Unreliable public buses and the cost of private transport are prompting some people to ditch their vehicles for car-sharing services. Vanessa Conneely reports. 

When Swede Hanna Bjorck, 30, moved to Malta in 2015, she decided to test life without a car.

“I tried to use public transport to get from my home in Swieqi to my job in Mosta, but it’s very unreliable. To make sure I arrived at work on time, I had to factor in a one-hour delay,” she said.

Recently she tried another solution: a car-sharing service.

“I use their app practically every day,” she said.

According to the company that runs the service, Cool, she is among the 35,000 people who have registered since it launched last summer.

“Around 55 per cent of our users are women,” said Laura Jasenaite, CEO of Cool.   

“We believe this is as much about women not wanting to drive on Malta’s roads, as feeling safe inside the car because they are not travelling alone with a driver they don’t know.”

At first, Cool only operated in what it called its ‘Yellow Zone’ in densely populated areas including St Julian’s, Sliema, Naxxar and Valletta. But it is now expanding across the island.

Users request a car – which may or may not have other passengers already in it – and then meet it at a nearby point.

“We never ask anyone to walk more than 300m,” said Ms Jasenaite. “But we also don’t pick up right outside your door as it would take up too much time and is not efficient. We see our service as a cross between a bus and a taxi.”

Users can avail of two subscription models. The first allows two rides a day from Monday to Friday for €169 a month, the second gives four rides every day for €239 a month. Alternatively, a one-off ride costs €4.95 for up to 8km and around 66c a kilometre after that.

After doing the financial calculations, 48-year-old Tomasz Andrzej Nidecki decided Cool was his best option but there are downsides.

“I was considering getting an electric bicycle, a scooter or even a small electric car, but in the end, I decided it’s not worth it,” he said.

However, the Polish man says there are challenges when using the app, as unlike other countries, Malta does not have car-pooling lanes which aim to eliminate one person per car.

“You still get stuck in traffic. Governments everywhere need to find ways to get people out of their private cars.

“No matter how many bypasses you build, you’ll end up with more traffic as these new roads keep filling up with more cars.”

As well as individuals, businesses are starting to use the app including APS Bank. The company started using the service mid-November to get around its parking problem. It now offers its 436 staff two trips a day, to and from the office.

“We had an initial uptake of 30 users, however since the word got around how efficient, simple and convenient the service is we have now reached 136 users,” said bank spokesperson Glen Simpson.

Governments everywhere need to find ways to get people out of their private cars

“While we’re happy with the service overall, we’ve had some negative feedback from staff about the app and timings. Sometimes, when employees book a ride it will tell them a car will come in 16 minutes for example, but if traffic clears it may arrive in nine. This can be a slight issue for employees who can’t leave the office before the pre-advised time.”

Cool was spawned from the success of its sister company GoTo, which has been operating on the islands for more than a year.

“We now have 195 cars on the road since we launched in November 2018,” says chief marketing officer Johnny Tominaga. “Some are fully electric; the others are a hybrid.”

Unlike Cool, GoTo allows you to have the entire car to yourself. It’s partially owned by Israeli company CAR2GO as well as Malta’s Debono Group. It has worked with Transport Malta to get 450 parking spaces and hopes this will increase.

“I think most people who’ve used the app will say that at least one time, they struggled to find a car that was close enough for them to use,” said Mr Tominaga.

“We especially see it with our business accounts when people are under pressure to go to meetings and can’t find a car. We are constantly trying to adapt to supply and demand, using AI technology that is developed in Tel Aviv.

“We’ve also launched a new fleet of 300 scooters and have been surprised by the success we’ve had in the uptake already.”

Like Cool, GoTo is seeing an increase in the number of people switching to life without a private car – including environmentally conscious Upeshala Jayawardena, 25, who lives and studies in Gozo.

He finds GoTo’s cars cheaper than catching a taxi but says “there are sometimes no cars when I need one, especially in Victoria.”

It is not only individuals who are opting to go car ownership-free.

A small start-up in Sliema, which is planning to hire more people soon, is planning to use it too. “I like it because I’ll be able to make sure that staff are just using it for business trips and not in their personal time,” said the company’s spokesperson Hanadi Perez.

The 36-year-old, who grew up in Antigua but has been living in Malta for 12 years, also uses GoTo to ferry her family around.

“Our car was starting to get old, so we scrapped it and decided to try a mix of GoTo and taxis for a while. We were glad we didn’t rush into buying anything as it’s working well for us. Our car used to cost us around €2,000 a year in insurance, road tax, maintenance, petrol and parking, but now we’re only spending around half that.”

But she admits that sharing a car with strangers can have a negative side. “When you need to leave the house quickly and there is no car nearby, it can be a problem.

“It’s also horrible when there has been an irresponsible driver using the car before you, who has left his trash behind or had his dog sitting on the seat.”

When it comes to being insured, Cool says it has passenger and third-party insurance. GoTo asks customers to contact them as soon as there is an incident and they will inform their partner insurance companies and police to start an investigation.

Using a trip from Valletta to St Paul’s Bay, here is an example of what a one-way fare would cost:
Cool car sharing: €10.95;
GoTo: Between €6- €10;
Taxi: €20.30;
Bus: €1.50.