Car-sharing service WeCar urges UMass Amherst students, ‘Stop Bummin’ Rides’

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Enterprise Rent-A-Car said it is kicking off a “Stop Bummin’ Rides” marketing campaign to get the word out about its new WeCar car-sharing service at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The service at UMass Amherst launched Sept. 20, and WeCar’s Bay State debut comes as Hertz Corp., another rental car company, is making a push into the hourly car rental market dominated by Zipcar Inc., a Cambridge company that first began selling stock to the public earlier this year.

According to St. Louis-based Enterprise, its fleet of more than a million vehicles and its network of 5,500 traditional rental car offices give it an advantage over rivals in the hourly car rental market. Enterprise said it has more than 130 locations in Massachusetts, including two in Amherst, so it can quickly adjust the number of vehicles devoted to hourly car rental as demand at UMass warrants, the company said.

Members reserve a vehicle online, then access it using their membership card and return the vehicle to the same location where it was picked up, Enterprise said. For those who enroll as members, WeCar offers around-the-clock access to three vehicles on campus. The three WeCar vehicles are parked in the UMass Campus Center Garage, and are available during weekdays for $8 per hour and during the weekend for $9 per hour. Daily and overnight rates are also available.

The service is available to nonstudents as well as UMass students, Enterprise said.

Enterprise said it began offering hourly rentals in 2005 and got into the car-sharing business in 2007 as a natural extension of its traditional rent-a-car business. In 2008, its branded its new business as WeCar. Like Zipcar, WeCar sees college campuses as natural markets for car sharing. WeCar is in the process of launching operations on several campuses, and it expects to have a presence on a total of about 50 college campuses within a few weeks.

Family owned Enterprise also operates the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands. It reported revenue of $14.1 billion for its most recent fiscal year.