Evaluating Carsharing Fleet Management Strategies Using Discrete Event Simulation: A Case Study

In a carsharing organization, vehicle availability is considered as a measure of the quality of service. This paper presents a discrete event simulation model to evaluate the performance of round-trip (return to the same station) vs. one-way (return to any station) fleet management strategies used by carsharing organizations. The proposed model evaluates the customer rejection rate for each fleet management strategy and recommends the one with the least number of rejections. A customer request is deemed to be rejected when a vehicle cannot be made available to the user at the requested time and location. A case study for the carsharing organization Communauto in Montreal is conducted. The simulation results show that the one-way model has a greater request rejection rate of 13%, compared to 8% for the round-trip model. Therefore, a round-trip strategy is recommended to Communauto for managing its current fleet operations.