A car when you need one, the bus when you don’t

Patricia Kelly tries out a flexible complement to public transport.

Left without a car after my beloved old banger spontaneously combusted, I decided that public transport and the occasional taxi would be good enough for me. But it soon became apparent that areas of Belgium that I occasionally wish to reach still require the personal use of a car.

Short of buying a car which would be driven in my case on average about once a week, the solution appears to be Cambio, a car-sharing scheme imported from Germany and operational in Belgium since 2002.

An added incentive to anyone who gets rid of their car is a series of offers from the Brussels regional government of free subscriptions to Cambio combined with free public transport and money towards a bicycle.

Cambio currently operates 200 cars in 13 cities throughout Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders. Of 5,000 customers in Belgium, 3,000 and me are based in the Brussels region, which is reflected in Cambio plans to open one station with a minimum of two cars every month in the region during 2008 as well as expanding existing stations.

There are several stations within walking distance of where I live and a choice of small city cars, vans, or large estate cars are available for hire for an hour, a day or a week at a time. Reservations are made on the web or by telephone and members are issued with a personal smart card which opens the car, giving access to keys and another card which pays for petrol. Fuel is included in the price and customers are urged to keep the car topped up as a courtesy to the next driver.

Cambio boasts well cared for and regularly maintained vehicles that are fully insured. The cars are kept on public streets in permanently reserved parking places with collapsible barriers to prevent alien cars from pinching the places (necessary only in Belgium: in law-abiding Germany the parking places need only a signpost to prevent other people parking in them).

One of the quirks of operating in Belgium is that three different companies have been established in each of the federal regions, making it slightly difficult to oversee a national operation when rules and regulations differ from one region to another. Project Director David Doumont insists that a prerequisite to the success of any car-sharing scheme is partnership with public transport. To this end Cambio is partnered with STIB in Brussels and De Lijn in Flanders and has co-operative agreements with TEC in Wallonia, all with vast networks of potential customers. Current figures suggest that 100 people are joining Cambio every month in Brussels; in Flanders the scheme adds 50 new customers every month. In Wallonia, the figure is put at between 20 and 30.

Cambio offers three categories of membership, Start, Bonus and Comfort. Start is the cheapest option and recommended as a try-out for new customers or for people who drive fewer than 60 kilometres a month. It offers a €33 one time registration fee with a €3.30 monthly charge and the cars are charged at €2 an hour plus €0.33 per km including fuel.

Bonus is recommended by Cambio as the best solution for most customers and Comfort for more frequent use and longer distances. Deals and packages are also available for businesses.

I am a recent member of the scheme and have used various cars for various journeys, including one for a two day trip to the UK which had to be reserved several days in advance. For most foreign trips and anything longer than a couple of days, Cambio says its otherwise reasonable tariffs are not economically viable and recommends their customers take a look at the deal it has forged with the Hertz car rental company - cheaper, apparently, than going to Hertz direct.

The Cambio clientele in Belgium, according to Doumont, is socially diverse with 65% of users aged between 35 and 65 - easy for them to calculate because we all have to produce ID cards and driving licences. Doumont says we range from the unemployed to the retired with a fair sprinkling of trades and professions in between. There is no age limit, but customers must have a driving licence valid for two years before they may join, which makes this scheme available to students and young people who may not be able or willing to buy a car.

• Patricia Kelly is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

Patricia Kelly tries out a flexible complement to public transport.