Popmove is a new car sharing service active in Rome: here's how it works and what are the prices of the rates
Thanks to a very apt marketing campaign all focused on the provocative slogan "Swingers wanted" everyone is talking these days about Popmove, the new car sharing service that offers something more, but also something less, than a simple car sharing.
Popmove is first of all an app for smartphones (both Android and iPhone) that allows you to start and end the car rental, register and make payments and find available cars in the area by looking at a map. With Popmove we can both pick up and rent a car, becoming Popdriver and Popmover respectively. At the moment the service is only available in the city of Rome, but Popmove claims to want to arrive in other major Italian cities in a short time.
What is Popmove
Popmove defines itself as "The first social mobility network". In reality, it is not a social network at all, but an advanced short-term rental system. If everyone can rent a car, becoming a Popdriver, not everyone can make it available and become a Popmover: only those who have rented a car with ALD (a company specializing in long-term car rental) can then make it available to Popdrivers. All Popmover cars, therefore, are cars of the ALD fleet already rented by someone else and a private citizen who owns a car cannot share it.
How Popmove works
To become a Popdriver and rent a car (from 1 hour to 29 days), you must download the app and register for the service by entering your credit card information. At this point, when we need a car, we open the app and search for it on the map. We choose it (i.e. we book it), we reach it physically and we open it with a tap on the smartphone screen. At this moment the rental and pricing begins. At the end of the ride we have to bring the car back to the same place (or at least close to it) where we picked it up, leave the keys in the dashboard and close the rental session, always through the app.
The advantage of Popmove compared to a normal car sharing is mainly in the fact that we can use the car to go anywhere, even abroad: there is no defined area within which we have to move, the only limit is the respect of the booking time.
The disadvantage of Popmove compared to a normal car sharing, besides the prices that are not low, is the fact that it is not "free floating": we have to bring the car back to where we took it, we can't leave it in another area of the city. Since Popmove is not technically a car sharing, moreover, its vehicles are not considered by law in the same way as public transport. So no exemption from the payment of the blue stripes, nor any possibility to travel on the lanes reserved for public transport.
How much does Popmove cost
The rental rates of Popmove depend on the type of car rented: they start from 6.
The rates depend on the type of car rented: starting from 6. 40 euros per hour for a small citycar (eg Peugeot 108), you go to 10 euros for a family car (eg Volkswagen Golf), 11.20 euros for a sports car (eg Audi A3) and up to 15.20 euros per hour for a luxury car (eg Jaguar XE).
In any case, the rate includes fuel, insurance, assistance H24 and the first 50 km traveled. From the 51st kilometer you start paying a fee of 25 cents (for city cars and family cars), 35 cents (for sports cars) or 50 cents (for luxury cars) for each kilometer driven.
How to become a Popmover
So far the information on how to rent a car with Popmove. But it is also possible, if we have a rented car with an ALD contract, to rent "our" car. In this case the advantage is a discount on the rental rate: if we give up our rental car for a few hours a day (for example during our working hours or at night) we can save something on the rental rate.