Vancouver Co-operative Auto Network Stiffens Penalties for Lateness

Even with a baby I find most of the time we can get by without a car in Vancouver. We're pretty well served by public transit. I can leave the front door and within a couple of minutes be at a bus stop which can whisk me off to another part of the city. Okay, "whisk" sounds a little too glamorous - most of the time you are usually hanging around at a bus stop for a while, before being loaded into a packed bus and deposited at another bus stop to connect to another bus that will get you close to where you want to go. If you're lucky you might get a seat on one of those buses. But, for us, it's fine for short trips.

Plus the Broadway to Commercial Skytrain is a ten minute walk, or three minute bus ride away. I can be from my doorstep to a downtown cinema (my most common Skytrain trip) in 15 minutes where by car it'd be at least twice that after parking is taken into account.

We can walk or cycle to shops, cafes, bars, restaurants, polo courts within minutes.

But every now and again, we need a car: to go to Whistler, to visit relatives in White Rock, to move heavy loads, to pick up and drop off family/friends and their heavy luggage from Vancouver airport.

Of course, I'd rather be using public transit - there was once an excellent passenger train service to Whistler (which I will reminisce about later) and while I like the new Canada Line, the money would have been better spent building up the rail network to the Fraser Valley. Instead, the BC Government is in the midst of a huge highways and road bridge expansion scheme called The Gateway Project.

For my, ahem, private vehicle needs I've been using The Vancouver Auto Network, which after the initial rigmarole of registering is really pretty convenient.

There are many benefits: a fleet of cars to choose from (from Ford pick-ups to Mini Coopers), free parking in permit zones anywhere in the city (bar UBC), cost savings from not owning the cars, BCAA and mechanical services included in membership, and so on.

One draw back is, as always, convenience. We have 3 cars near us but each is about 10 minutes walk away. Not bad, but they need to be really under 5 minutes away. Presumably the more people that sign up, the bigger the fleet of shared cars will get.

But the hard bit is timing. When you take out a car you book the car for an alloted time slot. If you don't have the car back in time and someone is booked after you then you are liable for the costs of a taxi or a rental car that the other driver incurs because of your lateness. This adds a certain rigidness to planning (you can book extra time via phone/web but not if someone is already booked in after you which happens at busy times).

In the 2 or 3 years that we've used the Car Co-op we've never been called on this lateness rule, but clearly the Co-op sees it as a problem as it is introducing (just in time for the Olympics) a new policy of a straight fine of $25 on late returns.

In the latest Co-op newsletter the new Late Returns policy is explained thus:

"Returning a vehicle late causes problems for The Car Co-op and the next member(s) needing to get somewhere by a certain time. It's just not fun, and can be an incredible inconvenience, to expect you'll have a vehicle at a certain time only to find an empty parking spot when you get there. All of our drivers deserve to have their booked vehicle parked in the right place and in good working order for the time booked. To mitigate the administration and extra transportation costs (e.g. taxis) associated with late returns and shuffling bookings around, the late fine will be changing to a flat $25, effective February 1, 2010. That's $25 each time someone is late, with a $5 credit going to the inconvenienced driver. Remember that there is no grace period - when you book a car until 5 p.m., you are promising to be done with the car by 5 p.m., no matter what."

A cynic might argue that it is introducing more punitive measures so that people will book a cushion of extra time for peace of mind thereby boosting Co-op revenues.

The Coop is also clamping down on electronic fobbing. Every driver has a small, plastic grey fob which you can attach to a keyring. You swipe a little white box on the dash with this thing that looks like an oversized guitar plectrum to unlock and lock the car.

The Car Co-op writes:

"Fobbing out secures the vehicle by disabling the engine. It's a great anti-theft feature and it also ensures that the next driver can't drive on your dime! How do you know if you've fobbed out? Lock all doors except the driver's door. Fob out and then check the driver's door - if it's still unlocked, you haven't fobbed out; if it's locked, you're good to go. To help protect our vehicles and encourage regular fobbing out, a $35 fine for not fobbing out will take effect February 1, 2010."

I realise now that now I've got to the end of this longer-than-planned post that using the Vancouver Auto Network sounds like a bit of a palaver. Certainly, it can seem like that at first, but you get the hang of it quickly enough.

Also, you can see why, with all the electronic swiping and logging involved, that there's probably not many libertarian Coop members.