Successfully launching a car sharing service requires data. In the shared mobility industry, data is the engine that powers profitability, operational efficiency, and scalable growth. Without a steady stream of accurate information, you cannot make smart decisions about your pricing, fleet maintenance, or vehicle distribution. Effective operations depend completely on your ability to monitor vehicles in real time, understand how customers use your service, and track essential financial metrics.
This information is collected by a telematics unit installed in each vehicle or through integrations with a vehicle manufacturer's own systems. Access to this data is what elevates you from a simple vehicle owner to a sophisticated mobility operator. It provides the necessary insights to help you reduce vehicle downtime, improve the user experience, and maximize the revenue generated by every car in your fleet. In this lesson, we'll explore the most important data points you need to build a successful service.
Measure Profitability: Revenue Per Vehicle
The most critical metric for any car sharing operator is Revenue Per Vehicle Per Day (RPVPD). This KPI directly answers the fundamental question: "Is each of our assets generating enough income to cover its costs and contribute to profit?" Tracking RPVPD daily is essential because it is a single metric that reflects the health of your entire business model.
A high RPVPD indicates that your pricing strategy is effective, demand for your service is strong, and your operations are efficient, minimizing vehicle downtime. If this number is consistently low, you know immediately that you must investigate your pricing, marketing, or operational procedures. By focusing on RPVPD, you ensure that every vehicle in your fleet is treated as an active investment that must generate a return, rather than a passive asset.
Real-Time Data for Operational Control
While RPVPD measures financial success, several real-time data points are crucial for ensuring the fleet is physically available, secure, and ready to be rented. These operational metrics directly impact vehicle uptime and security, preventing lost revenue and costly service calls. Monitoring these essential data streams in real-time is the core task of your telematics solution:
- GPS Location:
Accurate, real-time location data is foundational for car sharing. You need to know a vehicle's exact position instantly for customer booking, boundary enforcement (geo-fencing), and efficient repositioning by service teams. - Fuel and Battery Status:
Knowing the exact fuel level or state of charge (SOC) for an EV is vital. This status determines whether a vehicle is rentable and helps prevent customers from being stranded. This data is critical for scheduling maintenance and refueling/recharging operations. - Connectivity Health:
A vehicle that is offline for an extended period cannot be rented and is effectively out of service. You must monitor connectivity to identify and address persistent issues, such as a vehicle parked in a cellular dead spot, requiring an employee to move it. - Onboard Voltage:
Tracking the car battery’s voltage is important to catch low-voltage issues early. If the car battery is too low, the vehicle can become stranded and unusable. Early detection allows you to address the issue before it leads to a stranded customer and requires a costly tow. - Door and Window Status:
Knowing the exact status of the vehicle’s doors and windows (open or closed) is vital for fleet security. It prevents a user from ending their rental while the doors or windows are wide open, eliminating the opportunity for unauthorized entry, vandalism, or misuse after the reservation has officially ended.
Detailed data can also help you resolve unexpected operational disputes. Quantum Mobility from Texas shared an example where they used telematics data to claim a toll charge they received for a vehicle that wasn’t in use.
“We just cross-referenced the rental history, pulled up the telematics in INVERS Fleet Control, took a screenshot, and sent it to the toll company. Within 24 hours, the charge was dropped.”
Jon Zelazo
VP of Operations | Quantum Mobility
Source: INVERS Success Story with Quantum
Fleet Health and System Integrity Checks
Real-time data moves beyond simple status reports to enable proactive maintenance and security. A sophisticated car sharing platform uses data from the telematics device to enable remote diagnostics and checks on system integrity. These status checks are executed instantly via the API, allowing the operator to verify conditions before and after a rental.
For example, by combining onboard voltage with the headlights status, you can quickly identify if a vehicle's battery is draining because the lights were left on while the car was not in use. This enables you to send a service agent to the vehicle to fix the issue, saving the battery and preventing the car from being stranded later. Other critical integrity checks include remotely verifying the door locks, the ignition status, and the fuel or battery level of the vehicle. Furthermore, security features like remote immobilization allow operators to instantly disable the vehicle in case of theft or unauthorized use, offering a critical layer of protection.
Advanced telematics units can also provide sensor data to differentiate between normal events and actual damage incidents.
Similarly, tracking key driving metrics such as harsh braking, rapid acceleration, aggressive cornering, and speeding allows you to calculate a safety score for each trip (e.g., 0-100). This score helps you identify bad drivers, educate users, reward good behavior, and optimize maintenance to lower insurance costs.
Data for Strategic Growth and Expansion
Once your daily operations are stable, data shifts its focus to supporting long-term business growth. Market intelligence gathered from your service usage helps you make strategic decisions about fleet deployment and expansion. Key data for strategic growth includes:
- Trip Start-End Heatmaps:
These maps illustrate where your users are starting and ending their trips, providing a clear visualization of how your service is being used
- Point of Interest (POI) Correlation:
By correlating trip locations with popular destinations like train stations, office parks, airports, or shopping centers you can see where demand naturally gravitates.
- Public Transport Gaps:
If your data shows that users frequently travel between residential areas and locations lacking strong public transport connections, this identifies areas where your service is fulfilling a clear mobility need. This insight can help you pinpoint and validate new markets for potential fleet expansion.
Understanding the Customer: Demand & Demographics
To truly optimize your fleet, you must understand who your customers are and where your service is falling short. Data gathered from your app and user registrations helps you define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and identify unmet demand, guiding your marketing and fleet size decisions.
- User Demographics:
Collecting anonymous data on customer age, area of residence, and other key demographics helps you understand who your power users are. For instance, if young professionals frequently use your service, it makes strategic sense to expand into areas where they live and work.
- Failed Searches and Unsatisfied Demand:
Tracking instances where a user opens the app but cannot find a vehicle to book is a crucial measure of unmet demand. If specific zones repeatedly show high numbers of failed searches, it signals a gap in your coverage and indicates a high-demand area where repositioning or adding new vehicles would likely generate immediate revenue. This data is far more valuable than simply looking at successful trips, as it highlights genuine revenue opportunities.
Key Takeaways
Is data really that important for my car sharing operations?
Yes, data is the engine of a car sharing business. It allows you to monitor vehicles, understand user behavior, and track financial metrics to maximize profitability and efficiency.
What’s the most important number to track?
Revenue Per Vehicle Per Day (RPVPD) is the most critical KPI. It tells you if each vehicle is generating enough income to be profitable and signals the overall health of your business.
Which real-time alerts do I actually need?
The most essential data points for daily operations are real-time GPS location, fuel and battery status, connectivity health, onboard voltage, and door status.
Can my cars tell me when they need maintenance?
By enabling remote diagnostics and system integrity checks. For example, you can identify a draining battery before it dies or confirm that a car's doors are locked after a rental to prevent misuse.
How do I know where to expand my fleet next?
Data on trip patterns, popular destinations, and user demographics helps you identify new market opportunities. Tracking failed searches shows you exactly where demand is not being met.