Dave Londres

In September of this year, RIT entered a contract with Flexcar, a company providing easy car rentals. However, after a few months of business, problems popped up in the program. Cars were mysteriously “unavailable” at all hours of the day, but still sitting in the parking lots.

After some deliberation, on October 30th, Flexcar executives announced a merger with a competitor, Zipcar. This seemingly minor change caused a considerable loss of jobs for employees working in Flexcar’s Seattle-based headquarters, as well as the creation of an even greater inconvenience for those accustomed to Flexcar, many of whom had to adjust their service plans.

Applicants to Flexcar were required to provide a valid driver’s license and be at least 18 years of age. Zipcar, on the other hand, requires that its members be at least 21 to join. Cars were able to be picked up by RIT students at predetermined locations by swiping their “flexcards” on the electronic activation mechanisms located on the dashboards of every vehicle. After the driver’s identity was recognized, they were free to drive as they pleased.

John G. Zink, Interim Assistant Vice President stated, “We wanted to provide this service for students for them to take advantage of Flexcar. This was very good to work with…offering over one million dollars in accident coverage.” Zink continued, “After Flexcar became Zipcar, they no longer honored the previous agreement. Zipcar expected more money and offered much less accident coverage. [Zipcar provides $300,000 in accident protection.] They were simply offering unacceptable terms. We also didn’t want to originally use Zipcar, because we knew Flexcar offered better terms. I can assure you that these numbers indicate a bad deal. They were not providing the proper protection for students.” However, RIT did not end relations with Zipcar. “We wouldn’t care to kill something which we ourselves spent so much time committing to getting on campus,” said Zink.

The reaction to removing Flexcar has resulted in varied opinions. Industrial Design student Julie Zempke said, “I’m a committee adviser for FYE, and one day, we were talking about first year students, the concept [of Flexcar] is great and age becomes a problem for students who want to get off campus. If it were here when I was a freshman, I would definitely use it.” Ken Krug, a Software Engineering major, agreed: “This is an appealing program for parents, who would be smart in signing up. However, Flexcar had its detractors as well. Rebecca Strauss said, “I thought about using it, but I would break even. I also don’t think it’s affordable. I’d prefer to have more extensive bus services.”

Zink did not rule out changing services. He said, “One thing I will explore, though, is to reach out to other options.”