Renting cars for 30 years, Carpingo is Brooklyn car sharing

An old school small business is pivoting into the sharing economy.

Cal Cygler took his family’s 30 year old car rental business, AllCar Rent-A-Car, and started catching up with the times by launching Carpingo, a Brooklyn-only car share system that will soon expand into Queens.

Their coverage of the borough is still pretty thin. One really notable gap is their presence in Dumbo, where they only have one pod. Downtown Brooklyn looks great, however.

In a recent interview with Crain’s, it’s clear that the entrepreneur is stressing his roots where he can’t beat Zipcar on scale. It’s also working hard to get pods near buildings rehabbed for tech so that their vehicles are “carvenient” to businesses (not only do they use that term, they have trademarked it). So they have one outside Bed-Stuy’s Pfizer building now and they are working to get in around Industry City. What about 1000 Dean?

We’re at a break-even point now. We need more members and more usage. Just acquiring members is difficult. We didn’t realize how many members you would constantly need to replace. Saturdays and Sundays are busy, but midweek is always a challenge because most people are working. That’s why businesses are key.

[Crain’s]