Crude closes at $136.68 a barrel!

There has been talk of crude climbing to $150 a barrel in future trading on or near July 4th weekend. The official start of family vacations.

With crude trading at record highs (these record highs are being set every day) EVERY DAY. Its no wonder that most families are being squeezed weekly out of the crucial $ that fuel their current lifestyles.

What was affectionally called "sunday cars" that found there way to everyday use are now being retired to Sunday use only. This of course never stops the new money millionaire who buy every thing that fancies them, just on a whim. But this is not about those types of people.

This is more a focus on the forced changes we make when faced with diminished resources. How many families did not take the boat out on the lake this weekend because a tank of fuel is now X2 the amount it was last year or even last week! Ok so not X2 as much as last week but it took $60 to put only 14 gallons into the company truck we use for special deliveries (the truck will be gone soon enough as we switch it out for a Prius). Luckily we only fill up once every 2 weeks.

Which brings me back to my main point $150 a barrel will translate into a $5-$7 per gallon range. So what does this mean for Verde members in the near future? Nothing!

We built into the back end economics a price point for gas of $10 a gallon. We use premium gas and when regular gas climbs to $5 a gallon. Premium will climb to $10 a gallon. So from day 1 we will budget at $10 a gallon. As prices stay below our projected high we will take the surplus and plan infrastructure with it. Our own gas storage facility (future) in each region. This will allow us to control our cost when we reach 1 million members. These savings can be transferred to our members in the form of reduced hourly cost. Our goal is to get the hourly charges down to sub $5's.

By developing our business to evolve to a lower usage charge and building the infrastructure for gas distribution on a regional and local level. We leverage the cost of the infrastructure with the long term savings and cost reductions/savings. These savings translate to our members and provide us with the resources to add additional value to our growing list of services.

Where else do you see we could benefit by building an infrastructure?

Q CEO

The taxman is short sighted once again!

It looks like the concept of Vespa sharing is going to gain ground in urban areas like Pitts burg and Seattle.

According to an article written by Sarah Nassuer in the WSJ titled "If your Zipcar is costing more, the Tax man may be to blame" in the Thursday June 19th, 2008 edition the tax man is coming after Car sharing organization full force.

It seems there are a number of taxes and fees that car rental companies pay, before some of the new laws were passed against car sharing did not have to pay. Some of these "taxes" come in the form of:

$2 per day even if the car is rented for "ANY part of the day" (in Allegheny county)

5% rental car taxes on car rentals in NY but it seems car sharing companies have been quietly paying it. It translates to .50 cents per hour on average.

$5 per rental "Domestic Security Fee" in New Jersey

2% state rental car tax + a $2 per rental state tax and the city's 2% per rental car tax all this from Philadelphia!

"Zipcar is frustrated by car-rental agencies' objections to their exemption efforts" as reported by Sarah N.

What does this mean for car-sharing's future? Nothing in the long run as far as I am concerned. Car-rental companies did not take the lead 10 years ago when they had the resources and logistics to change the transportation landscape. Now that Mr. Griffiths Zipcar has posted $100,000.00 in revenue! Now car-rental companies want to object and stonewall?

The future of car-sharing and Vespa-sharing is very bright. Brighter even for Vespa-sharing since we are not a traditional scooter rental service (membership based vs off the street retail locations). Don't get me wrong I know the tax man will come knocking sooner or later. Our fingers are crossed that its later, much later!

Q CEO

Wind energy acceptance shifts

Just finish rereading the WSJ's article by Robert Tomsho on the shifting winds in the energy debate "Winds shift in energy debate" and I wonder why we have no adopted a stronger offshore wind bill that would power over 50% of our demands, we have the Real Estate?

But I guess with anything it will take us going to the brink of destruction before the general public gets the moxie to demand change.

Why don't we put the money into educating the masses about the benefits and the advances in offshore turbines and wave based turbines is well within range of a cities infrastructures budget with some assistance from the feds.

Bottom line...if this planet was covered in wind turbines we would be spending more time fighting to preserve other resources rather then bitching about what a barrel of oil cost.

But until that happens we are creating a business that creates carbon credits that others can use to offset their own carbon pollution

Q CEO

Top 3 smart phones and what that means?

With the IPhones popularity soaring and Blackberries dominance. Its no wonder todays business need a mobile solution that allows its customers full access. This society is increasingly becoming mobile and its not just the "geeks" that are the early adopters anymore.....

As a service business that promises convenience. We need to provide a way for members to make reservations as quick as possible.

Example: You are at work in downtown miami and the parking garage you park at has limited spots in the first place and you really don't want to waste the gas or move your car. You don't have access to the internet because you are not physically in your office. Now imagine you take out your IPhone tap on the Verde logo on your main screen and up pops a Google map with a pin that represents where you are. You tap "locate" at the bottom of the screen and withing 10-15 seconds the map is populated with Verde pick up/drop off locations within 3 blocks of your present location. You tap the location closest to you and find 3 Vespa's are available. You tap reserve ( a default 1-hr usage) and the reservation system sends a signal to the location, that you are on your way to pick up a Vespa. Once your reservation is confirmed your off to the location. Once there you swipe you key chain fob and the Vespa is activated! Hop on push go! And you are off to run errands. Once you are done running your errands park the Vespa at the location you got it from and swipe your key chain fob in front of the Vespa and the system knows you are done. The system will bill you for the hour you used it and the best part, you gas was paid for by the service!

This is an example of mobile solutions that here at Grow Verde we feel are mandatory to our success.

We have similar mobile reservation systems in the works for other platforms.

Let us know what you think and how you think we could improve this process before we finish writting code for this application.

Q CEO

Iphone reservations system added...

We have just added an Iphone reservation system. Our web partners Micstura (www.my.icstura.com) has just confirmed they will be able to provide a IPhone version of the online reservation system using apples Developer Kit. We will share details after we map out the details.

If you are a wiz when it comes to mapping and reservation systems please reach out to us, let's talk. There may be questions we have not asked or issues we will need to address as we get closer to Beta testing the Iphone reservation system.

Q CEO

Online reservation system

So now that we are clear on automating our service. Its time to seek out partners to build our reservation system. After a few minutes online I managed to get the name of the company that built Flexcars (http://flexcar.com) website, OHO. I proceeded to contact OHO through their website. After a little back and forth for a few weeks I was able to set up a conf call with a team from OHO.

OHO outlined based on a prior conversation was the map we followed in a hour long conference call. We asked questions about expertise, availability, and time tables.

After about a week on OHO's part we received an email (not a phone call) that OHO would not be able to build our website.

I could speculate on the reasons why they declined but we don't have time to dwell on those issues because we have a national business to build.

Q CEO

Phase 1 the manual stage.

We started this service as a manual service to prove it could work as we searched for hardware/software that would allow us to automate the process. This will include reservations, tracking, and billing. So far we have been able to gather from usage by our few members that the service works as envisioned! Now as we narrow our search with hardware/software partners. The business will need to move on to the next phase the web phase.

Q CEO
Q@Growverde.com

Great news about power issues with GPS

We have been testing out our GPS system from Horizon Tech. One of the most pressing issues has been the battery drain. We have been haunted by mysterious battery issues for months now and after some great detective work by the Tech team over at Horizon. They were able to figure out the solution.

It seems the GPS is configured to work off of a car/truck/ semi truck but not configured for the Vespa but.... With some software reprograming Horizon Tech was able reduce the power needs of the unit to 1/3 its previous power consumption.

This would have been a real problem had we rolled out the GPS units to all our Vespas.

Now we have to figure out how to make the RF readers talk to our data base via the GPS cellular/satalite lines!

Anyone got that figured out? Contact me directly via email so we can talk about what solutions you think we should use.

Q CEO of Grow Verde

Mobile blogging

Send me my link

Welcome to our family business.

Welcome to an ambitious project if not "you must be crazy" social experiment called Vespa sharing! What is Vespa sharing you ask? Vespa sharing is based on the concept of car sharing by companies like Flexcar, Zipcar, and I-Go. These companies have seen growth over the last 10 years and are now at the stage of merging, Zipcar buying out Flexcar to merge into a national program. But our real inspiration comes from helping people lower their Carbon Footprint also know as Co2 emissions. Wish us luck pass this to friends who you think will have great feedback for us and join us. Some times this will be funny, some times it will be technical, other times we will be venting, but at all times we will be honest (without giving away trade secretes) and transparent.

Our website is not "up to par" right now but that will change in the next 60 days (more on that later). For right now we will keep what we have up as an information site. Check it out tell us what you think of the layout and feel and we will take that feedback back to our design team.

p.s. There will always be at least 4 people involved in writing this blog so if you see the style of writing change don't be alarmed. With many minds we will accomplish much!

Members of our Team:

Q CEO you can always reach him at Q@GrowVerde.com
Geri President you can always reach her at Geri@GrowVerde.com
Joseph VP of Fleet management you can reach him at info@GrowVerde.com


thanks for joining us
Grow Verde Team...