I dropped by Café l'Aube Monday night to attend PhillyCarShare's first community forum. And what a time to call it. It's been just under a year since the Board of Directors swooped in and claimed control of the company. Then Executive Director Tanya Seaman left the company and from what I've heard, Deputy Executive Director Clayton Lane was unceremoniously canned. Co-founder Eli Massar has since taken the high-paying position of Executive Director and the blame for the poor communication with members since the shakeup.
Eli Massar was a member of the Board of Directors during the tumultuous times of PhillyCarShare when I was employed there and after I left. He used to be the COO of Mural Arts and 1/2 of the duo behind the startup Philly Kitchen Share [CP writeup]. How he's devoting time to both PhillyCarShare in a time of crisis and Philly Kitchen Share in its infancy is beyond me. The community forum was held one door down from PKS instead of a shop by PCS HQ at 9/Sansom. Interesting, am I reading too much into that?
There were about 18 people at the forum: 7 PCS staffers and I believe 2 reps from a PR firm (BrownPartners) PCS has retained to salvage what's left of their credibility 7 years after the pipe dream became a reality. There were about 10 non-staffers, including myself, there for the forum. The audience, for the most part, had simple questions which could've been answered with a quick email or phone call to the Member Services department, but the answers provided by Massar, who stood in front of a pop-up PCS banner, shined a light on the state of PCS.
One PCS member asked why the Prius, which is touted as the flagship car of PCS, is no longer in the 'Economy' [cheapest] class of rentals [car classes here] as it once was. Massar broke down the fleet. Of the ~300 cars in the fleet, approximately 60 are in the economy class ($3.45 or $5.45/hr) and 135 are the flagship Priuses ($4.45 or $6.45/hr) with additional Camry and Civic hybrids rounding out the bottom half of the pay classes. He claimed that the Prius ended up costing much more to maintain than anticipated. The subsidy (grant money from DVRPA among other sources) on prices for the formerly $2.90/hr Prius ran out. I thought it was odd that he brought up the cost of maintenance of a Toyota car since they traditionally have the best record of low-cost maintenance of all automakers. This low-cost maintenance automaker has 10 of it's models represented in the PCS fleet out of 21 models. PCS knows that Toyota has reliable cars which don't need to be in the shop all the time for maintenance. Granted, PCS still could've underestimated the costs, but they knew Toyota was as good as it gets.
Massar also said that he and the Board "inherited" these monetary problems PCS is currently experiencing. He said that he "inherited" the problems of high-maintenance cars like the Audis and BMWs in the fleet.
I asked him to explain what he meant by using the term "inherited" as he was a member of the Board of Directors which was approving budgets, car selections and in theory looking over the books of the company. He was using the word "inherited" as if either some outside entity brought about the situation or he wasn't there when things were happening and was placed as ED of the company against his will. He noted that he'd have to be very careful with the wording of his answer: the staff wasn't forthright with internal numbers of the company, he said. "The staff" he's speaking of are presumably the former ED and DED; I don't believe the bookkeeper was involved in presentations to the Board, but I might be wrong as I sure as hell wasn't present. He said as the Board started to step in between February and August of 2008 and looked at the books, the real numbers were finally seen. He did admit that there was a degree of Board culpability, but stressed the deception towards the board.
I had a hard time believing that and have since been told that this is not exactly so. The Board was aware of how much money the company had or did not have to start off the year and by the time summer rolled around when they finally did step in, the budget was doubly in the red. What they were saying to the people they, in turn, owed money to, is beyond me. They were surely stuck. How they've started to amend the situation was touched upon in my last post about PCS. They've been dumping dead weight members left and right.
Two members who were present told Massar they were thinking of quitting and potentially going to Zipcar and asked Massar to talk of all the people who recently left PCS. Massar said that 90%+ of the people who left PCS in the last few months were pure dead weight non-users of the service. People who had signed up because there were no barriers to entry (sign up fee, credit check, initial deposit…) and no-cost membership. Ironically, one of the selling points I used to use was that the free membership plan (which had a higher hourly cost than the $15/mo plan) was there for emergencies and that you didn't have to ever use it, but that it would simply be there if they were to ever need it.
Another 900 members were dropped as they were abusers of the system. People who didn't pay their bills (how were these people allowed to stay on anyways?), chronic rule breakers (smoking in cars, messy occupants), accident-prone members and other people who used the system without impunity. Massar said that they were planning on another purge very soon.
I asked Massar what the current membership was and he said 16,000 – 17,000 which is down from the much touted 50,000 member-strong behemoth. So 50,000-17,000= 33,000 people who left the service for one reason or another. 33,000*.90 = 29,700; the number of members who were dead weight non-users and didn't want to pony up the $15/mo membership which is now the only option. Adding in the abusers who were kicked out, that's 29,700 + 900 = 30,600 people who were removed from the membership as non-users and abusers. That leaves 2,400 people who left PCS who were active users. Just under 5% of the user base left because of poor communication from the top down. Knee-jerk decisions were made with little to no notice and 5% of a company's customers up and left. Since they were part of the active user base, I can only assume that Zipcar's membership had a nice bump. Some may have opted to purchase/lease a car. Some may have opted to grit their teeth and use SEPTA more.
A member asked about filling the cars up with gas. Massar said that the Fleet Services arm of the company fills up cars with gas every night on a predictive basis depending on usage and length of upcoming reservations. Pretty cool. The member then said she has to fill up the cars she reserves 3x a month to Massar's surprise. He pledged stronger fleet management practices in the future. I suggested a 15-minute reservation credit or $1 incentive be offered to people who fill up cars during their time with the car. With that in place, people might actively pad their reservation to account for the time it takes to find a station and fill up the tank.
Another member had a gripe about the usability of the website. She couldn't find information about the fees involved with the system. I took a click over to the FAQ page. It's fucking blank. You have to click on 'Residential' or 'Business' to get the FAQs. At first glance, it looks as if PCS members have absolutely zero Frequently Asked Questions. For information on fees – what the lady was looking for – one needs to go to page 7-8 of the member handbook which is buried in the site, but can be found here as a .pdf. It states that this edition of the handbook was revised as of May 1, 2009, a few days after the mass exodus of members. PCS tweeted [since deleted] that members quitting the service need not hand in their keyfobs, but it states on page 8 that there is a $30 fee for not returning the keyfob. Ugh. More poor communication.
The UX/usability of the PCS website is strange. Useful menus change once one logs in. There is no search function.
Massar noted that PCS wants those active members back. Well, they more than want them back, they need them back to bring the company back to profitability. PCS will be calling all the formerly active members, Massar said he'd be making calls himself, and offering an incentive for them to come back. If they decide to come back, PCS is willing to donate 1 hour of driving credit to one of ten non-profits who use PCS. He explained that this way, currently active members won't be angered by free driving credits to people who left the system and came back. These calls will be starting very soon.
I learned a lot at this meeting. My thoughts that this company is still in dire straits and may very well not make it past the end of the year were solidified. Massar, BrownPartners and fellow co-founder Larry Schaeffer, who was also there, said the new community focus will bring the company back to its roots. It was presented as if it were an active move by the company. I see it as an inevitability. They have no choice but to be small and work with nothing again. Their refusal to acknowledge their flubs and really come clean with what's been happening for the last year is arrogant. Their PR spin cycle churning out a 'returning to the roots' mentality is further maddening.
Nevertheless, I hope PCS pulls out of it. I hope they come clean with what went down. I hope they fend off Zipcar to some degree and prevent a monopoly which would cause Zipcar to raise it's rates to match those of its other cities (the current low rates won't be there if PCS disappears people, I can guarantee that). PCS does have to be a leaner company. A nimbler company. A company that doesn't take 6 months to fire people who were nothing but cancers to the company. PCS cannot afford to chase away talented people. PCS, at the end of the year, may unfortunately have no choice to be bought out as banks call in loans PCS can't pay.
PhillyCarShare, I'm still rooting for you. It might be hard to believe, but I really am still rooting for you. I know, better than most, what is possible and the reality of what you're dealing with internally. You treated me like shit and I'm still rooting for you even with the abusive relationship my friend Steve alluded to.
More community forums are apparently in the works. It's your move.
