they did so and submitted the receipt to
the bookkeeper. They were reimbursed for the gas. 
 4) If a repair was needed, I arranged that and the bookkeeper reimbursed me
for it.
 5) Our community bookkeeper would, at the end of each month, take the log
and for all personal use miles and billed those households at 0.50 per mile.
 6) I paid the insurance but was reimbursed for it by the bookkeeper. 

We used this system for several years, but after a couple of minor accidents
and my insurance rates went up, I decided I didn't want the liability any
more and so withdrew the truck from community use.

Now people still borrow the truck on occasion but they put in gas and while
it isn't much different liability-wise I feel better about it. That might
change if there was another accident.

But my withdrawing the truck motivated the community to look at a better
shared vehicle system. A ad hoc committee was formed and some research was
done. We haven't gotten any further with it but here is what our research
has found.

 A) For the community to pay for insurance on a shared vehicle the community
must own the vehicle legally.
 B) Insurance costs for our community would be much more (in our case
$700/year vs. about $300/year I was paying as an individual).
 C) The names, addresses and license numbers of all licensed drivers who
wanted to use the truck would have to be submitted to the insurance company.
If any driver had a bad record either the insurance company would not cover
the vehicle at all or that driver would be prohibited from using it.
 
There are also two individuals here that share 1 car on a regular basis. I
don't know how they divide expenses or what their agreement is.


Douglas Larson,
Songaia Cohousing,
Bothell, Washington