How to incentivise the user-based redistribution in free-floating carsharing? : the evidence from Switzerland

Over the last years we have witnessed a rapid growth in the number of free-floating carsharing schemes. The main challenge of free-floating carsharing operators lies in unbalanced spatio-temporal distribution of vehicles. On the one hand, there are zones with high demand, where efforts are needed to maintain the desired service level. On the other hand, there are the zones with low demand, where vehicles have long idle times. To achieve more balanced spatio-temporal distribution operators have to move vehicles from low to high demand zones. This measure, also known as operator-based redistribution, is costly, energy-consuming and associated with higher CO2 emissions. To address these drawbacks, the so-called user-based redistribution has recently been explored, meaning users redistribute the vehicles. Instead of doing it by generating extra rides, the redistribution is achieved by applying incentive schemes to influence the demand of the users. In this study, we explore the responsiveness of users of a Swiss free-floating carsharing service (Mobility Go, part of Mobility) to different forms of incentives, promoting user-based redistribution. The goal of the study was to provide the Mobility Genossenschaft with sufficient information to implement a new incentive scheme for user-based redistribution, specifically tailored towards its users, which will be further tested in a field experiment. The study started with two focus groups to capture users' perception of the current incentive schemes and suggestions for improvement. Qualitative insights from the focus groups served as an input to an online survey. The core of the online survey was a discrete choice experiment (DCE), providing hypothetical choice scenarios and exploring preferences for different types of incentives for user-based distribution. The DCE, was divided into scenarios around picking up cars in less busy zones and dropping off Mobility-Go cars in more frequented zones with less cars. The picking scenarios tested four incentives: free driving time, financial discount, collecting points (money) for social or environmental projects and collecting points to enter a lottery for a chance to win bigger prizes. The dropping scenarios tested the same incentives and additionally tested an incentive of a guaranteed parking space to drop the car in specific zones (those with less cars). Additionally, the survey collected further information on (1) the travel behaviour of the test persons in general, (2) the usage of the Mobility Go service, (3) Mobility membership details, (4) attitudes towards current user-based redistribution incentive schemes, (5) follow-up questions related to the discrete choice experiments as well as (6) the socio-demographic questions. The DCE and survey results, based on a sample size of 194 test persons, suggest that across picking and dropping scenarios users are most interested in receiving free driving time as an incentive, followed by money. In addition, users were equally interested in the guaranteed parking space in the dropping scenarios. Collecting points (money) for social and environmental projects and collecting points to qualify for a lottery were not attractive to Mobility users. Overall, the interest in incentives seems to decrease with age and level of education. Furthermore, Mobility cooperative members showed the least interest in incentives, while owners of an annual subscription, test subscription or other subscriptions showed substantially higher interest in incentives