Zipcar, World's Largest Car Sharing Service, Races Ahead With New Web Reservation Technology and Fleet Optimization System

Builds patent-pending technology to create unprecedented solution for managing dynamic network of vehicles and users

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 13 -- Zipcar, the world's largest car sharing service, today unveiled the redesign of its web-reservation and patent-pending "Z3D Knowledge Center." As the most ambitious and significant upgrades in the company's history, these enhancements allow Zipcar to strengthen its award-winning membership experience while preparing to scale its service in existing and new markets.

The web-reservation redesign follows Zipcar's "member first" philosophy, and was completed based on member feedback, including 30,000 survey responses, one-on-one meetings, and usability testing at various stages of development. The result is a completely enhanced system that allows members to find and reserve vehicles two to five times faster than the previous version. Members will experience:

   - Simple Usability: Targeted search results with one-click reservation
     option that includes a single reservation confirmation review page
     featuring vehicle photo, reservation time, reservation cost, location
     maps, instructions, and applicable policies.
   - Intuitive Design: Unique use of Ajax technology allows members real-
     time interaction with ever-changing vehicle availability resulting in
     click and drag functionality for changing reservations "thermometer."
   - Quick Reservations: Available cars and the estimated costs of a
     particular reservation are viewable in a single browser window,
     allowing users to quickly scan available vehicle choices by location,
     time and price.

The new reservation system is supported by Zipcar's "Z3D Knowledge Center" that hosts all data in real time and synchronizes it with data collected from each end point: interactive telephone systems, vehicles, member service agents, regional employees, and the new web-reservation system. The Knowledge Center then uses patent-pending, unique caching to push the synchronized data out to each end point in the most efficient manner. This upgrade enables Zipcar to better manage, monitor, and maintain its vehicle fleet as well as plan and optimize fleet size and future vehicle locations. Other benefits include:

   - Support Global Expansion: "Z3D Knowledge Center" is capable of
     delivering a world-class online experience for up to one-million Zipcar
     members and supporting tens of thousands of vehicles, globally.
   - Increase Self-Service: Targeted search results are expected to lower
     reservation abandonment rate and reduce reservation assistance calls.
   - Improve fleet yield management: By applying proprietary business rules
     to the synchronized data, the Z3D knowledge center provides Zipcar with
     location-specific vehicle deployment needs.

"With this launch, we are now prepared to support tens of thousands of cars and hundreds of thousands of members throughout the world by presenting them with an efficient and intuitive reservation and service experience," said Scott Griffith, CEO of Zipcar, Inc. "The upgrades to our Knowledge Center and backend systems are based on the experience of processing 1.5 million reservations, and we are confident that they will allow us to intelligently manage our growing fleet while providing an easier and faster user experience for our members."

Zipcar's technology leadership and commitment to providing the industry's premier membership experience has fueled the company's 100%+ growth for each of the past three years. Zipcar currently operates in London, England and 13 states and provinces in North America, serving more than 85,000 individual and business members with 2,500 vehicles. In the past 18 months, Zipcar has launched, and seen rapid growth, in six new markets: London, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Minneapolis and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

About Zipcar

Zipcar is a leading urban lifestyle brand that provides an alternative to car ownership to more than 85,000 consumer and business drivers worldwide. By providing urbanites with hourly and daily access to fun, affordable, and conveniently-located vehicles, Zipcar has grown to be the world's largest and fastest growing car sharing service, currently operating more than 2,500 vehicles in London and 13 North American states and provinces, including metropolitan, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington, DC. With Zipcar's award-winning technology, accessing and using a Zipcar is as easy as getting cash from an ATM. In minutes or up to a year in advance, members can reserve Zipcars online or by phone, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Zipcar members have automated access to any Zipcar across North America and the United Kingdom using a "Zipcard" to simply unlock the door and drive away. For more information, visit www.zipcar.com.