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Comment by flocial | Hacker News Reader

>Operators also lose cash when consumers rent vehicles for “non-driving purposes” since customers pay more if they log a lot of mileage.

This quote struck me as strange since the price of gas is included in Times Car Share which is the biggest car share service.

https://share.timescar.jp/fare/use.html

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I love Times Car Sharing and use it heavily, but I find the pricing structure a little bit obtuse:

There are various "packs" for example a 6 hour pack, 12 hour pack etc. The 6 hour pack means you don't get charged anything extra for fuel/kilometer. The other packs do charge you a fixed rate per kilometer.

There are also special packs at nighttime. The app doesn't really help you pick the best one for you or minimise your price.

Here's an example:

Book a car from 5.45 to 11.30. You're 15 minutes short of the 6 hour pack so you pay the basic time rate.

Now change the booking to 5.45 to 11.45. You now pay the 6 hour rate (4000 yen iirc).

Move the booking to 6 to midnight. Now you pay 2000 yen because it's night-time.

Overall I love the car sharing experience, it sure as hell beats paying 20,000 yen a month for a car parking space. I just wish they made this a bit clearer/easier to use.

It looks like there's a price per kilometer driven when you book a "pack" of hours (going by Google Translate here).

In a way for those users it would be better to keep quiet about their use, because now companies will try to find a way to charge them for it.

gas is not the only cost of mileage though.

Right, it also depreciates the car. Mileage is the most important factor in determining sale price.

This quote struck me a strange since they aren’t losing anything. They just earn extra cash from a new use case.

...and potentially lose a more lucrative sale. Hard to quantify, though.

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