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Before having this conversation, I had no idea that car share programs, like Modo, were indeed thinking about impact. That they were created to solve the problem of environmental impact AND the financial impact of vehicle ownership.

This conversation with Patrick Nangle, CEO of Modo opened my eyes entirely to a lot of subjects. We talk about car share programs and community impact. We talk about co-op models and how they differ from standard corporations or nonprofits. We talk about collaboration and an openness to realize you can’t solve anything on your own.

It truly was a pleasure, and if you’re living in BC, I hope you have a chance to try out Modo’s car share program.

About Patrick Nangle and Modo

Patrick Nangle is the CEO of Modo, a car share program in British Columbia Canada. Patrick has a long history in chief operations roles, logistics, including his previous position as CEO of Purolator. 

Modo is a member-owned co-operative that provides convenient, reliable and affordable access to the most diverse fleet of shared vehicles in British Columbia. Simply put, with Modo, you get all the benefits of having a car, without all the hassles of owning one (or two). They’re the longest-running car share in North America, and one of the biggest in the world. 

Find Patrick on LinkedIn

Find Patrick on Twitter

Find Modo on their website: https://modo.coop/ 

Find Modo on Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram

Everything We Talked About in This Episode

[02:41] Overview of Modo, Co-operative, and their impact

[03:51] How Co-ops start, and how Modo started

[05:21] Do co-ops work best as local operations or national or global?

[08:06] How do you manage the trade-off of growth versus just managing members in a co-op?

[11:01] Quote: “It’s important that we grow, but it’s not growth for growth’s sake […] it’s growth so that we can make car share available to more people in more places”

[11:38] The members are represented by the board, which drives strategy, so it’s a democratic model

[12:48] What’s the business model, how do you buy in, rent a car, etc?

[16:18] The insurance model and how they’re seeing dangerous usage like drinking and driving

[18:40] The 2 basic forms of car sharing: 1-way in a geographic area, Roundtrip car share

[21:10] When you buy your own car, you buy 1 car, and you have to optimize all the use cases you’re going to have

[23:05] What was Patrick’s experience coming from Purolator to Modo, and why?

[27:13] How a car-share company became a tech company for a bigger impact

[30:00] How an impact mindset naturally leads to collaboration

[31:35] What it means that Car2Go is pulling out of North America

[35:49] Uber and Lyft are coming to Vancouver, does that affect car shares?

[38:42] How their collaboration, Vanpool is an experiment in alternate transportation

[42:10] The difficulty in coordinating a Vanpool

[44:12] How do we scale to make more difference – the goals for 2020 and beyond