Servco unveils name for new car-share program

A new car-share program from Servco Pacific and Toyota will be called Hui, the Hawaii-based dealership group said on Tuesday.

Servco Pacific Inc., which owns and operates several car dealerships across the Islands and in Australia, announced the launch of its car-share program in cooperation with Toyota Connected North America last summer.

Hui recently completed its employee-only pilot test with Servco employees and is moving on to its next phase with a closed pilot test in Honolulu, according to a statement.

Once that phase has been completed, which will be around February, Hui will open the testing to members of the public in March.

Servco hired Honolulu-based marketing agency Anthology Marketing Group to develop the Hui brand name and logo.

“As most people in Hawaii already know, Hui means club, association, or joint ownership in the Hawaiian language and is often extended to imply community, partnership, or extended family,” Kim Randall, vice president of sales and marketing at Servco, said in a statement. “We felt these definitions, combined with the idea of ‘better together’ made Hui a name that perfectly embodies this shared mobility service.”

Hui will be all app-based, with users able to rent a car and unlock it through their smartphone.

Stanford Carr Development partnered with Servco to launch the service and will provide parking stalls in Kakaako for the program. Other partners include Kamehameha Schools, General Growth Properties, Hawaii Pacific Health, Foodland and Hawaii Pacific University.

The car-share program, which was originally set to launch in December, is designed to be a complement to bike share and public transportation options, Servco said.

Enterprise CarShare, currently the only car sharing provider in the state, launched its service in Honolulu in 2012.

Members of the public interested in receiving Hui updates and participating in the public pilot test around March should submit their email at www.drivehui.com.