Updates from HQ

We're proud of what we've accomplished this past year and excited for the new opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Read our 2021 Annual Update here, and please consider making a year-end donation to support our mission-driven work in 2022!

Our good friends at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth are hosting a Benefit Bake for us on Tuesday, April 6th! Order take out anytime between 4-8 PM or call ahead to dine outside on the patio. A portion of the proceeds from every large and small flatbread sold will help fund our mission-driven work to increase transportation equity and access in our community through programs like MobilityShare, which provide free annual memberships income-qualifying households. It's a great way to show us some love and support a fabulous local restaurant at the same time. Thanks for your support!

While this past year has posed unprecedented challenges for CarShare Vermont and our community, we feel hopeful about the future. Click here to read our 2020 Annual Update and learn about our exciting plans for the year ahead.

Vermont remains the envy of our nation, among the safest places during this pandemic, because of our residents' sense of responsibility and concern for one another. Since the middle of March, you all have helped to keep our service safe and secure for those who rely on it most. Whether following our protocols around mask-wearing, hand-sanitizing, activating ozone generators, or avoiding trips when unnecessary or when you're sick, your efforts have allowed CarShare Vermont to continue meeting the transportation needs of our membership--thank you!

Let's keep it up! With the recent uptick in cases of COVID-19 in and around Burlington, CarShare Vermont is asking that members limit their travel to essential trips only, continue to mask up when using our vehicles, and follow all CDC and State of Vermont guidance regarding personal hygiene and social gatherings. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions. As ever, thanks for your cooperation and support!

Beginning July 3, every CarShare Vermont vehicle will be equipped with a compact, battery operated ozone generator that will be used to disinfect the vehicle between reservations. Ozone generators are proven to kill germs, viruses, and bacteria that may enter the vehicle.

Members will be asked to simply activate the generator at the end of your trip; it will then run its cycle for 90 minutes, including time to dissipate. Detailed instructions will be provided in the vehicles.

We also ask that members (and your passengers) continue to practice good personal hygiene and wear a mask if you’re able while carsharing. Thank you in advance for helping to keep our fleet sanitized and safe for everyone.

New Office Hours Effective April 22

Please note that our service is still available 24/7, but because we're operating with a greatly reduced staff, we are limiting our "office" hours when we're available to respond to non-urgent phone calls and emails to info@carsharevt.org. Effective April 22, our hours are Tuesday through Friday, 9am to 2pm.

Our 24/7 e-line is still available for urgent issues that may arise during a trip. Please do not call the emergency line for non-urgent matters, such as billing questions. Simply call the office (802-861-2340) and leave a message if we're not available to assist you at the moment. Thank you for your understanding.

From the start of the COVID-19 crisis, CarShare Vermont’s goals have been two-fold: 1. Protect public health; and 2. Continue to fulfill our mission of providing “an affordable, convenient, and reliable alternative to private car ownership that enhances the environmental, economic, and social wellbeing of our region and planet.” We have taken a number of steps (outlined here) toward those ends. And despite significant, sustained loss of revenue, we intend to remain open and serve all our members who rely upon us for their mobility needs.

We recognize that our members are also experiencing challenges--financial and otherwise--and wish to extend whatever assistance we can during these difficult times:

• For members experiencing temporary financial hardship, we will waive up to two months (March and April) of membership fees. Please reach out to us before April 15th at info@carsharevt.org with your name and and whether you are requesting a waiver of one or two months. For longer-term disruptions to employment and income, you may be eligible for our MobilityShare program.
• For our current MobilityShare members, annual fees are already waived. We will apply $25 in driving credits to each account to help ensure that any trip necessary in the next few months can be more easily made.
• For any member, CarShare Vermont is offering the option for you to prepay for driving at a discounted rate. While many of you will be remaining at home in the coming days or weeks, you can still purchase $50 or more in driving credits now and receive an additional 20% for future trips. For example, for a purchase of $100, members will receive $120 of credits towards your next trip(s).

Finally, we offer this assistance because we deeply appreciate your membership with us. You are part of a great group of people who all contribute in meaningful ways toward making this shared venture work. If you are able to help cover another member’s membership for a month or two or support our organization in other ways, please consider making a donation here. Like so many other nonprofits, COVID-19 has had a tremendous impact on our business. Because the majority of our income comes from the service we provide, we are facing unprecedented financial challenges--stressful and alarming, but not insurmountable. We are doing everything within our power to keep CarShare Vermont a vital transportation service for our community. Again, thank you for your support and membership.

We hope you are healthy and doing the best you can under the circumstances. With the news of the Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Safe Executive Order, we wanted to give you an update to assure you that CarShare Vermont’s service will remain in operation. Members may continue to use our vehicles to meet critical needs, such as grocery shopping and medical care. Please continue to:

• Wash your hands before and after your trip.
• Please remove all personal belongings from the vehicle, including any trash.
• Cough/sneeze into a tissue and discard it.

Additionally, please follow these guidelines to help CarShare Vermont ensure the health and wellness of our members:

• Please stay home and avoid using a vehicle if you or your passengers do not feel well.
• Do not use a vehicle if you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or have been in contact with someone who has (or had) the virus.

CarShare Vermont’s office will remain closed until further notice with staff working remotely. Please continue to use our office line (802-861-2340) for all matters during the week; our emergency line is staffed nights and weekends. And of course, reach out to us by email at any time at info@carsharevt.org.

Like so many other businesses, COVID-19 has already had a tremendous financial impact on our nonprofit. We are taking proactive steps to reduce our operating expenses during this crisis so that we can be here for you when it passes. To this end, in the near future we will be consolidating a couple of pod locations to temporarily reduce the size of our fleet. We will be communicating directly with members who may be impacted by these changes and updating our website and reservation pages accordingly. Thank you in advance for your understanding, and most of all, for your membership—it means more than ever right now as we work hard to get through this together.

We miss seeing your faces, but know that we’re here for you.

As we closely monitor the recommendations of the CDC, local, state, and federal governments, CarShare Vermont keeps two goals in mind: 

1. Protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our members, our staff, and the broader community. 
2. Provide a reliable transportation option to meet the most critical needs of our members.

CarShare Vermont has continued a rigorous cleaning schedule for our fleet. Beyond our normal cleaning routine, we are disinfecting the vehicles on a daily basis. As we work to secure scarce disinfectant supplies to outfit each vehicle, we also seek your cooperation in maintaining the cleanliness of the fleet (i.e. remove all personal belongings, including trash) and taking previously recommended precautions, including rigorous personal hygiene and avoiding a trip altogether if unnecessary.

Consistent with public health calls for social distancing, we have now instituted a temporary 3-hour buffer between reservations. With this policy, we aim to strike an appropriate balance between minimizing health risks and maximizing the utility of our service to members. Of course, we welcome your feedback, and may adjust our service as we learn more about the spread of this coronavirus. 

We will continue to update members regarding any change in service by email and on this page. Thank you for your patience and understanding during these challenging times, and as ever, for your membership and support.

With the arrival of COVID-19 in Burlington, we've made the decision to work remotely effective Monday, March 16th until further notice. As always, our service is available 24/7, and our staff will be accessible by phone and email to assist with membership, reservation, and billing questions as needed during regular office hours (M-F, 9AM-5PM). You can click here to read about the steps we're taking to prevent the spread of illness within our shared fleet and for tips on what you can do to help keep yourself and others safe and healthy while sharing our cars. Also, please keep in mind that if you decide to cancel a reservation at the last minute due to sickness or issues related to COVID-19, you can call or email within 24 hours of the cancelled reservation and we’ll waive all cancellation fees.

Please be in touch with any questions or concerns, and as always, thanks for sharing!

We’ve spent this past year celebrating our 10th anniversary by delivering on our commitment to increase CarShare Vermont’s impact in our community. We've collaborated with partners to extend the benefits of shared mobility to more people through sound policies and innovative programs, and perhaps more importantly, we've taken time to reflect on our core values as a mission-driven nonprofit and appreciate the members (past, present, and future) for whom we exist. By all accounts, it's been a very good year, and we thank you for helping us celebrate 10 years of sharing!
Click here for the full update.

We're hosting our fourth annual Night Out at the Cluse benefit dinner on Thursday, October 24th at Penny Cluse Cafe! Come dine with us and feel good knowing that 100% of ticket sales will help support CarShare Vermont and the programs we provide to benefit the environment and our community.

Tickets are $100 each and include multiple scrumptious courses prepared by skilled local chefs Maura O'Sullivan & Charles Reeves. Tasty libations will be available for purchase at the cash bar. Click here to reserve your seats today!

Thank you to our generous sponsors for making this event possible:

We've added our first 100% electric vehicle to the fleet! Sparky is a new 2019 Nissan Leaf. You can find this car conveniently parked at the northwest corner of Main St. and St. Paul St. at a dedicated charging station donated by flo thanks to support from the Burlington Electric Department. Charging up in Burlington also means that 100% renewables power this car. Yay!

If you're not a member yet and you're curious about EVs, use the promo code ELECTRIC when you apply and we'll waive your application fee, give you two months of membership for free and $30 in driving credits to give Sparky a try. Get all the details here.

This month we're celebrating our 10th anniversary! We’re so grateful to you, our members and community of supporters, for helping us achieve this momentous milestone. Thanks for all you do to advance our mission — together, we’ve come a very long way!

Check out our 2018 Annual Update to learn about our impact over the last 10 years, and please consider making a year-end donation to support our mission-driven work in the months and years ahead!

After months of hard work and thoughtful creativity by our friends at Make New Co., we're excited to announce the launch of our brand new, mobile-friendly website. Check it out and please let us know what you think!

We're also thrilled to let our members know that we now offer a free mobile app! This has been something that many of you have requested, and we hope it improves your carsharing experience. Members can use the app for all of their reservation needs.

You can find our app by searching for "FleetShare by INVERS" in the app store or play store and download it for free. The icon has a green leaf and a blue triangle. Type in "CVT" for the company ID and login using your regular CarShare VT username and password.

Read our full newsletter here.