A SOCAR zone at HD Hyundai’s headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, is seen in this photo provided by the South Korean conglomerate.
SEOUL, July 17 (Korea Bizwire) — As the paradigm of car use shifts from ownership to service, an increasing number of South Korean firms are embracing car-sharing services to minimize costs.
Car-sharing platform operator SOCAR Inc. has established some 4,800 SOCAR zones nationwide and deployed around 20,000 vehicles. This allows companies to utilize these vehicles for their employees’ business needs.
Since the introduction of a car-sharing service for corporate clients in 2019, SOCAR has witnessed nearly a threefold increase in the number of corporate users within a single year.
When multiple affiliates collaborate within a single headquarters and utilize car-sharing services jointly, integrated operations become feasible. This is because all affiliate employees can share a vehicle from a unified parking space.
Previously, there was resistance against the use of corporate-owned cars due to the complex and burdensome process of allocating vehicles based on departmental demand surveys and making car assignment requests.
In contrast, shared cars can be easily booked in real-time through an app, eliminating the need to involve the vehicle allocation department.
Unlike corporate-owned cars that require separate staff for management and maintenance, leading to increased fixed expenses, shared cars do not possess such drawbacks.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
