Enterprise’s WeCar coming to campus

The university is in negotiation with Enterprise Rent-a-Car to bring their WeCar car-sharing program to campus in November.

The program was chosen over other comparable programs because Enterprise will maintain the cars.

“We are trying to fast track it,” said Robert Hailey, associate vice president for student affairs. “The main reason we are not bring Zip Car is because we would have to maintain our own vehicles.”

University officials said they will initially acquire three hybrid cars. The service will be open to students who sign up. Hourly rental costs include all of the expenses normally associated with car use.  

“Enterprise is going to come in and give everybody membership packets,” Director of University Services Kelly Carroll said. “[Membership] includes gas and insurance.”

Carroll said her office is working to partner with Loyola University, which was looking to institute a similar program.

“We are trying to work out the parking of the vehicles,” Carroll said. “We don’t know if we will park all three here or in their Freret Street garage. We would like to keep all three in the same place to avoid confusion about where to bring the cars back.”  

Members will be able to reserve cars online. At the designated rental time, they can enter the car using a special access card. After retrieving the key from the glove compartment, they can drive the car, returning it to the designated parking spot at the end of the rental period. 

The program is being instituted in response to requests from students.  The university already has agreements in place with Enterprise allowing students who are under 21-years old to rent cars.

“As we get feedback from the Tulane community, we look to our existing partners to see if they can fill that need,” Carroll said. “We have also had a lot of requests for a mid-week grocery shuttle, and we hope this fills that need.  The cost of running those shuttles is extremely expensive.”

Students said they think the hourly rentals could be a good alternative form of transportation. 

“A lot of people, myself included, need the convenience of a car occasionally, but might not use it quite enough to bring it from home and pay the steep parking fee,” sophomore Elizabeth Derrick said.

The cost of rentals is not yet available because the university is still in negotiations with Enterprise.