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Our cars are available to pick up from Oxenholme, Windermere, and Penrith train stations. The vehicles are located either at the station car parks or very close by.

• Oxenholme station is on the West Coast mainline with direct routes only 3 hours from London. Oxenholme, the Lake District provides a convenient first hope off point to access the Lake District. It is situated near Kendal, well worth a night or two either at the beginning or end of your trip to the Lakes.
  Vehicle: 2 Toyota Yaris Hybrids – located at the top of the entrance road to the ticket office, just outside the main station car park on the southbound side of the station.
  
  
• Windermere station is located on the Lakes Line, simply jump on a connecting train from Oxenholme and be in the Central Southern Lake District in no time! From here on, use the Co-wheels car to explore the splendor of the Lake District National Park.
  Vehicle: 1 Toyota Yaris Hybrid – located on the opposite side of the car park, adjacent the station entrance.
  
  
• Penrith is a bustling Market Town, on the north east corner of the Lake District. The station is also on the West Coast mainline with direct routes from London, just like Oxenholme. Use Penrith as a great convenient start and finish point providing easier access to the Northern Lake District such as Ullswater, Keswick and Borrowdale. Our car is located in the car park right at the station entrance.
  Vehicle: 1 Toyota Yaris Hybrid – located in a designated bay at the entrance to the station car park.
  
  

All of these vehicles have the capability to carry two roof-mounted cycles (bike rack keys are in the glovebox). So you can either bring your own bikes, or hire bikes locally when you arrive. The Lake District and Cumbria have fantastic networks of cycle ways, both on- and off-road.

Using cars in a smarter way

Co-wheels provides businesses and organisations in the private sector with a greener and more cost effective travel solution:

• No need for pool cars with associated costs, and reduced reliance on taxis

• Reduce parking pressures on site

• Eliminate admin for business mileage claims

• Enable staff to travel to work by more sustainable modes, knowing there is a car available if needed.

• One-off joining fee for access to cars in 60 locations across the UK.

How it works

SMEs can sign up for a business account with Co-wheels. Once registered, staff members can sign up as drivers under the account.

This gives staff their own smartcard and ability to log in and book cars as needed on the online system.

Trips taken by drivers are charged to the main account, and a breakdown of bookings by driver is provided at the end of the month.

Business Brochure	Staff Driver Brochure	Business Rate Card

Membership

Organisations can sign up for a one-off joining fee of £20.83. There is no monthly ongoing charge or minimum spend.

Additional drivers can sign up to an account for £10.

All drivers also qualify for free personal membership to Co-wheels. This means bookings for both work and private use can be managed under the same log in and with the same smart card.

Co-wheels can provide fleet management solutions for organisations and businesses in the private sector, enabling a unique interaction between travel modes.

The system gives users options for planning business activity. In particular, it encourages active travel and lessens the need for commuting by car. The use of telematic technology allows fleet resources to be shared between corporate travel, private use by staff members and the general public.

NHS

Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust	North Bristol NHS Trust	Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Rotherham, Doncaster, and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust	Sirona Care & Health (St Martin's Hospital)

Social Care Providers

Bristol Community Health	Second Step	Turning Point

Housing Providers

Barratt Homes	GreenSquare	HAB Housing

Local Authorities

Aberdeen City Council	Bath & North East Somerset Council	Bristol City Council
Cumbria County Council	Dumfries & Galloway Council	Durham County Council
Salford City Council

Universities

Abertay University	Bournemouth University	Bucks New University
Newcastle University	Oxford Brookes University	University of Cumbria
University of Dundee	University of the West of England

Other

Avon Fire & Rescue

Co-wheels is the only independently-owned national car club, providing low emission, hybrid and electric cars on a pay-as-you-go basis for organisations and communities across the UK.

Operating as a Social Enterprise

Trading as a social enterprise means a commitment to improve society and environment. Our primary focus is to help our members to save money, reduce car ownership and create a cleaner environment by making lower impact transport options available to everyone. Because Co-wheels is a Community Interest Company, we reinvest profit into our operations to expand and improve the service. 

The Social Enterprise Mark shows that we are annually and impartially assessed against transparent criteria for social enterprise, all upheld by the independent Certification Panel.

Community Car Club Network

Co-wheels now delivers car clubs in over 60 locations across the UK. We have a diverse range of operations, from city centres to villages. Some of our car clubs are used by local authorities and universities as pool cars for staff, whilst others focus entirely on being shared cars for local residents. We encourage local ownership of our operations which are sometimes run as community car clubs or as one of our social franchises.

Innovation

The Co-wheels team look to create opportunities for innovative projects:

• Continually seeking ways to partner with local and national transport operators to integrate our services.

• Introducing electric vehicles wherever possible; ensuring they are accessible and appealing by introducing a zero mileage fee.

• We are pioneering electric bike hire for employees, with our public access e-bike hire scheme in Bristol.

• We are the first and only car club to introduce Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles into our fleet.

Social and environmental impact

Measuring our impact is important for internal bench marketing, and to demonstrate our impact on society and planet to our partners and investors. Co-wheels produces an annual Impact Report which outlines what we have achieved.

Co-wheels Impact Report 2015

Rates and Pricing

Posted by · April 01, 2014 2:37 PM

How much does it cost to hire a car?

Posted by · April 01, 2014 2:08 PM

How much does it cost to join?

Posted by · April 01, 2014 8:51 AM

Oxford leads the way for shared electric cars

Posted by Rebecca Townend · July 02, 2019 7:00 AM

Co-wheels launches new electric car fleet in Bristol

Posted by · May 29, 2019 6:08 PM

Co-wheels joins forces with European mobility provider

Posted by Rebecca Townend · April 10, 2019 12:32 PM

Co-wheels works with universities across the UK to bring smarter car access to students, staff and their local communities.

A Co-wheels car on campus can:

• Encourage staff to commute sustainably by bicycle, walking, or public transport
• Reduce car parking pressure
• Allow facilities and estates teams quick and easy access to transport
• Promote greener travel choices and students and staff
• Simplify and reduce mileage claims
• Eliminate the hassle of pool car management

Students

Co-wheels allows students the freedom of car travel without the hassle of car ownership. We have low hire rates and an excellent insurance policy to enable smarter journeys away from home. To qualify for student membership, you just need to have held a full driving licence for a minimum of 12 months - there's no joining fee, and you'll receive £10 of driving credit when you join. Co-wheels terms and conditions are much more favourable for young people than other car clubs so we can offer a great service to students.

To find out more, please visit our Students page.

Electric vehicles

Universities are at the cutting edge of education and innovation, and electric vehicles are being increasingly recognised as part of a low-carbon future.

We are working with several universities to provide affordable, pay-as-you-go car hire in convenient, easy-to-access locations for local communities.

Co-wheels has implemented a large number of car club services linked to residential developments.

Co-wheels has the largest geographical spread of the UK car club operators which gives us experience of working in variety of settings. The Co-wheels team works in partnership with:

• Property Developers
• Housing Associations
• Local Authorities

We find solutions to meet planning obligations relating to Section 106 and support location travel plans. Having a car club is a very attractive incentive for many people today who do not own their own personal car. This is especially true when marketing properties with limited or costly private parking for residents.

We offer a bespoke package to each Developer to fit the specific requirements of the site. Our service will establish the best locations, car types and promotional activity to ensure the car club is a success. Having 60+ operations across the UK increases the opportunities for linking residential schemes to community car clubs and for establishing local partnerships.

Social Benefit

Our social enterprise status makes us an ideal partner for housing associations and community housing schemes. We can also provide a community franchise service to support local initiatives.

Co-wheels has developed a specialist telematic fleet management service for local authorities 

Over 20 local authorities now use the Co-wheels service as an alternative to grey fleet for delivering services. The Co-wheels solution provides a flexible approach to meet the needs of the organisation.

• Fleet Management System - telematic unit, software system and helpdesk only
• Intermediate Fleet Management Service - as above with fuel card and insurance provided
• Full Fleet Management Service - car, insurance, fuel, servicing, telematic unit & software provided

The system provided by Co-wheels allows fleet cars to be accessed and managed remotely. There is no staff time needed to allocate keys or collate information. Detailed reports of use are provided which allow organisations to manage staff travel effectively. The system allows vehicle resources to be used to maximum efficiency.

Large fleet - Maximum benefits

Recent contracts with Cumbria County Council and Durham County Council have transferred large local authority pool car fleets on to the Co-wheels telematic management system. 

A report conducted for Aberdeen City Council by the Energy Saving Trust concluded that the use of the Co-wheels service resulted in an annual saving of £40k and helped introduce electric cars to the city (see below).