Fred Flintstone has nothing on Flexicar Team

Yes, it was bowling night last week for the Flexicar team. Why, you may ask? We say, what’s not to love about hurling heavy balls around in a dark room with a beer in hand!

The competition was hot. A turn was stolen by the CEO who didn’t quite realise once you got a strike, you didn’t get another go. Shane from Ops was looking glum for the pics as he was coming last…but turned it around to come second. And then there’s the winner. Peter, our operations manager, who announced the following day his email address should now be sriker@flexicar.com.au.

We can’t wait for the sun to come back out so we can duke it out all over again at lawn bowls in December.

Team FlexiBowl

 

Justin keen for a bevvie

 

Part time Flexer with handy Strike Membership Card - thanks Rose!

 

The final score board, showing Pete "striker" Hoban as the winner

Flexicar at MVCC Green Precinct Breakfast

Moonee Valley City Council launched it’s “Green Precinct” project in 2008, with the aim to create a blueprint for sustainable projects incorporating local businesses in Victoria.

The area between Pascoe Vale Road, Mt Alexander Road and The Strand is being developed as a high profile area demonstrating best practice sustainable business activities and employee programs that concentrate on energy, water, waste, biodiversity and travel.

The project is aiming for:

•  A 20% reduction of 2007/08 greenhouse figures by 2010 and a carbon neutral precinct by 2020; 
•  A reduction in 2007 potable (drinkable) water figures by 30% for each business by 2010; 
•  The recovery of 75% of solid waste to be reused or recycled by 2010; and 
•  Increases of at least 25% in the accredited GreenPower use for each business by 2010.

Flexicar thinks it’s a great initiative so was down at a staff and business member breakfast at the Council offices this morning talking about Flexicar. While Flexicar isn’t currently in any City of Moonee Valley suburbs just yet, we are planning to be there in 2010. Staff come from far afield to work with the Council, however, so there were some keen potential Flexers there.

And of course there were the yummy pancakes to keep us happy…
 

Flexicar at Moonee Valley City Council Green Precinct Breakfast

 

Green Precinct Breakfast

Unveiling the Hybrids

Flexicar are excited to announce that we now have two Hybrids in the Flexicar fleet, made possible by our friends at Honda who have provided the cars for twelve months. (More on this story here). The media launch was held today – in the “pretty but chilly” setting of Melbourne’s City Square. Honda Ambassador, fashion designer Akira Isogawa, helped “unveil” the Melbourne Hybrid Dreamer. The second Hybrid is kicking off today in Crown St, Surry Hills.

Some pics of the media launch, hosted by Honda, are below. These were taken on the rather wee Flexicar camera. Once we have the “professional images” we’ll be able to share these with you.

Monique Conheady speaking at launch

 

The unveiling

 

Monique Conheady, Lindsay Smalley (Honda) & Fashion Designer Akira Isogawa

 

"Dreamer" looking snazzy

Winners are grinners

Remember our Little Big Shots Film Festival competition?

Little Big Shots Film Festival is Australia’s major annual and travelling children’s film festival, running from June 3 to 8 in Melbourne at ACMI, and Flexicar is proudly sponsoring the event this year.

We had 20 double passes to give away for the Festival, and all you needed to do was telling us your favourite kids film of all time.

Well, the competition was quite successful, and we’d like to thanks all participants and send our warmest congratulations to the winners.

We had some interesting entries and all kids film’s genres were covered, from Japanese mangas (My Neighbour Totoro) to contemporary classics (Toy Story, Nemo…), and also some rare jewel like The Red Balloon.

Personally, I was a big fan of Princess Bride – memorable characters (Ah Inigo Montoya…Buttercup and Wesley’s love story…) and memorable quotes – and Walt Disney Classics such as Aladdin or The Jungle Book.

And for those who’d still like to attend the Film Festival, cheer up! There are plenty of tickets and plenty of sessions to satisfy all kids and kids at heart!

For tickets and sessions, visit the Little Big Shots website: http://www.littlebigshots.com.au/

Our lucky winners, and their entry:

Samantha de Forest (Mary Poppins)

Daniel  Walls (Cabin Boy)

Greg Muller (The Wizard of OZ)                                 

Mark  Donnellan (Spirited Away)

Sally McHugh (Milo and Otis)

Helen Grist (Back to the Future)

Fritz Balkau (Happy Feet)

Patricia Boyce (The Princess Bride)

Teena  Lawrence-Brown (Nemo)

Nick Calpakdjian (Sandlot Kids)

Mark King (The Jungle Book)

Sandy McLeod (The Princess Bride)

Sumi Fleming (Beauty and the Beast)

Clive Bourne (Kes – Ken Loach)

Nic Kocher (Toy Story)

Darren Osborne (Muppets Take Manhattan)

Kirsten Slifirski (The Red Balloon)

Margaret  Young (The Red Balloon)

Anthony Legg (Ice Age)

Caroline Blackburn (Mary Poppins)

Thomas Greig (Toy Story)

Emily Sims (The Princess Bride)

Congratulations again, and happy Film Festival!

Greg@Flexicar

Honk when you see a Flexicar

When I was a kid holidaying in France with my parents, we were using my grandfather car, a Citroen 2CV. 2CV might not be as common as a Commodore in Australia so I’ve added an image below.

When you would hit 40 k per hour the old piece of crap would shake like crazy, as if it would fall apart at anytime. Ah…But that’s another story and we don’t have time for it now. Maybe next time.

Anyhow, the cool thing with 2CV is that, to my delight as a kid, you’d honk when you see another 2CV, which is quite frequent in France, and the other driver would honk back.

Which bring us back to our beloved Flexicars. Honking when you are driving a Flexicar and see another one has been tacitly developed among members, and I think it’s awesome and should become a convention.

Not to mention that this allows me to reminisce these fun memories of my childhood, and reiterate the whole honking thing with Flexicars.

Okay, Brunswick members will probably have to drive with the hand on the horn, now that we have seven Flexicars there…

SO, please don’t call the police if you see me zipping around in a Flexicar and honking like a mad man, and let me be happy, I’m just having some childhood flashback!

And don’t forget to honk next time you see a Flexicar.

Citroen 2CV. The French car par excellence!

Greg, honking blogger

Flexicar – Team Photos

Hmmm….what to do when you’re lacking the inspiration for a blog post? Post pictures!

So, ever wondered what the voices on the other end of the Flexicar phone look like? Well, here’s some of the team below on a “welcome back” dinner for Pete, who worked with Flexicar at its inception and has now returned from the UK to come back as our Operations Manager.

Half of the Flexicar team out to dinner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monique with our "foreign" contingent - Greg and Justin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some pics of Monique up in “always sunny” Sydney, near our Surry Hills and Manly Flexicars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monique being enthusiastic about Flexicar in Manly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possibly the coolest bike basket ever?

Had to include the bike pic. I’m sure that clever person must be a Flexicar member

Kimberly the Marketing Chick

Flexicar team on tour in Sydney

Most businesses that operate in several states end up with a lot more knowledge  and support in their “home town” than the other places they do business. For Flexicar, that home town is Melbourne. Land of cold winters, dry summers, great bars and footy fanatics!

We have cars in Manly and in Surry Hills in Sydney – and want to grow outside these locations - but as a Melbourne team, we suffer somewhat from not knowing Sydney anywhere near as well as we know almost any area in inner-city Melbourne.

So we’re taking some action. Two of us are heading to Sydney for a few days to “cruise the streets” of Manly and Surry Hills around our cars. Decked out in our Flexicar gear (we’ll be easy to spot in all that red!) we’ll be visiting the Surry Hills Market on Saturday 2 May and the Manly Arts & Craft Market on Sunday 3 May. We’ll also be trying to get a feel for the neighbourhoods, to ensure we understand the personality of the area. Plus we’ll be scoping parking locations, ensuring we’re in just the right spot to suit our new and existing members.

So if you spot us roaming the streets, stop and say hi, maybe suggest a good local spot…and don’t hold it against us that we’re from Melbourne!

Kimberly the marketing chick

Does the fine fit the crime?

I’ve been clocking up the fines this month - so now I’m not only now poor, but I’m annoyed.

I didn’t validate a 2 hour ticket I’d just purchased and I was fined $167.

I returned to a parked car literally two minutes late and copped a $57 fine.

Apart from a bit of general whinging, what’s annoying about these fines is that they don’t seem “proportional” to “the crime”.

I mean, $57 for 2 minutes of parking? And I thought private car parks were steep!  

So when it comes to fines at Flexicar, I like the way they’ve been set based on proportionality.

You inconvenience another member by not returning a car on time and don’t tell us?

Well, Flexicar then has to call the member and pacify them, we need to help them make another arrangement (usually a taxi when it’s last minute), Flexicar doesn’t get the booking revenue from the next car, the member has to send us a receipt, Flexicar then pay for the taxi and have to handle the paperwork associated with this.

You start to see why the fine has been set at $75. Realistically, this could often be LESS than what the late return ends up costing Flexicar.

So here’s to a fine that matches the offence, people!

Thanks for letting me share my pain.

(And yes, yes, I now know you need to validate your ticket EVERY time you buy one or even think about getting on a passing tram!)

Kimberly the (poorer but wiser) marketing chick

Are you too dreaming of chocolate bunnies?

It’s Thursday and I’ve got chocolate and holidays on my mind, making it hard to concentrate of work!

I can report it’s much worse than the usual Friday mid-arvo fidgets – especially as members keep popping buy or calling up to book cars, heading off on their long weekends already!

But I can’t feel too sorry for myself – our new Flexicar staff member Justin will be in the Flexicar office Friday, Saturday AND Sunday, just in case you need him.

So if you’ve got a Flexicar booked this weekend, drive safely and don’t daydream too much about the goodies that may be delivered by the cotton-tailed one on Sunday.

The Flexicar team wish you all a safe and happy Easter break!

PS. Don’t forget, the first fifty members who join Flexicar this month get a tempting $10 Darrell Lea voucher.

Kimberly the marketing chick

To our Members: Thankyou for participating to the Bushfire effort

The Flexicar team would like to thank members for their donations and good work towards the fire relief effort.

Flexicar also made a donation of $500 to the Red Cross to help out and still encourages members to make donations, the Red Cross Bushfire appeal will close on Fri 17 April.

Furthermore, some members went in person to fire-affected zones, and, although we would have liked to do much more, we are happy that our service indirectly contributed to help out people in devastated zones.

Here are just a few of our members’ stories:

Member Ken C. is a fire fighter and did over 3,000 kilometres of driving in four days with Samson to bring loads of toiletry and staple products. Ken says:

“At the start Wednesday [11 Feb] I was going to go in to YEA and Whitlesea to drop my donated goods and come straight back. I had no idea I would end up with a job getting essential supplies through and later and requested supplies through all the police road blocks and between all the crisis relief centers and act as a go between all the services with their own setups and little or no communication between them”

Eden packed an entire car load of donations for Kinglake, you can read the entire story on her blog: http://community.livejournal.com/melbournemaniac/2786719.html

Flexicar member and Comedy Festival favorite Nelly Thomas went to MC a Bushfire relief concert in Yea, and had no way to get there other than Flexicar.

Once again thanks to all members for their generosity and humanity, for donating goods, money and time to this terrible catastrophe.

Greg & the Flexicar Team

Ken drove over 3,000 kms to deliver staple products to devastated communities

Volunteers unloading Eden's Flexicar