We are a group of friends and neighbours in Hereford who collectively share a fleet of four vehicles. The St James and Bartonsham Car Club (SJBCC) has been running for over ten years, and our vehicles, with their distinctive logo, are a familiar sight in St James and around the city.

Our sister club, South Hereford Car Club, run another car based in the Belmont region of South Hereford: members of both clubs share access to each other's vehicles.

Why join a car club?

There are many reasons why sharing vehicles makes a lot of sense. Here are some of them:

Economic:

Sharing a vehicle is typically much cheaper than owning and running your own vehicle. There is no purchase cost or insurance to consider, and maintenance and servicing costs are shared between all the members of the club.

Environmental:

By sharing five vehicles among the forty or so members of the club, we avoid many more cars that would otherwise be on the road, consuming resources and parking space on our streets.

Social:

A community-owned car club like ours is a great way to meet friends and neighbours, and build and strengthen our local community. On a wider level, by providing an alternative to car ownership it also helps to redefine the role of the car within our society, redressing the balance away from the car as an individual status symbol, with all the negative social and environmental consequences that ensue from this, back to its rightful place as a utilitarian mode of transport.

Practical:

Some members rely entirely on the club for access to a car, while for others, the Car Club is a convenient and economic way to have access to a second car on occasions when this is necessary, or perhaps to have occasional access to a larger vehicle for special purposes.

How does the Car Club work?

• To join the Car Club there is an initial fee of £20. You then pay a monthly membership fee (currently £6). There is no extra charge for additional members of the same household.
• When you want to use a car, the first step is to book it for the time you require, using our online booking system.
• At the start of your booking, collect the car key from the keybox for that car. Usually the car will be parked near the keybox but if this has not been possible, the previous user will have put a slip of paper with the key showing where the car is.
• Before you set off, write down the time and date and initial mileage reading on the car logsheet (in a folder in the glove compartment)
• If you need to refuel the car during your hire, just write your name on the fuel receipt, and pop it in the logsheet folder.
• When you return the car, write down the time, date and final mileage reading on the logsheet. Return the key to the keybox, including if necessary a note indicating where the car is parked (if it is not visible from the keybox). (Slips of paper will be in the car for this - write it before you set off for the keybox).
• At the end of the month you will receive an itemized bill for all your uses of the cars. The bills are calculated based on both the duration of each hire period and the mileage. Any fuel receipts are deducted from your bill.

The Car Club runs on volunteer effort. As a member, you will be asked to contribute in some way: whether by participating in the regular cleaning rota, becoming a keeper or co-keeper for one of the cars, or taking on an administrative or committee role.

Who can join?

To be eligible to join the Car Club, you will need:

• to be 25 or over
• to have held a current full driving licence for at least two years. Learner drivers are not covered by our insurance.

If you are over 72 years of age, there will be an increased excess under the terms of our insurance policy; please ask for more details. Note that our insurers also require us to perform an annual licence check, and we will also need information on any past accidents, insurance claims or convictions.

The fleet

All our cars are checked monthly by their Car Keeper, and expertly serviced regularly by our friends at Foley Autos. They are all comprehensively insured (with a £250 excess), including full breakdown cover.

Charges

The overall charge for hiring a car depends on the duration of the hire, together with a mileage charge that depends on the distance travelled.

Hourly charges

Hourly rate	Hours used	£
First 4 hours: £1.60 per hour	1	£1.60
	2	£3.20
	3	£4.80
	4	£6.40
5th hour to 8th hour: £0.85 per hour	5	£7.25
	6	£8.10
	7	£8.95
	8	£9.80
9th hour to 24th hour: £0.35 per hour	9	£10.15
	10	£10.50
	11	£10.85
	12	£11.20
	18	£13.30
	24	£15.40

These charges repeat every 24 hours.

Mileage charges

The mileage charge for all vehicles is 24 pence per mile. This covers the cost of fuel, and is periodically updated to reflect changing fuel costs.

Example journeys

These are some costed examples of typical journeys (note that these include fuel, which is covered by the mileage charge):

Journey	Time (hours)	Distance (miles)	Cost
Going to the garden centre	2	7	£4.88
A day out in the Black Mountains	8	55	£23.00
A weekend in Oxford	48	160	£69.20
A week's holiday in Cornwall	7 days	500	£227.80

Contact us

To find out more please contact: enquiries@stjamescarclub.org