zipcar in 2007 founded 2000 headquarters seattle washington key people mark norman ceo j.j. millard cfo website flexcar.com flexcar was a for profit car sharing company the oldest and second largest in the united states behind boston based zipcar with which it merged in late 2007 . contents 1 overview 2 history 3 seattle 4 portland 5 see also 6 references 7 external links overview edit flexcar can date its origins to march 1998 when it s strategic business planning was started by flexcar cofounder & champion tracy carroll dave brook of car sharing portland conrad wagner of mobility switzerland and neil peterson former director of king county metro . flexcar itself was founded in january 2000 in seattle wa as a public private partnership with king county metro . spurred on by the company s excellent customer service and neighborhood champions flexcar expanded to los angeles san diego san francisco and san jose california ; gainesville florida ; rochester new york ; atlanta georgia ; pittsburgh and philadelphia pennsylvania ; tempe arizona it served phoenix in partnership with arizona state university ; baltimore maryland ; washington d.c. and columbus ohio ; and to varying degrees in their suburbs . in addition flexcar was partnered with the non profit i go carsharing service in chicago illinois . a flexcar on georgia tech s campus . flexcar members chose a rate plan and paid an annual fee . the fees covered gasoline insurance maintenance and cleaning . the vehicles were mostly late model sedans with other types such as light trucks hybrids convertibles and minivans also available . each vehicle had a home location a reserved space either in a parking lot or on a street typically in a highly populated urban neighborhood as well as in some markets on college or university campuses . members reserved a car by web or telephone and used a key card to access the vehicle . the reservation was required to specify the pick up and return time so others could schedule the vehicle . vehicles were returned to their home location . the company targeted people who made only occasional use of a vehicle as well as people who wanted occasional access to a vehicle of a different type than they use day to day . flexcar claimed that the service was economically beneficial to anyone whose car would normally be away from their home about 15 hours a week and did not need a car for their daily commute to work . in several of its cities the company had formed a public private partnership with a local public transit entity . for example in seattle they were partnered with king county metro transit which operates the area s buses . the company s advertising materials there said ride metro when you don t need a car . use flexcar when you do . history edit flexcar s strategic business planning members relations plans and branding was started in 1998 by the 4 cofounders of flexcar tracy carroll carsharing champion dave brook founder of carshare portland conrad wagner of mobility switzerland and neil peterson of king county metro . in january 2000 the flexcar service was launched to 100 members served by 4 cars in the capital hill neighborhood of seattle . through a public private partnership with king county metro flexcar became the second company in the united states to become completely carbon neutral in 2003 . the first company was shaklee corporation in 2001 . by developing a partnership with american forests flexcar ensured that enough trees were planted every year to offset the exhaust from its fleet of shared vehicles . a flexcar owned honda civic hybrid in its reserved parking spot . in august 2005 revolution llc the holding company owned by steve case founder of america online purchased a 60 % holding interest in flexcar . the company announced that this investment would lead to a rapid expansion of their operations . 1 in january 2007 flexcar notified the member base of dramatic changes in the billing structure of their hourly rental . doing away with their flat fee for set hour and unlimited mileage rates they announced the formation of a variable pricing plan which calculated cost on peak and non peak hours with mileage limited to 150 miles per day . members were notified on the organization s website and by letter that v ariable pricing provides two benefits . members with flexible schedules can now save money by reserving the car during its off peak time in this case on the weekend . because some members will shift their trips to off peak times the car s availability should also improve during its peak times as well . on 30 october 2007 flexcar executives announced a merger with car sharing rival zipcar . the merger consolidated the operations of the two corporations . executives from both companies in the announcement of the merger stated that the flexcar headquarters in seattle would be closed possibly resulting in the loss of jobs as operations transferred to zipcar s headquarters in boston . 2 seattle edit flexcar had 15 000 members in seattle about 2.5 % of that city s population . it had proven popular among those who live in downtown seattle or the nearby densely populated capitol hill and first hill . the company had also started an initiative to convince downtown seattle employers to join their program as business members rather than maintaining their own fleet vehicles . other market segments included placing vehicles at transit stations to provide last mile connectivity between transit and suburban office locations and providing subsidized vehicle access as part of low income jobs access programs . portland edit in april 2001 flexcar became the first car sharing company in the u.s. to expand to a second city by acquiring carsharing portland in portland . at the time flexcar s customer base in seattle included over 1300 members sharing 40 cars . carsharing portland which began business in march 1998 had at the time of its acquisition over 500 members with 25 vehicles in and around downtown portland . the last statistics provided by flexcar s website showed that the service in portland has grown to include over 130 vehicles including the pearl district old town chinatown ; close in eastside neighborhoods such as the lloyd district hawthorne and brooklyn ; and downtown vancouver washington . see also edit carsharing zipcar transportation in seattle transportation in portland oregon transportation in los angeles i go references edit cook john 31 aug 2005 . iacocca case sign on with flexcar . seattle post intelligencer . retrieved 22 dec 2005 . gates dominic 30 jul 2007 . seattle s flexcar merges with rival zipcar . the seattle times . retrieved 31 oct 2007 . external links edit archived official site seattle based flexcar acquires carsharing portland seattle s flexcar merges with rival zipcar v t e vehicle rental brands car rental ace rent a car advantage rent a car alamo rent a car auto europe avis rent a car budget rent a car carzonrent citer dollar rent a car enterprise rent a car europcar firefly hertz kemwel localiza national car rental payless car rental redspot car rentals rent a wreck sixt thrifty car rental taxiforsure meru cabs carsharing autolib autoshare buffalo carshare cambio carsharing car next door car2go city car club city carshare cityhop communauto vrtucar community carshare drivenow enjoy enterprise carshare evo car share flexicar flinkster getaround go op gocar goget greenwheels hertz 24 7 justshareit mobility carsharing modo momo car sharing mylescar reachnow rideshare delaware stadtmobil turo uhaul car share yourdrive zipcar zoom recreational vehicles bunk campers canadream cruise america wicked campers truck rental budget truck rental enterprise rent a truck hertz moving truck rental northgate penske truck rental ryder u haul united rentals defunct flexcar i go phillycarshare streetcar tilden rent a car whizzgo retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title flexcar & oldid 737637596 categories car sharingcompanies established in 2000companies disestablished in 2007defunct companies based in seattledefunct transportation companies of the united statestransportation in portland oregontransportation in seattletransportation in washington d.c. navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 4 september 2016 at 03 56 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . 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