Performance comparison of reservation based and instant access one-way car sharing service through discrete event simulation

Abstract

A car sharing service has been highlighted as a new urban transport alternative for an environmentally friendly economy. As the demand for the service from customers increases, car sharing operators need to introduce a new service such as a one-way option that will allow customers to return the car to different stations. Due to the complexity of the one-way system, it needs to be managed and optimized for real cases. This paper focuses on developing a simulation model in order to help operators evaluate the performance of the one-way service. In addition, this research demonstrates a strategy for an open one-way service that can increase revenue and customer satisfaction. A real case dataset is used for investigation to find the best result from the simulation. The result showed that the total number of cars, number of one-way reservations and station size have an impact on one-way performance. Thus, company profit and customer satisfaction can be maximized by optimizing these factors.