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Phillycarshare - marketing convenience and affordability
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Philadelphia, in addition to being the city of brotherly love ,except when it comes to our beloved sports teams; no love for the Yankees here, is also a city of neighborhoods. Philadelphians show great pride in their neighborhoods from South Philly , West Oak Lane, The Northeast , West Philly and beyond. We love the home team, no matter which one and I have the pleasure of writing about PhillyCarShare for their understanding of the neighborhood and technology. As many of my business partners know, Honda and I have departed ways over the untimely death (transmission problems) of the Honda Odyssey. Now my practical brain which bought all my cars - the Subaru, the Volvo and the Honda is losing the battle against the creative brain that has been steadily falling deeper and deeper for the gas guzzling, high maintenance but absolutely gorgeous Dodge Charger. While the two sides of my brain fight it out, Newman Networks joined PhillyCarShare.
From the website - PhillyCarShare is a non-profit organization that provides members with access to a fleet of vehicles on an hourly basis. Once you join the community you will get a personal key to hundreds of cars parked steps from your office and home. Affordable rates cover gas, major insurance, and even your ride on SEPTA rail. Drive Prius hybrids, Audis, pickups, wagons, minivans and more. Reserve online, hop in using your personal key, and go. About 2 weeks ago, Newman Networks took the plunge and signed up for our FREE registration as a phillycarshare member. After our membership was approved, we had to take an online e-learning course which taught the rules and responsbilities of phillycarshare membership. I actually had to take the test 3 times (only 100 was an acceptable score)! The first use of technology besides the web application was building capacity by conducting an on-line orientation (NICE!). The e-learning course is a system that was created once and used many times.
Phillycarshare uses an electronic key fob that is hard wired to the vehicle which unlocks the vehicle rented after the reservation time has started. For example, if your rental car is a Honda Prius at 34th and Market Street with the reservation starting at 5:30 PM - rentals are in 15 minute increments (how convenient!). Your key won't unlock the car until after 5:30 PM (another great use of technology!) Even though the technology is impressive, was impressed me was they had cars within a mile of my house in EVERY direction. Towards the east was a car at the 60th Street train station, to the north side there is a car at 69th street, towards the south, there are many cars between 50th street and 45th in Universitty city and even in the west part of my neighborhood there is a car at 56th and Christian. Only Philadelphians understand that Philadelphians don't want to travel outside of their neighborhood.
My neighborhood is special because all my needs from hardware (sorry Home Depot), to my credit union (go PFCU), to the uniforms for my children, to the cell phone store, to the cleaners, to the grocery store (go Shop-rite), to my favorite eateries (O.K South Philly hands down, you have the best restaurants) and most importantly, all my baby sitters are within blocks of my house. PhillyCarShare understood that concept and used it for their whole marketing campaign. They are using the marketing strategy of KISS - keep it simple stupid.
As a busy entrepreneur, mom and now college instructor, any thing that saves me time is worth the price. My reservation was over at 10:00PM. I left my house at 9:45 PM, dropped books off at my future babysitter (I start training them early) and dropped the car off with 5 minutes to spare! Yes, Phillycarshare costs more than the Enterprise, Hertz and Avis but when I rent from PhillyCarshare, there is no need to have a second car to take me to the car rental or pick me up from the car rental location. Phillycarshare is in my neighborhood!
By the way, I could not finish this article until, I reserved my car for Monday morning. I have been through three SEPTA strikes already and now we are bracing for the next one on Sunday, November 1st! Gotta love this town!
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