# A Tailored Pricing Strategy for Different Types of Users in Hybrid Carsharing Systems
## 4 Case Studies: Lanzhou, China
### Experiments and Results
#### 4.2.2 Efficiency of the TPS  
Table 6 provides indicators of the efficiency of the TPS. In Table 6, when users are clustered and offered a tailored price by the TPS, the profit is 11,209.96 \(\forall\) (14.48%) higher than the profit in the system without the TPS. In the meantime, the cost of all users is lowered with the application of the TPS. Eighteen extra parking spaces, eight more CSCs, and thirty-three more SAVs are needed when users are clustered. This phenomenon reveals that the increase in profit is highly connected with the expansion of the SAVs under this condition. The depreciation cost of sharing cars and the maintenance cost of the parking places increase too, while not much. It indicates that the carsharing operator can significantly increase the profit without investing too much. As for the users, the cost they need to pay is indeed getting more, especially for the users who choose SAVs, as these users do not need to walk to pick up cars or walk to destinations after the drop-off under the service mode of SAVs. In terms of the rental fee, it is higher for trips with SAVs than that of CSCs. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Indicators** & **TPS (\(\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{ \mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{\mathbf{ \mathbf{ }}}}}}}}}}}}}\)\) \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Carsharing operator} & Revenue & 88,602.79 & 77,392.83 \\  & Profit & 85,378.79 & 74,428.83 \\  & Depreciation cost of sharing cars & 768 & 588 \\  & Maintenance cost of the parking places & 2456 & 2376 \\  & Number of parking spaces for SAVs & 410 & 392 \\  & CSC & 132 & 124 \\  & Fleet size & SAV & 154 & 121 \\  & CSC & 39,873.56 & 36,854.75 \\  & Rental fee & SAV & 51,695.78 & 43,952.23 \\  & Walking cost of CSC users & 3100.23 & 3049.56 \\  & Waiting cost of SAV users & 2056.63 & 2049.56 \\  & All Users’ costs & 96,726.2 & 85,906.1 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: Performance of the hybrid carsharing system with or without the TPS. After the clustering, what is the reaction of each cluster of users? As shown in Table 7, it is evident that users of cluster 1 (loyal users) contribute a large proportion no matter in the CSC system or the SAV system. Users of cluster 2 (losing users) and 3 (potential users) are comparable. Compared with the losing users, the potential users can always bring more revenue to the operator while with the least other costs. All in all, loyal users are the key for the carsharing operator. They should retain this cluster of users as much as possible and try every effort to convert the other two kinds of users into loyal users. The variations of the price discount (\(p\)) during the studied period (6:00 a.m. to 24:00 a.m.) are shown in Figure 4a,b. When the TPS is not applied, the price discount directly equals the price divided by the maximal price (\(p_{ij}^{wh}=P_{ij}^{wh}/P_{ij}^{wmaxh}\)). Since there is only one type of user when TPS is not applied, \(h=1\). When the TPS is used, the price discount is calculated after weighted (\(p^{w}=\sum\limits_{h\in H}p_{ij}^{wh}*D_{ij}^{wht}\)). For example, the price discounts are 0.2, 0.8, and 1.0 for user cluster 1, 2, 3, respectively. Moreover, the number of trips that each user cluster accounts for is 0.6, 0.2, and 0.2, respectively. Then, the weighted price discount is 0.48 (0.6 \(\times\) 0.2 + 0.2 \(\times\) 0.8 + 0.2 \(\times\) 1.0). The red line means the price discount given to all users in the hybrid carsharing system without the TPS. For CSCs (Figure 4a) and SAVs (Figure 4b), the rental fee that the operator charges from users of cluster 1 (loyal users) is very close with the TPS or without the TPS. While for users of cluster 2 and cluster 3, the prices are much lower in the system with the TPS. It shows that the operator charges less for the users except for loyal users. As shown in Figure 4c, the number of carsharing trips in each time step is higher when the TPS is applied.