Car-sharing service with full-service app offered at Tripla

People use their cars on average less than an hour a day, and the annual cost of owning a car is significant. With NF Sharing, residents pay only according to how much they use the car.  Maintenance, inspections, tire changes and seasonal cleaning are taken care of as a service. The car has a reserved parking spot and charging point in the garage of the building.

No key required – car doors open with an app

Etteplan has designed and implemented a software solution for managing and reserving vehicles. The digital self-service app consists of back-end systems, a web user interface and a mobile app. The app is also used to make payments, predict the need for maintenance and open the vehicle’s doors.

The housing company manages the service and the user rights via the web user interface. The service allows the rules to be tailored to the needs of each housing company: how often a reservation can be made and for how long.

The residents use a mobile app to reserve and use the car. Keys are not needed, which makes using the vehicle and changing users easy. A user’s reservations and driven kilometers are easy to see in the app. The app can also be used to report breakdowns and damage and to contact customer service.

“We have been using the car three times and are really happy with the service. We sold our own car before our move, so this is a great value-added service for our living comfort,” says a resident about the service.

NF Sharing app benefits companies and the environment

The car-sharing trend is evident in the corporate world, where the flexibility of car use is being expanded to new dimensions. The NF Sharing service created by Etteplan for NF Fleet is also the answer to the changing needs of corporate driving, as companies seek efficiency and a high level of availability for their company cars.

“NF Sharing is a kind of car-sharing service for the corporate world, whereby work teams can use a shared car for business and coordinate its use via the mobile app. The NF Sharing service puts a company’s fleet of cars to more efficient use and offers the company clear cost savings and a real-time utilization rate report. In addition, car sharing is a more environmentally friendly choice,” says Mikko Viskari, Head of Technology, Cloud and Applications at Etteplan.

The app can be used to manage and reserve several vehicles. Companies can also allow the cars to be used outside of working hours, with separate invoicing, if so desired.

A user-friendly service – IoT technology predicts maintenance needs

NF Sharing works with a mobile app that is used to reserve the required vehicle. The car can be easily reserved and returned to a place indicated on the map, and keys are not required. The app is used to open the car doors, and the car is started by pressing the Start button.

In the NF Sharing service, costs are distributed electronically in an automated process. The service frees up time in the company that would otherwise be spent on laborious accounting, since the service eliminates the need for separate travel expense receipts or kilometer allowances.

The driver only has to take care of tanking up or charging the car, as the smart IoT technology predicts the need for maintenance. The service user can focus on driving, as NF Fleet takes care of all maintenance measures and seasonal cleaning. Users can easily keep track of their driving kilometers, and in private use, too, they only pay for their actual use.

Etteplan’s design team created the user interface with many types of users and usage requirements in mind. NF Sharing was primarily designed for business driving, but the Plus service also enables private use during an employee’s leisure time, for instance, for a weekend trip. In the app’s reservation calendar, periods can be designated for business driving and for leisure-time use. There is also a group of users who work in support roles and have different needs.

“For example, the functions required by maintenance are hidden from other users, which allows residents to enjoy simple driving. Car sharing presents its own challenges compared to traditional driving, but thanks to good design, an easy-to-use service has been created,” says Viskari.

The following technologies are employed:

Frontend: React Native, React, Redux, Material-UI, Firebase

Backend: Microsoft Azure, ASP.NET Core, Azure SQL, Notification Hubs, Azure Maps, Application Insights, Key Vault, Blob Storage

Go to a press release on the topic

The NF Sharing app is available on: