Zipping Along!
It's been a while since I posted anything here but I'm back again to promote my favorite company. No, not Apple. It's Zipcar!
There is talk of bringing in Zipcar locally and I'd like to do my part to encourage that. Since I wrote my previous posts about Zipcar, when Tom was a member, Michael and I have joined ourselves. We find it useful enough to pay the $75 annual fee (which covers both of us; it would be $50 for just one) even with no Zipcars in our local area. Here are my favorite things about Zipcar, in no particular order:
- I have a car waiting for me in many major cities around the country and the world! Zipcar is all over the place - Boston, Portland, New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, DC, London....the list goes on. If I fly to any of these cities for business and find I'd like to explore beyond the environs of the conference hotel for an evening or an afternoon, I just go online, find a car within walking distance, reserve it and off I go!
- I can rent by the hour! I may only want that Zipcar so that I can get to a restaurant on the outskirts of town with no easy route via public transportation. Sure, I could take a taxi there and back, but the Zipcar, at prices like $7/hr for a Prius in Boston, can be lots cheaper than two taxi rides. And I don't need to tip the Zipcar.
- Insurance is included! No more feeling like I'm being ripped off at the car rental agency. Insurance is included, with a $500 deductible. Some credit cards will cover that deductible, or Zipcar now lets you buy a waiver to cover it if you like, but there's no sales clerk pressuring you to do so.
- Gasoline is included! If you need gas during your trip, you use the gas card in the car at the pump. If you find yourself somewhere where the gas card isn't accepted, just pay for the gas and Zipcar will reimburse you. I've done it both ways, and it works. You get a set number of miles you can drive per day - I think it's in the region of 180 now - with gas and insurance included. If you go over this number, Zipcar will charge you a per mile rate which is quite reasonable.
- A car when I want it! I don't need to plan ahead to get the best rate. The rate is the same whether I reserve months ahead or minutes ahead. So if I don't know that I need a car until moments before I need it, no problem. I can use my iPhone to check nearby availablity, reserve for right now, head over to the car, wave my magic Zipcard at it and drive away. The whole transaction hardly takes longer than it would if I owned the car and it was sitting in my driveway.
- A new car every day! I don't love driving, by any means. So if I have to drive, I'd like to have the most fun possible and what could be more fun than a new car? With Zipcar I don't have to drive the same car every day. I get to pick from any of the cars near me - or any I'm willing to walk or otherwise make my way to. I can drive a Prius one day, a BMW another, a Mini Cooper the next. I haven't seen any Smart Cars on Zipcar yet, but when that happens I'll be all over it!
If I've convinced you, click the Zipcar link on the right to sign up. We'll both get $25 free driving credit!
