Happy Spring eGo CarShare friends!  We hope you are enjoying Spring in Colorado!

As a part of seasonal change, we’d like to update you on some exciting eGo CarShare changes to better serve you – our members.

In order to help us move into the future, eGo CarShare is happy to announce the addition of new leadership to our team. Recently, the Board of eGo CarShare announced the selection of Peter Krahenbuhl as our new Chief Executive Officer, and we couldn’t be more excited! But don’t worry, I’m not going away anytime soon. Peter will take over the executive management function as I move into a strategic operations role, while finally taking some much–needed personal time to spend with my family.

Peter brings extensive leadership experience in both the private and nonprofit sectors locally to globally in the fields of sustainability and travel. His knowledge, drive and experience will add significant value to eGo’s service to our community and members, while positioning the organization to face the unique challenges and opportunities in the new mobility market.

As a team, along with our awesome support staff, Peter and I are already off to a great 2017. We’re super excited about all of the new opportunities, announcements and community support that we will continue to provide in order to help our Colorado community live a more healthy, active, carbon-free and car-lite lifestyle!

And a special thanks to you, all of our members and community partners who have supported us since we launched in 2001! It’s because of you that we are one of only six communities in the United States that has a thriving local, non-profit carshare program.

-Karen Worminghaus, eGo CarShare co-founder

On October 25th, eGo CarShare held an event at the Pumphouse in Longmont to promote the benefits carsharing. Held in conjunction with Citizens for Open Space and Sustainability, the event featured a talk by Boulder County Commissioner Deb Gardner on the importance of sustainable communities to maintaining our way of life. New members who signed up that night received $35 in driving credit. A special promotion through the end of December is offering new members who reside in Longmont $25 in driving credit when applying online with promotional code LONGMONT$25.

With two cars in Longmont at 6th & Main St. and 287 & Pike Rd., eGo CarShare hopes to encourage more Longmont residents to take advantage of its affordable and convenient service. Gas and insurance are included in eGo’s rates, along with 24/7 access to a fleet of more than 50 cars and trucks at locations in Longmont, Boulder and Denver.

To see carsharing in action, please watch this video on the eGo CarShare YouTube page

Please join eGo CarShare on October 25, 2016 as we launch a new member drive in Longmont. With two cars in Longmont at 6th & Main St. and 287 & Pike Rd., eGo CarShare hopes to encourage more Longmont residents to take advantage of its affordable and convenient service. Gas and insurance are included in driving rates, along with 24/7 access to a fleet of more than 50 cars and trucks at locations in Longmont, Boulder and Denver.

eGo CarShare began serving Longmont in 2015 with a supporting grant from Boulder County’s Mobility for All program to provide additional  transportation options for low-income residents. Boulder County Housing Authority (BCHA) residents and Longmont Housing Authority (LHA) residents in Longmont receive free eGo memberships and discounted carshare usage rates. eGo is also currently offering new members from the general public $25 in driving credit with promotional code LONGMONT$25.

“We’re thrilled about launching a member drive in Longmont to bring new multi-modal options to residents here. CarSharing offers many benefits to the community of Longmont. As Longmont’s population grows, so will its demand for more transportation options,” said eGo CarShare’s Executive Director, Karen Worminghaus.

CarSharing coincides directly with the City of Longmont’s Multi-Modal Transportation Plan, with a vision to “develop and improve a safe, efficient, and convenient transportation system that provides viable mobility choices for all Longmont residents.” “We support carsharing as a viable alternative to owning a car in Longmont,” said Longmont Transportation Planner Phil Greenwald. eGo CarShare has worked with the Longmont Downtown Development Authority to help secure its downtown location in the parking lot off 6th & Main street. “We have been pleased to work with eGo CarShare to offer service in Longmont. It’s a convenient service that contributes to transportation options in Longmont’s downtown,” said Kimberlee McKee, Executive Director of the Longmont Downtown Development Authority.

Access to carsharing for the greater Longmont community integrates effectively with Boulder County’s RideFree Longmont program, which allows all of Longmont’s local buses to be free for anyone to use. “We are proud to support eGo CarShare’s member drive in Longmont. CarSharing fulfills a vital role in the  transportation options that are available to low-income and underserved populations, that are the focus of our Mobility for All program,” said Angel Bond, Mobility for All Program Manager, Boulder County Transportation.

*Media are invited to attend the following event!*

Date: Tuesday, October 25th, 2016

Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Location: Pumphouse Brewery & Restaurant 540 Main. St. Longmont, CO

What: Happy Hour to learn more about eGo CarShare in Longmont. Members of the public are invited to find out more about how eGo CarShare can help them lead a car-free or car-lite lifestyle. Event is being co-sponsored by Citizens for Sustainability and Open Space.

We hope you are enjoying our new system, particularly the enhanced mobile web site. If you haven’t already done so, we encourage you to review the various software tutorials we have posted recently on our blog.

Please familiarize yourself with the new billing process by logging into your account.

Once you are logged in, please click this link to see your current “Account Statement” to view current activity in August.  You may also click this link to see invoices from July 2016

We use a new real-time-billing (RTB) system to calculate the charges on your statement:

• The full cost of each trip (including actual mileage plus any additional fees and credits) should be charged to your payment card on file about 2-5 days after the end of each reservation.
• You can see the costs associated with each trip and the date of individual payment charges during the current month in the Account Statement screen.
• Toward the top of the Account Statement screen is an amount listed as “Processed Transactions Amount.” This represents the cost of all your recent trips for which we have received (‘processed’) billing data from your vehicle booking. Anytime this amount is more than $1 you can expect this amount to be charged to your card the next day.
• Occasionally you will see that some of your trip charges will be bundled together, as we don’t always get usage data needed for billing back from each car every day.

If you were charged for multiple trips on July 28th or August 8th:

• It took us a few days to get everything set-up in our new system and to transfer over all the account data from our old system, hence we couldn’t process most automated charges between 7/21-7/27, so they were processed on 7/28.
• There was another batch of trip charges from 7/29-8/7 that got bundled together and processed on 8/8.
• Going forward trip charges should be processed on a near daily basis, but occasionally you will see that some of your trip charges will be bundled together since we don’t always get usage data back from each car every day.

The last several weeks were very busy for us and our small staff worked long hours to make operations go as smoothly as possible. We greatly appreciate your patience during this big transition.

On July 20, 2016 we also launched a new mobile Reservation / Booking System!

Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting tutorials and helpful tips about both desktop & mobile versions of our new system.  We recommend using a desktop PC or Mac to verify your account information online.  If you need help getting started, please review the tutorial on our previous blog posting.

Click here to view our tutorial about How to Make a New Booking with the Mobile Website.

Once you feel ready to try it out, click here to login to the new system.