A big part of what makes Streetcar attractive to its members, says Akker, is that the car doesn’t feel like a rental. The Golf was chosen as result of focus-group input before the service launched. Of eight possible choices, the Golf was identified as the vehicle people would be most likely to give up their own car for. Akker points out that it’s fairly “classless” – smart enough for business and perfect for the weekly shop. “A lot of members think of the car as their own,” says Akker, and it’s this illusion of ownership which removes the option of branding on the vehicles.

“We’re fully aware of the marketing trick we’re missing by not branding them up,” he adds. “It’s a debate we’ve had on a daily basis from day one, but it’s just not what our members want. They use the cars for first dates, business or things like weddings, and given that 50% of our membership comes from word of mouth, we need to keep them happy.”

It’s a different story with the company’s Streetvans, however. People don’t tend to use these for weddings, and any prospective romantic interest probably wouldn’t be too impressed if you turned up in one on a first date. As a result, the vehicles act as their own billboards as they do the rounds to and from various Swedish flat-pack furniture outlets.

Driving growth

In March 2007, Streetcar took on £6.4m from Smedvig Capital. The funding has been key to the company’s significant expansion over the past two years. The investment also saw Sir Trevor Chinn come on board as chairman. Chinn, a former managing director of Lex, which acquired RAC under his leadership in 1999, has more than three decades of experience in the motor industry. He has also spent time on the boards of both The AA and Kwik-Fit.

“Trevor has been fantastic,” says Akker. “He contributes an awful lot and we have monthly meetings with him. I wouldn’t say he’s changed our direction in any way, but he has focused us even more on customer service – an area that was key in all of his own businesses. He saw, as we did, huge potential in an idea that was at the start of its growth curve, and he was excited at how far it could go.”

Streetcar’s growth, both in terms of vehicles and area coverage, has involved careful planning. The density of the network is key. There must be enough cars in one location, so that if a member’s usual vehicle is booked out, there’s another close by. After saturating the Clapham area, the service moved across the Thames to Fulham and has since introduced pockets of cars across Greater London. Of the 1,300 Streetcar vehicles on the road, 1,200 are located in the capital.

The first foray outside of London was Brighton, in 2005. The city was picked as it had many of the properties that made London such a good fit – a dense population and a good enough transport network for members to make the majority of their journeys on. The same factors are currently being identified in other cities as Akker and Valentine eye up international expansion.

However, the company’s recent focus has been on the business-to-business (B2B) sector, where revenues have risen to 10% in the past 18 months, and more than 2,000 companies have accounts with Streetcar for Business. “We introduced a specific B2B sales team as it’s a massive growth area for us. We wanted to make sure we had the right mix of members using the cars at all times, as the majority of residential use is at evenings and weekends.”

Bold targets

Streetcar hit profitability in May 2008 and has a current run rate of £18.5m for this financial year. An initial public offering (IPO) has been on the cards for some time, but the focus now, Akker says, is growth both at home and eventually overseas. “We’ll look at an IPO when it makes sense to,” he says. “It will largely be dictated by the market, so there’s no timescale set in stone.” He’s also confident the company can reach 250,000 members by 2012, which would more than treble current levels. Given that the service has appealed to people both on a financial and conceptual basis from the outset, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the business has a good chance of hitting its targets.

“When we started, we had members sign up that could have bought the company outright with their personal wealth, but they were just so taken by the idea,” says Akker. “People have sold their Ferraris and joined Streetcar.” Perhaps that has more to do with the supercars being notoriously prone to breaking down, or a growing distaste for overstated displays of wealth. Whatever the reason, Akker and Valentine seem to be enjoying Britain’s waning desire for owning their own wheels.