(Last UPDATED 1/26/2023) Gig Car Share is leaving the Sacramento market. NEW: See Update below.
Original Post
Sacramento is now home to GIG Car Share – the largest all-electric car sharing service in the United States. NEW: See Update below re: Gig4Good.
The new all-electric free-floating GIG Car Share service, provided by AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah, is now available to Sacramento residents. Will free-floating car sharing become as wildly popular in Sacramento as JUMP bikes? Only time will tell.
See related blog post: JUMP Bikes – A Big Hit in Sacramento
I recently noticed several GIG Chevy Bolts parked in my neighborhood, and was very interested to find out more about them. As it turns out, that same day GIG Car Share and the City of Sacramento had representatives at the East Sacramento Improvement Association (ESIA) monthly meeting to brief the ESIA Board on the new service.
SacramentoRevealed.com – All Things Sacramento (from a personal perspective)
GIG Car Share HomeZone’s
GIG Car Share will allow Sacramento residents to pick up and drop off GIG cars within a 13 square-mile “HomeZone”. The Sacramento GIG website outlines the boundaries of the HomeZone in the following neighborhoods:
- Downtown
- Midtown
- East Sacramento
- Land Park
- Curtis Park
- Tahoe Park
Membership & Cost
There is no GIG membership or sign up fees – but members must be 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license. The GIG Car Share representative at the ESIA meeting mentioned that it takes only a few minutes when one first applies to check the applicants driving record before membership is approved.
GIG members only pay for the time that they use and GIG will always calculate the lowest rate – minute, hour or day. Rates are set at the lowest of:
- $0.40 per minute (up to $15)
- $15 per hour (up to $85)
- $85 per day
The minimum trip charge is $2.50 – and the price you pay includes charging, parking and Third Party Liability Insurance.
Two important rules to keep in mind:
- Trip must start and end within the HomeZone
- Park only in residential areas where permitted, metered spots that are 1+ hour and not otherwise restricted (watch out for street sweeping signs, etc.)
It goes without saying the one should carefully read the membership agreement so there is no misunderstanding about the responsibilities of membership.
I haven’t yet taken a GIG vehicle out for a spin – but it is on my list of “things-to-do”.
UPDATES
(1/26,2023) Gig Car Share is leaving the Sacramento market effective Tuesday, February 28, 2023. The operators cite “low demand and high operational costs” as the reasons behind the change.
Gig Car Share will continue to operate in the San Francisco Bay Area.
(10/3/2020) GIG Car Share is helping nonprofits via Gig4Good. Gig4Good provides qualified community-focused nonprofits cars at no cost for up to a week at a time. Sacramento nonprofits that have taken advantage of Gig4Good to date are:
- Feed Sacramento Homeless
- Rose Family Creative Empowerment Center
- Saint John’s Program for Real Change
- Solidarity of Unhoused People
- Stanford Settlement
Comments?
Do you see yourself using the GIG Car Share service? Or, if you have taken one for a spin what was your experience?
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I signed up as a Gig Car Share customer as soon as they launched in Sacramento in 2019 The entire fleet of their electric cars were poorly maintained and had chronic problems. I would make a reservation on the app and walk several blocks to the address where the car was supposed to be parked, but it WOULD NOT BE THERE. I would call the 800 number and be told “The app made a mistake”
On a chronic basis the Gig car would NOT TURN ON and malfunction – then 30 minutes on hold for Gig tech support to get it to start so I could drive it.
A massive problem with being completely unreliable
The other problem was a serious shortage of available Gig cars in the Midtown and Downtown area
The customer service center was always nice and polite but VERY BADLY RUN COMPANY
Great on paper but in reality it was a HOT MESS
I don’t miss Gig at all if it leaves town because their cars were completely unreliable
THE WORST PART OF THIS – TRUE STORY – a friend of mine rented a Gig car and was on the freeway with her three kids in the fast lane and the ENGINE STOPPED RUNNING – parts of the engine were falling out of the bottom of the car and flames were coming out of the front of the car ???? She was in the fast lane and terrified the Gig car would conk out in the middle of freeway traffic She was able to coast over to the exit lane and a miracle happened and she was able to have enough momentum from being in the fast lane at 65 mph to coast off the exit ramp – then the Gig car conked out and she was stuck downtown near the 5th Street exit off ramp.
My friend and her three kids could have been killed due to malfunctioning engine
I don’t believe “low demand” because 90% of the time I wanted to book a reservation THERE WERE NO CARS in the midtown and downtown area.
THREE MONTHS AGO for reasons Gig could not explain my entire account was disabled and I could not reserve a car I called the 800 number FIVE TIMES and they always blathered they would “investigate” the problem and reinstate my membership – but it never got solved. I just gave up on Gig and will not shed a tear they shut down service in Sacramento
IMHO the Regional Transit Smart Ride shuttle van service is a MILLION TIMES better than Gig car share – only $2.50 a ride and $1.50 for seniors and FREE if you have a RT monthly pass !!!! RT Smart Ride shuttle van is M-F from 7am to 9pm FANTASTIC SERVICE and a million times better than GIG
I did like using Gig when I had to do lots of errands and had a heavy load of merchandise to carry home that would be impossible to transport on the bus or lite rail train.
Gig looked good on paper but the fleet of cars was DEFECTIVE and badly maintained I always had a feeling it would flop and not surprised they shut it down in Sacto
Thanks for providing your real life experiences!