Ford Oz partners with car-share start-up

Ford Australia boss Graeme Whickman wants to save his owners airport parking fees. And has partnered with carshare start-up Carhood to start the ball rolling…

Whickman yesterday announced a partnership between the Blue Oval and Carhood under which Ford has assigned 30 of its cars to the start-up to be used as rental vehicles. The ‘fleet’ includes Fiestas, Mondeos, Kugas and Everest SUVs.

The tie-up also sees signed-up Ford owners recieve10 per cent more (35 per cent) of rental charges than owners of other brands when their car is rented out by Carhood. A corresponding 10 per cent discount is applied when they rent a Ford from the operation.

Carhood launched in February 2015 with a car-sharing platform that offers car owners who drive to Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne Airports the ability to avoiding parking fees and also make money from renting their car. Owners leave their car at designated drop-off points near the airport, are ferried to/from the airport and while they are away they can earn 25 per cent of the rental fee if their car is rented. If the car sits idle at Carhood for a month, Carhood will pay owners $250.

Carhood covers owners renting their car against damage for up to $35,000. The vehicles must be less than 15 years-old and have less than 200,000km to be part of the scheme. Most are much newer, however, Carhood says. Rental fees start from around $14 per day.

Ford Australia’s partnership with Carhood follows the company’s global policy of improving its involvement in innovative transport platforms.

Local CEO Wickman said yesterday: “Every market has its particular challenges, and the one for us right now, as a higher priority is the one we’re talking about today -- that’s around car sharing, airport parking, that sort of thing.

“We want to offer Ford customers within that an even better outcome, whether it be car rental discounts or a higher revenue stream within it. We’re trying to innovate for our customers to a higher level than we have before.”

International Ford boss Mark Fields flagged the company’s interest in “mobility solutions” late last year.

When explaining steering Ford toward 'mobility', Fields answered: “It makes business sense. The traditional auto industry achieves around $2.3 trillion in revenue a year. Ford’s share is around six per cent of that. At the same time transportation services, which include mass transit, taxi and ride sharing, totals around $5.4 trillion, and it is going to grow in the next 15 years.”