PeopleCar expands beyond car-sharing to become a 'fleet commercialisation platform

Humax Mobility's subsidiary, PeopleCar, is expanding its business scope with a 'Fleet Commercialisation Platform' that connects nationwide rental car partner fleets via middleware to ToorooCar and external platform demand channels.

PeopleCar has moved away from its traditional vehicle-ownership-centric car-sharing business model, successfully transitioning to an asset-light business model based on vehicles from nationwide rental car partners, including Kia 3G Jasper, a related company of Humax Mobility. PeopleCar has built a structure that operates partner vehicles as various vehicle usage products, connecting them to major demand channels such as ToorooCar and KakaoT, as well as other external platforms.

The Fleet Commercialisation Platform does not involve owning or brokering vehicles. Instead, it connects nationwide rental car partner fleets via middleware and operates them as vehicle usage products tailored to demand. This allows rental car partners to increase the utilisation of their vehicles, while PeopleCar can expand transaction opportunities based on product operation and demand channel integration, without the burden of vehicle ownership. Users can also choose vehicle usage methods suited to their needs, such as round-trip, one-way, or contactless rental, creating an efficient structure for suppliers, platforms, and users alike.

Currently, PeopleCar's vehicle usage products are diversifying into round-trip car-sharing, ReturnFree (one-way), and contactless rental. The round-trip product caters to existing car-sharing demand, while ReturnFree absorbs one-way travel demand. Contactless rental is a product designed to meet short-term rental demand on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, selling vehicles from nationwide rental car partners through external demand channels by linking them via PeopleCar's middleware.

In particular, ReturnFree is a flagship product that exemplifies PeopleCar's fleet commercialisation platform strategy. ReturnFree converts vehicles during periods without round-trip bookings into one-way demand, addressing the downtime issue of traditional round-trip-focused car-sharing and improving vehicle utilisation efficiency.

PeopleCar is enhancing vehicle utilisation efficiency through its 'round-trip and one-way shared vehicle' operating model, which uses a single vehicle for both round-trip and one-way demand. As of April, these vehicles were used an average of 2.7 times per day per vehicle (compared to 1.1 times per day for round-trip-only vehicles), and a similar usage trend continued in May, which had many public holidays. This demonstrates that vehicle utilisation efficiency can be improved through product operation methods and demand channel integration without expanding vehicle ownership.

Customer repeat usage of ReturnFree is also high. ReturnFree users use the service an average of three or more times per month, indicating that ReturnFree has established itself as a high-frequency, lifestyle-oriented one-way product suitable for recurring travel purposes such as commuting, business trips, travel, and late-night journeys, rather than a simple one-off one-way travel product.

Going forward, PeopleCar plans to expand demand channels by linking with external platforms beyond ToorooCar and KakaoT, and to enhance its round-trip, ReturnFree, and contactless rental products to strengthen its asset-light-based product operation model.