June, 2013 - Peg City Car Co-op

We’ve doubled our fleet and our membership is growing faster than ever. While carsharing is convenient and simple to use, sharing is also a responsibility. To make sure your sharing experiences runs as smoothly as possible, we’ve made a top 10 list of carsharing etiquette:

Always return the vehicle to its home parking spot

Each car has a permanent spot which it must return to when not in use. Once finished with a booking, members are required to return the vehicle to this spot so that it is ready for the next driver.

Fill up the gas tank

The price of fuel is included in the fees we charge for using the vehicles. We do our best to keep the vehicles filled up, but when a member uses a vehicle and the gas tank falls below a ¼ tank full, they are expected to stop and fill it up, either using gas cards provided or by paying for the gas and receiving a credit on their next invoice.

Don’t be late

We recommend that our members always book more time than they think they’ll need when using the vehicle. You can never know when traffic or other events can unexpectedly hold you up. While this rarely happens, there is a financial penalty for making another member wait.

If you are late, call

This is an easy solution to avoid being charged for another members ride. If a member is going to be late by 5 minutes, it is courteous to call Peg City Car Co-op to let us know, and we can let the waiting member know you are on your way.

Keep it clean

Members are expected to remove all belongings and/or trash they may have left in the vehicles. The vehicles are brought to the carwash on a regular basis, but it makes our job easier when the cars are left as tidy as possible between trips.

Report any damage

Dents and dings happen. Every once in awhile, vandalism also occurs. Members are held financially responsible for any damage that is caused to the vehicle due to their error during their booking. To avoid being inappropriately charged, members are instructed to do a full walk around before every booking and record any damage found in the log book.

Unless it is an emergency, try to phone customer service during office hours

We love to hear from our members and we are on call 24 hours/day in case of emergencies. Stranded with a flat tire? The previous user hasn’t returned the car on time? Call us anytime of the day or night.

However, we only have 2 permanent, part-time staff members, so when it isn’t an emergency, we appreciate when members keep their calls to regular business hours or send us an email (we are also available through Facebook and Twitter). It will save us from frantically answering the phone when in the movie theatre, having dinner with our parents, or in the middle of taking a shower (but we still always will).

In the winter, turn off all electronics

Carsharing in Winnipeg is a unique experience because of our cold winters. This includes the occasional dead battery. They are easier to avoid when all electronics are shut off — all radios, fans, and lights.

Drive smoothly

When you are driving a Peg City Car Co-op car you are representing this great co-op and all of its members. Follow all traffic laws and be a safe and responsible driver.

Tell a friend about the co-op!
We can expand our fleet and maintain our competitive pricing only as long as our membership keeps growing! So tell a friend, and get a $25 driving credit for every member that signs up base on your recommendation.

Back

We are pretty proud to say that 2013 marked our 3rd Bike to Work Day (BTWD) at the River and Osborne location! We officially launched on June 24, 2011 which also happened to be BTWD, so there is a pretty special history there for us. Two full years of carshare and over 150 members!

It is exciting every year to see the growing number of people who ride their bikes to work (even those just trying it out) and to have people stop in and say “hi!”, even if we are only one of 48(!) BTWD pit stops across the city.

A small recap of the morning:

We were up nice and early to catch as many cyclists as possible. That means setting up at about 6:15 am (yikes). However we were glad to see the rain had passed and the sun was coming up.

Then cyclists starting rolling in (pun intended). We had coffee for riders generously donated by Starbucks (River and Osborne location) and yummy doughnuts from Tim Horton’s.

We also offered cyclists 2013 Winnipeg Bicycle Maps and we were handing out $25 driving credits for any potential new members.

We got to meet and chat with a bunch of really cool people and some had really cool bikes, like this gentleman, who even let us ride his cargo bike!!! He was even kind enough to add one of our stickers to his bike.

All in all, it was a successful morning. We had about 30 cyclists visit over the course of 2.5 hours. We got to chat about cycling, walking, transit and carsharing. We even signed up a new member!