The Genius Car – Real life adventures in the share economy

Let me say that I always try to do the right thing, most of the time it is easy, other times it relates to what is the right thing to do.  This relates to a recent rental of my MDX to B.F.  Some of these issues relate to me having robot cars.  I also now have five cars on the system and it relates to having different descriptions, different purchase times, and Turo updating their site with changes.

Note I have now updated the descriptions on all the cars (I think) so this doesn’t happen again.

My rental request comes in and as my protocol I say yes immediately.  The rental was for midnight and BF wanted curbside dropoff.  I’m a night owl, or I should say that I used to be.  Stand up comedy, poker player, and horticulture expert can involve some weird working hours.  Being a stay at home dad has kind of shifted my hours and definitely my priorities.  Being a Turo owner and a professional renter on the systems.  The airport pickup and drop offs proved to be challenging.  Thus the invention of the Robot cars.  The biggest screw-up is the airlines.  Planes land late all the time, am I just supposed to sit out there and wait.  What is my time worth?  Do or can I even charge the renter for being late arrival?  My robot cars solve this problem of planes being late as well as some time renters return the car several hours early and sometimes late.

I directed BF to read the description, but most importantly I directed him to my blog post which goes into great deal of pickup and dropoff procedures rental cars at Denver International Airport.  Now you can’t send a hyperlink through the Turo system.  Feature request for Turo can you please allow us to send hyperlinks through the communication and add hyperlinks to the description.  I also told him to read the description again.  In all fairness to BF it wasn’t in the description spelled out explicitly.  I blame Internet gremlins and think the site reverted to an earlier description.  I haven’t had this issue in a long time.  Mostly because I wrote the description.  Turo used to be called Relay Rides, that’s how long I’ve been around.

I’m not 100% sure this is visible to the renters or if they even see it.  It used to be a lot more prominent, now I’m not even sure it’s available.  Also it appears that some things are different on the PC versus a mobile app.  Does the renter see this or not?  I’m not 100% sure.  Full disclosure I made it much more prominent in my description and I’m not trying to pull a fast one.

BF made a point that he only expected to pay $2 an hour.  He was out of the the parking lot by 1:25 a.m.  BF feels like he is willing to pay $4.  Yes that is what the rental charge was during that time.  However the car was sitting there much longer.  What I tell people is that anything that is over $24 I will reimburse.  The car rarely sits there for that long, but I want renters to have comfort that there is a cap of what they will pay.  The robot cars also allow me to have them picked up or returned 24 hours a day.  The price for that level of service and guarantee that 100% your car will be waiting there is you need to pay for the parking, up to $24.

Did I communicate enough?  Am I covered?

Well fast forward to the end of the trip.  I actually meet the renter (a screw-up of sorts in my business model.)  My wife and I went to DIA to drop off another car and we were going to wait for the MDX to show up at 2:00 p.m. and drive down to Colorado Springs to pick up our baby from Grandparents.  I have ADD or ADHD never verified by doctor, and I’m waiting with wife.  We sit down around 12:15 and by 12:18 I’ve asked her are they here yet and I can tell the waiting is going to drive me insane.

I’m checking in with the robot car periodically to have it tell me where it is.  There is no hope of it getting here early, I hope it shows up on time.  It’s pretty cool for the renter to get the curbside dropoff and not have to park, take shuttle, pictures etc.  The waiting area is pretty crowded with traffic but they are showing up close to on time.  The car is due back at 2:00.  The car is actually returned at 2:03.  I know this because as I’m waiting outside at the terminal my phone goes off asking me to review BF’s trip.  That happens at 2:00 when the rental is due to be returned.  I flag them down and they show up at 2:03.  Here is one of the potential dirty tricks of Turo, but it has to be this way I believe, there is a late charge of $50 per half hour of being late.  Up to $200 not to exceed four times the daily rental.  It has to be this way because of the insurance.  The insurance is during the rental period.  Rental period ends at 2:00 what happens if there is a wreck at 2:02.  This is my nightmare.

What’s funny is that I feel the renter (BF) is innocent and I don’t hold his feet to the fire.  I could and say sure here is your full $24 parking credit, however you were three minutes late so you owe me $26 more.  How about them apples! (an awesome line from and awesome movie).  The renters were all pretty cool.  Younger guys mid 20’s early 30’s, I’m not really sure, I’m not sizing them up for a poker game or a business deal.  Car looks fine.  I notice the car is playing Katy Perry.  I ask them if that’s there Katy and they say no it’s yours.  I leave MP3’s in the vehicle because my wife and I drive these cars as well.  I thought it was pretty funny, and it was CD 4 which is a damn good mix tape.  That was the music for the end of the world Mayan calendar party.

BF asked me about the parking fee and I said I’d check the description to see.  I wanted to tell him to piss off and read it.  When I saw it wasn’t in there but the smaller one that you see in the image, damnit!  Well I’m working it out with BF and we will.  BF ask for 20 bucks or less and it’s yours

Here is the next part that irritates me though.  BF will have and has had an experience with Turo and Mike Henderson’s robot cars.  What is kind of funny is that he won’t bad mouth me (although he might), bad mouthing Turo though really affects them.  If people google or complain about their experiences it hurts Turo and the community of owners way more than it effects an individual owner.  I don’t have any pre-ipo stock options in Turo, but I want them to succeed.  A brilliant person said, a rising tide lifts all boats.

This likely ends up with some type of credit to BF.  Turo takes 25% of the revenue, this is for their marketing, customer support, overhead, and most important to me insurance for my vehicle.  What I hate is suppose the number is $20.  I’ll send in an email and say BF should get a $20 rental credit.  They’ll come back with sure you want to reduce your owner earnings $20.  No that is not what I want.  If this is a partnership between Turo and me,  I’m willing to eat $16 of it and Turo can pay the rest.  It’s just a frustrating attitude.  Pretty sure I’m going to generate over $1,000 for Turo this month, can you step up Turo.

Believe me I will fight and argue for everything I’m not interested in giving money away.  In this case we’ll see what BF wants and thinks is fair.

Well I closed a deal on the 2011 Chevy Traverse. The newest addition to the fleet might be the favorite car.  I spent $14,000 on this car without knowing everything I wanted to know.  They even wrote a couple of blog posts about this.  One was from the analytics person, the other was from the marketing guy.  I consider those things level one marketing.  I have much deeper questions and I even wonder if they chop up the data the various ways I would like.  In addition I’m trying to understand what the time variable is an entails.  I didn’t get a chance to plead with my Senior Account Manager that I really needed to know some of the answers to these questions because I can only buy one more vehicle, due to tax strategies and reasons, and I really want it to be the right one.  I went ahead and closed on the deal because it is an awesome car, awesome shape, all the bells and whistles, it came with free onstar and it might be a ticket to make some strategic linked in friends.

One of the first things that I do is get the professional photography done.  It looks so much better than what I can do, it is insane for me to do it myself.  I think I was one of the first Turo owners in Denver to get my car professionally photographed through the Turo program.  Mike Ricci is the professional photographer and he did a great job on all of my previous cars.  I actually thought they did away with the verified photo program.  Turo in a site redesign certainly made it much less noticable, which I feel is a mistake.  Verified photos add transparency and professionalism to this “car rental” process.

I was trying to get my photoshoot set up even before I purchased the car.  I was near Red Rocks ampitheater and state park where I would be purchasing the vehicle.  I also wanted to get the shoot scheduled as a Gant chart would have this be one of the critical path steps to get the car ideally listed and rented.  I reached out to Mike directly, if I meet you, you go in the database.  I’m excited they have this program still and plan to take full advantage.  Why isin’t there a search function for only cars with verified photos?  Mike is out of state on business and at this point I reach out to my account rep to see if I can get a response.  What is also fascinating is that when I put my listing up, (still hadn’t closed the deal yet.)  I made sure the listing reflected this and was able to close a deal with a renter during the presale phase.

I reach out to my VIP Support Team at Turo, yes that’s a real thing.  What’s interesting to me is this a thing/issue for the VIP Support Team.  I’m not 100% sure that it is or what the philosophy is for the unit.  The support team spends 99-100% of the time on rental issues and current rental issues.  Does this fit in with the technical support team?  If it is outside of their sphere of influence does it then fall upon the Senior Account Manager’s desk?  Is this too small of an issue for them?  I once had a job where I was a Regional Sales Representative for a telecom company.  I had about 50 agents that I supported.  I was the guy who flew in from out of town to close the deal.  What a lot of my day to day job though was to remove obstacles, like getting my pictures updated on the website.  Getting these pictures up will help me drive revenue.  Great pictures make a difference in rentals.  Getting them up in 24 hours versus potentially a week can mean the difference of filling the window between March 15-March 18th.  Filling these gaps has a huge effect on my profitability.

It’s been a while since I had pictures taken of a vehicle.  I hope the process is different and goes smoother.  What happens is the photographer, Mike Ricci, we finally got it scheduled for today March 8th, 2016.  Hopefully the sun will cooperate and I will have picked a good spot.  He then does his magic, I’d take and like them unedited, simply because they are better than nothing.  He then sends them in to Turo.  They sit in a vortex and last time it took around ten days to get published to the site.  Is this system fixed?  Can somebody shake it loose and make it happen.

Long story short.  My photoshoot got delayed again today.  So pissed, had a lot of running around to do in order to make these things happen.  Well tomorrow is another adventure.

It was bound to happen.  Denver, Colorado just has to much history, sports, culture, and business not to eventually rent to a famous person.  The fact that I specialize in AWD vehicles with three rows.  They are also targeted to have all the bells and whistles.  The third row ensures roominess in a vehicle.   This person is from the sports world.  He is a former Denver Nugget and one of their five greatest players in history.  I need to check in with my older sports advisor, Mark Batten, I just haven’t seen some of those older players like he did.  If you didn’t see them play how can you really compare?

What is interesting and I’m not sure how unexpected, they asked for a discount.  I didn’t even offer a discount because it is in real high demand.  I will however offer exceptional service;)  My robot cars generally live at the airport.  Especially during ski and summer season they are almost constantly booked.  My minivan is booked 28 days in March and those other three day are consecutive, there is hope!

At the start of the process the car was listed at my house (various marketing tests) and that is where the customer wanted to pick it up.  I really do want to meet the guy, but I’m just a fan.  If I met Rod Smith I could talk about his first catch (AMAZING!), Joplin, Missouri or real estate stuff.  He just wants and needs a car, he doesn’t need another doting fan.  If I did the pickup at my house it would greatly increase the chances of my meeting him.  I’d love to get a picture of him next to the car.  No athletes are bigger than NBA players!  Not even NFL players, and most people don’t realize that.  I’d love to get a picture of him and Hope in front of the car.  Talk about a size juxtaposition.  How else am I going to get a chance to meet him to get invited to a Nuggets game because my car is so awesome.  I actually try to steer the renter to picking the car up and dropping it off at the airport.  The trip is a long trip and it overlaps an airport rental on both the start and the end.

Turns out they live fairly close to my house and this location works out a lot better than Denver International Airport.  Well I’ll make that special trip out to the airport, I might of anyway just because it is a long rental.  Throw in the fact that I know who this person is, it’s pretty amazing.  I like meeting famous people.  I really like meeting future famous people like Denver comic Anthony Crawford.  I’ll make a special trip out to DIA (I so hate that, I’ve invested thousands of dollars of technology to avoid it.)  I also have to make a special trip back right at the end of the trip.

This will allow me to take the car by Waterways Car wash (damn those people need to sponsor me).  This will allow me to have a clear car ready for the renter.  I wish I would of been more proactive with this marketing opportunity.  The problem is I’m just one guy.  I’ve manage to buy four cars, already had two of them, and manage a car for a friend.  I’m a one person show who is just now getting ready to expand.  If you judge me with the standard of a full time stay at home mom I’m a great business person.  I don’t have the budget or the time.  I do think of some awesome things.

Pictures with Mr. NBA star and my minivan

“A slam dunk of savings.”

“Shattering the world of rental cars.” (picture a broken backboard)

“Big choice and big vehicles for big renters.”

If not for a few weeks down with a wrenched back, now I know how Larry Bird felt.  I used my uptime to close on a new car for the fleet.  Not sure if it was the right time, or the right move.  The car is awesome and it was to good a deal to pass up.  I would of loved to reach out to Turo earlier to see if there is a marketing opportunity.  I’ll just continue to provide exceptional customer service and an experience to my renters, and hope for the best.

Well I’m just going to do my job, maybe a little bit extra in this case.  If a friend cancels and you happen to have an extra ticket to the Nuggets game and are going is there anybody we can take?  I’m happy to help out anyway that I can.

Well they’ve got a car that works.  The next car for sure will be a AWD SUV or Crossover with a Third Row.  As always ten years or newer and under 100,000 miles.  Once you add in all the bells and whistles it’s both kind of hard to find and kind of easy as well.  I’m an autobroker and I’m willing to look nationwide.  I had my car dialed in and zoned in left to write.  Called down to the dealer after seeing the exterior of the car in person the day before.  (In Colorado you can’t buy cars on Sunday.)  I’m arranging details, the car is in Colorado Springs, and I get a call back and it is determined that it just sold.  I’m so pissed.  I get over it in five minutes.  I don’t get emotional.  I’m a former professional poker player and a businessman.

I did set aside time, cash, and psychological energy to buy a car.  I’d also like to hear back from Turo for a deeper level of analytics before investing 10-20K, but I know the market.  Every day I wait is a day lost.  March is superbusy with high rates and high usage.  Every day I wait is a day lost.  The next awesome time to buy a car is June.  If I don’t do it now then I’m likely going to wait until then.  Two vehicles show up Chevy Traverse and Hyundai Azera.  Later on that day I hear a commercial on the radio about free OnStar.  That tips me over to the Traverse.  Both cars are kind of far away, but I have a car today and it is February 29, last day of the month.

My dream is to walk into a dealership on the last day of the month and or last day of the quarter and find a desperate need to make a sale to keep from getting fired or need to sell a car to win a contest.  When you consider that sale could make a big difference to a sales person, sales manager, and a general manager there are potentially six good outcomes.

Rebecca gets home and she was going to take the car, I told her about should I buy a car or not and she agreed that I should go look at it.  As we are heading home from dinner I’m wearing my stay at home dad, who is recovering from a back injury, not planning on going anywhere, or seeing anyone.  My attitude is exactly like the Captain in Lethal Weapon.  I told Rebecca should I go like this she says, “You look exactly like that.”  I yell back, “What do you mean!”  We both start laughing.

I decide to call and give the sales person the choice.  “I tell him listen I can come down right now and that gives us more time to negotiate and close the deal or I can take 30 -40 minutes to spruce myself up and look and act like a serious businessman.  He said, “If you can stand a little ridicule you can come down in sweat pants.”  As I look down on my sweatpants I’m thinking when did I have Nacho Cheese Doritos?  Oh yeah maybe five days ago.  Well I’m going to see what my financing options are so at that point I’ll be treated seriously.  Plus I’m bringing my checkbook and a pen, which I reserve the right to pull out in a theatrical manner.

I show up and now it starts …