Car co-op revs up despite pandemic

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/07/2020 (2062 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the first cases of COVID-19 hit Manitoba in March, Peg City Car Co-op’s operations manager Philip Mikulec held his breath.

The nine-year-old vehicle-sharing organization was three months into its most ambitious year; its goal was to add 20 vehicles to its fleet by the end of 2020. But the novel coronavirus caused it to slam on the brakes after only eight cars were added to the rotation.

Trips made by car-share members dropped by 40 per cent in March, and 55 per cent in April. The remaining cars yet to be added were put under layup insurance and placed in storage. Mikulec was unsure when they’d ever hit the road.

“Then things started to pick up again,” he said Sunday. “It’s been a roller-coaster lately for every business, but for us, it’s been like whiplash.”

By June, as the number of COVID-19 infections in Manitoba began to decrease, Mikulec said expansion was back on the table.

The co-op added eight cars between June 15 and July 9, and expanded its network to include the Luxton and St. Johns neighbourhoods.

The fleet sits at 56, just shy of the end-of-year goal of 60. Against the odds of a few months ago, Mikulec expects to reach it.

Membership, which can cost as little as $4.50 per month as well as an up-front deposit, has also ticked upward since the pandemic began. “We anticipated shrinkage due to economic hardship,” Mikulec said. “We actually saw some growth.”

By July 12, the co-op had a net increase of 30 members, on pace to be the most successful month in its history in terms of net growth. (The highest net gain in a single month is 60).

Year-to-date, the co-op has added 140 new members, and is now up to 1,750 individual users.

“One day, we were worried our business would be compromised for months, and now we’re doing better than we ever expected we would,” said Mikulec, who said the lockdown gave the co-op a template for how to run should another shutdown be mandated if the virus makes a comeback.

When rides dipped in March and April, the co-op changed its cleaning schedule from once every 14 days to once every two or three days, using hospital-grade sanitizers in its vehicles. Since then, the frequency has changed to at least once every seven days, and drivers are asked to do some things like wiping down the steering wheel, while being urged to not use a car if they feel sick, Mikulec said.

He said users who have a compromised immune system can request their vehicle be pre-sanitized if they give 24 hours’ notice; bookings longer than 24 hours also guarantee a thorough pre-sanitization, he said.

In addition to Luxton and St. Johns, vehicles are being added to St. Boniface, the West End and Corydon. The parking spots for the new North End cars are at Pollock’s Hardware and Billy Mosienko Lanes.

“If we see an uptake in membership (in St. Johns and Luxton), we wouldn’t hesitate to add a third or fourth car,” Mikulec said. “We need early-adopters.”

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca