“FlexFleet,” Shared Municipal Government Fleet, Chicago, Illinois, 2011

When the City of Chicago and Zipcar entered into a partnership in March 2011, Chicago became the first city in the country to use both ZipCar’s FastFleet technology in their existing fleet and provide Zipcar memberships to employees. Branded FlexFleet in Chicago, FastFleet is a scheduling and access system that allows employees to make and manage reservations online, gain access to vehicles without keys, and enquire about whereabouts of a particular vehicle. In 2014 Chicago managed 98 city-owned vehicles through FlexFleet, and over 800 city employees had signed up to use the shared fleet. Additionally, about 400 city employees were signed up for Zipcar memberships. Since implementing its shared fleet, Chicago has seen its overall fleet decrease from approximately 1,000 to 650 cars. ^[3] Chicago officials also reported that carsharing programs have saved the City $1 million annually.