The Infamous McStomachache

After an appointment with the TU Eindhoven I had the pleasure to drive back to Rotterdam at5.15pm. Aka; the worst possible time to drive home. But hey, bite the bullet. It was a successful meeting. The TU Eindhoven will be another StudentCar campus as of January!
So, finally got out of Eindje, onto the freeway… the term ‘free’way is not a term that can be used in The Netherlands. Our roads are never-ever free… they are busy, cluttered and clogged up with shitty drivers. So I got on to the busyway, and then my stomach realized I haven't eaten properly that day. (a bowl of cereal in the morning, two coffee and a Snickers in the afternoon…)
I wasn’t gong to make it without fainting to Rotterdam. I need food fast! I need fast-food, I need a McDrive!

Now the funny thing about MickeyD’s is that you’re (almost) always in the mood for a McDonalds meal.Which is strange because it’s never-ever satisfying after you have thrown the last bite of your hamburger back in its package... Your still hungry, but now you can't eat anymore because you have that Infamous McStomachache…

MCD is like a drug. You know it’s bad for you. You know you will regret it, but it’s irresistible at times..
Thus, this hamburger-craving-fastfood-junkie was anxiously trying to spot those 'Golden Arches'… When you don’t need a McD., there everywhere, when you do need them... you have to drive for about 46km tot finally spot a sign of the burger giant!! A big-ass billboard with a delicious looking hamburger! (Not that the real deal ever remotely looks like the image, but this one looks amazing! In all fairness… At this point even road kill looks eatable.)

Anyways. Normally Billboards always say which exit there is a Mac. But I’ve almost past the board and couldn't find an indication of an exit anywhere on the board. I guess this was just billboard advertising the new burger… crap..
Then disaster struck… a yellow M in the sky!.. But at the other side of the highway.. and I’ve just passed the exit while focussing on the billboard on my left side!!! Come on Ronald M.!! Start you billboard with huge letters saying “THIS EXIT!” and then your stupid burger!!

Morale in the StudentCar was low at this point.. I was grumpy… all songs on the radio where stupid, the jokes of the DJ were lame, other people were terrible drivers…

Anyways, no yellow ‘M’ for at least 45 more kilometres! FINALLY, at Dordrecht a McDonalds. I could hear my stomach cheer with excitement!
Time to order!
-- Side note: Now my friends know I’m the kind of guy, who likes to try new stuff. I always fall for 'the new tasty burger in town'. Unfortunately 90% of the time they suck and I’m eating a filthy burger with a soggy chiabata bun or whatever and a weird sauce, while my friends are enjoying their safe ‘Quarter Pounder’… But that evening I couldn’t afford a mistake like that... I’m going for a classic. Haven’t had a Big Mac for a while but they have always treated me well.--

“A supersize Big Mac menu with sauce and an Ice tea please!”,  “That will be a million euros, please pay at window #1” "Thanks!"

Yes! Victory! A Big Mac menu.. at 6:30 pm
at 6:35pm, ideal set up of fast food in car (see picture for instructions)
at 6:45pm, all gone. Except the last bite of the burger of course... Actually it was a big mess. BigMac’s can’t be eaten with just one hand. It’s even a challenge with two hands. They should call it a BigMess…
at 6:55pm, I was hungry again and was starting to get some stomach cramps.

They got me again… and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it… those bastards…

The perfect McDrive set-up (instructions below)

Turns out the Toyota Aygo is the perfect McDrive car!
The perfect set up conducted with the empirical method:

• Cup holder 1. The fries. Medium or large fries, not the small one with the paper package 
• Cup Holder 2. Your soda 
• The clutch: Place your first napkin on the clutch to keep the grease off (mandatory in a StudentCar!) 
• The little compartment in front of the clutch is excellent for the sauce! 
• The burger goes on your lap, obviously. 
• The second napkin on your steering wheel for those greasy reasons. 

Enjoy! For about 25minutes…

Beware of this truck! IT ABDUCTED MAARTEN!

He didn't have the cash present to pay for a package, and the guy didn't take no for an answer... He dragged Maarten into his van and drove off! In blind panic I managed to make this picture to be spread on the 6 o'clock news...
 Luckily a few minutes later Maarten retuned safely to StudentCar office (by foot) with the package! Did he ovepower this huge mailman? Nobody f*cks with Maarten! He'll run you down with a StudentCar!

But he actually just paid €50 for it...Turned out the van took him to an ATM...
Instead of kidnapping it was actually good service...phew..  It was an exciting day at the office...

Last time excitement like this happened, it was the day our Senseo broke down... I still remember the chills that ran through my body... Eye-twitchings, uncontrolled movements. WHAT DO WE DO NOW!!? I need my caffeine fix! Send out a signal fire!! Quick!
Wish a Douwe Egberts truck abducted my to a coffee corner that day..

The dictators of Wikipedia. One of them is a cat… CONTINUED

Okay, maybe the StudentCar Wikipedia article was still really too much of an advertisement? No to me, but some people have different perceptions. Let’s benchmark the article: Let’s see what for example our friends from Greenwheels wrote about their company. The Greenwheels page first writes about the history and philosophy, and then continues with the reservation procedure, discount on weekend rental prices etc. It also proudly shows a picture of one of their cars… this leads to WTF, mate numero trios! It’s pretty much the same!!

Screw this, I ‘m uploading it again.. minutes went by… could it be?... nope. 5.15 seconds later it was gone again. Excellent… 

What’s the matter Kittycat? Got hit by a StudentCar or something? What’s up with this censorship? After a second and a third opinion and some wiki tutorials I decided to ask him myself.  Looking at his profile I have to say I was a bit bummed out… This volunteer has a profile page with a profile movie of a cat playing with the water coming from a fosset. That sure is a legitimacy booster.. The rest of the page is filled with discussions between Kattenkruid and other users asking him why their texts were removed. Here comes anotherone, ball of fur… While typing the question I noticed a button, saying: “Kattenkruid doen’t like to be addressed with “u”. Okay Kattenkruid, as you like… 

Within minutes I received an answer saying that “the text was an advertisement, and that a similar post would probably be removed again.” Not very helpful, dude! Or should I say, Not very helpful, Pookie! 

I learned something that day: The wiki volunteer job description is basically like this: You really don’t want people to know your identity so come up with a name like “Catherb”, add a ‘funny’ movie of a cat playing with water to your profile, and not to forget, you specify how you like to be addressed in case of questions. Then you are all set  to go to start bothering honest people who just try to inform everybody about whatever topic. 

And he wasn’t kidding, all new attempts posting the text had the same result over and over again and now I even received a message saying that my IP address was used for VANDALISM on Wikipedia. (WTF! Still counting? Number four is a fact.)

They don’t pay me that much at StudentCar but now I felt like a waste of money.. trying to negitiote with a cat to get my stuff published… and lose!

At the end of the day I had one little victory we are (for now) listed in the carsharing operator article in Wikipedia.. My article is still banned.. PLEASE HELP OR I LOSE MY JOB! You’re killing me here, Sylvester! You might have 9! I have one ad it sucks right now!

Anybody have an idea how to stop the game of cat and mouse?

The dictators of Wikipedia. One of them is a cat…

Since some weeks now I am working at the StudentCar office and I decided to put a StudentCar article on Wikipedia. Of course this encyclopedia should have an article about this initiative for  students. I found that Wikipedia already has a page called “autodelen”(car-sharing), which explains the concept and history of car-sharing, and shows the picture of a car of our friends from Greenwheels. The page also lists some companies which are said to be carsharing organizations (some aren’t even, but who am I to judge).  What is weird however: The great company StudentCar was missing. WTF! How could they forget us! 

Fortunately, the great concept of wikipedia allows everybody to adjust and add content so I quickly added StudentCar to the list. To make it complete, I added the new page StudentCar, and linked the two.
Nice that was easy…. Within minutes however, the page was REMOVED. (WTF! no. 2), and I received a message that the content of my article was considered an advertisement. The name of StudentCar in the list of carsharing companies was also removed! Of course I was aware that advertising on WP is not allowed, and therefore the text was really informative mainly explaining the general concept, some history and some developments in transportation behavior our company notices. 

Somehow, this was still not good enough for……for who actually? Who decides what is good content and what’s not? The users of course! And I think that’s a good concept. However, some people (the so called wiki volunteers) however take their hobby a bit too serious and turn it into a full time (non-paid) job correcting people.

In our case with hardly valid arguments, listen to this; The StudentCar article was removed by somebody calling him/herself “Kattenkruid” which means something like “catherb”. Kattenkruid considered the text as an advertisement and there was a copyright issue, with an article about the introduction of the first electric car in Rotterdam on the website of Efleetsolutions (http://www.efleetsolutions.nl/nieuws-pers.html)… That’s funny, this website is owned by StudentCar , It was StudentCar who was one of the initiators of this introduction, the car is operated by StudentCar, and I can guarantee you: nobody within the company complained about the StudentCar article on Wikipedia… 

Okay, publishing an article on Wikipedia is clearly not as easy as I expected. Check next week's blog for more Wikipedia frustrations including WTF 3 and 4

Car-sharing vs. Car ownership

A large and luxurious car is a status symbol in many cultures. Looking at the Dutch culture this is definitely not the case (for a select group of people it is, but we elaborate on this in a future blog) most cars in our small country do correspond to the size of our country. One argument for this relationship can be the fact that we have limited (parking) space in our larger cities. Another argument can be the fact that we have a pretty reliable public transportation system (although sometimes it doesn’t feel like that when there’s another ‘power cable damaged or a ‘collision with a person’) but these trains do have pretty comfortable first class seats to relax in. Another thing is that we also don’t have to cover very large distances by car, so why would you then need a luxurious car?

Perhaps a reason for not owning a large car or not owning a car at all can be found in the fact that an average car is used only 1 hour a day. Why is it that for a period of more than 100 years we stick to the concept of owning a car? An own car creates the most flexibility a human being can wish for and the model of owning a car was encouraged by governments because the car industry was an important factor for economic development. The last decade we’re experiencing a trend towards sustainability. This affects the awareness that car ownership might not be the best solution for our society in terms of spatial planning and sustainability. For each individual who drives less than 6,000 kilometers on a yearly basis the choice for an own car is also in financial terms not the optimal solution.

Car ownership is an old-fashioned model, for many people there is a better solution: share a car with your neighbours or flat mates. Car-sharing vehicles are in general small and fuel-efficient cars, various studies indicate a shared car replaces up to 10-15 private vehicles which is also beneficial for the public space available in your neighbourhood. The cars are 24/7 available so flexibility is high, although you have to reserve a car if you want to be sure about the availability. StudentCar offers this car-sharing service mainly to students, so they can get used to the model of sharing cars instead of owning a car. Are you the next student who will experience the advantages of car-sharing? 

Video cables and Public transportation, a time consuming combination...

So after a meeting with in Apeldoorn, the StudentCar team drove back towards Rotterdam. Driving close to Nieuwegein I decided I would stay over at my parents place to have dinner and spend the night.
The next day it was time to get back to Rotterdam. I just had to pick up a specific kind of video cable to my beamer (yes, I have a beamer and it’s awesome!) on my way.
Now, living in Rotterdam for a while, I have learned that it’s no use to look online when the tram arrives because this information is hardly ever correct. You just go there and hope it arrives soon.

Nieuwegein 10.27am

So I just decided to walk towards the bus stop at the end of the street (yes I know, bus schedules are a little more accurate, but I never take a bus in Rotterdam so I forgot...) and made a quick stop at the electronics store down the same street.

I was in there for like two minutes, and unfortunately left without the desired video cable “Maybe Mediamarkt” the saleswomen said.

Arriving at the bus stop I checked the schedule and it told me the bus to Utrecht Central Station would arrive 10.38am, the bad thing was that my watched displayed 10.39am and the bus was nowhere in sight ...  “Ah. it might be a few minutes late, it would be a REALLY big coincidence I fit passed by just when I was insight that store behind me...”.
But soon you realize that was just the case... and the next one would leave 30minutes later. A small little four-letter word slipped my tongue.

Oke, nothing more you can do about it, as I'd read in Deepak Chopra’s book. ‘Accept the situation as it occurs’. So I walked on my uncomfortable suit shoes to the bus and tram stop in Nieuwegein-Zuid. From my current location about a 15-minute walk, but for someone who dislikes walking (why else did you think I started a car-sharing service ;-) I rather didn't.

Nieuwegein 10.53am

'Lucky me'  I thought when I saw bus 74 approaching just as I stepped on the bus platform!  But this lucky feeling quickly changed into disbelieve and frustration when the bus driver blew by me with a smirky smile on his face!

Why, you ask? Well... 200m from the bus stop there is a traffic light. And on the right lane of the road, a big truck stopped. Mr. busdriver was apparently thinking he drove a 200hp taxicab instead of a slow-ass bus, and thought he could quickly pass the truck and still make it to the bus stop on the far right where that arm waiving, uncomfortable shoe wearing young man stood to get on his bus...

Well of course he was pretty much just a fast as the truck, and in his pathetic attempt to overtake the truck he couldn't stop in tim anymore and decided that the best thing to do was to politely smile and raise his arms as he passed by in a way like ‘Hey man, sh** happens…’

After I gave him the international sign of ‘friendliness’ I grabbed my bags and walked towards the tram stop which was fortunately near by. I even saw a tram waiting there (Nieuwegein-Zuid is the last stop, so trams wait until their departure time) but this tram had it’s ‘no service’ lights on. But there also was this 'historic' tram that said Utrecht CS. Historic or not, as long as it goes to Utrecht soon, it’s fine by me. And it went soon all right, a little too soon…
We’re talking 3meters away; doors closing, bell ringing and the historic little tram drove away… Without Sjoerd…

Still Nieuwegein 11.13am

At this moment I left my parents house 45 minutes ago, missed 2 busses and a tram and was still like only a 1000 meters away from where I started!

So I quoted Deepak Chopra once more, did some ‘whoosa’ exercises and dragged my self back to the bus stop, the next bus came. The 77, which takes 20 minutes longer to get to Utrecht but whatever. I was my best option.

I regretted this choice from the moment I sat down… 2 seats behind me, sat a lady with a baby… This baby just completely damaged my hearing for life… Oh my god, the noise that comes out of something so small!… 10 minutes later I was crying as well… pure torture. Somebody had to get out, them or me… Realizing that the women probably had no hearing left at all, i knew my plea on why she or at least her baby should go out, wasn't going to work.
So I got out at Nieuwegein Centre..  At least I was a few kilometers closer to Utrecht CS.

Utrecht CS 11. 28am

The tram brought me to CS baby free and I headed for the Mediamarkt located just a few 100 meters form the train platforms. Knowing I only had 9 minutes before my train left, I needed to be quick. Get the cable and run back! 

I found the cable quite fast, ran to the pay desk with the shortest line… and once again I was out of luck… The 'promotional code for the demo discount offer' or something didn’t process correctly and after a few tries somebody else was called towards the desk…

No! I said to myself, I will not miss this train as well! So I left the cable at the store and ran towards my train. Just in front of me was an other guy running towards the same train. But down the escalator he stopped running, slightly raised his arms and mumbled a four-letter word… Although I could see it yet, I knew I had once again missed my connection…

As I stood there with watching the yellow-blue train disappear towards Rotterdam, I wondered…

Wouldn’t I be great if you could just rent a car for a few hours and take it when you need it…

Rotterdam, later that day.

I’m now ordered my video cable online… Ebay doesn’t let you wait at the pay desk..

Like a StudentCar doesn’t leave you waiting at the platform…

Sjoerd

StudentCar is into SM!

StudentCar is now also active in the Social Media sphere!

Yes, we too are convinced of the fun of using social media to update you, customer or soon to be customer ;-) on what goes on within and around StudentCar.

Check out our social media channels like our page on Facebook, read our blog or watch our video's on youtube. Or just follow us on twitter and get updated when we post something new. Also, the twitter channel will be used to inform you on special offers and (sometimes random) stuff that happens within StudentCar.

We are always looking for new content, so if you have suggestions, or you run into an funny or interesting situation with a StudentCar or for example in a situation where you could really use a StudentCar..., be sure to let us know! 

Suggestion for a next blog topic are also very welcome!

 You can find the link to our channels next to our animation video on the homepage of www.studentcar.nl or on the left of this screen.

And if you like the video, please help spread the word and share the video to your network! 

 Greets,

 Team StudentCar 

You've watched our trailer, now you can see the movie!

StudentCar in 2 minutes! Enjoy!

StudentCar animation teaser!

Check out our new animation. This 30 second video explains the basics you should know about StudentCar. Soon the full 2 minute video will be ready, enjoy!

What the h*** is a StudentCar?

Let me enlighten you.

This first blog form StudentCar. This blog post dedicated to introduce you to what we call: The car sharing company for students.

StudentCar is set up by 3 students from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. We’ve been in business for a year now and structures for a nationwide rollout are made. Soon you will find StudentCars at your own university and in front of your doorstep. All very exciting and all, but what IS StudentCar? You might think.

Team StudentCar @StudentCar Official Opening Jan 14th 2009 

(fltr: Vic, Maarten, Stefano and Sjoerd)

Simply put: a StudentCar is your car. Drive it whenever you want it, wherever you want it, available 24/7 all year long. It’s your call, or actually, your click!

For the rest of your student life, you can have a key to these cars right in your own wallet in your back pocket or purse. Need to drive somewhere? All you need to do is make an online reservation, walk towards the car, open it with your keycard and drive off.

You only pay per hour you use it and the kilometers you drive. No high fixed costs and no hassle!

This concept is called car-sharing. You and your fellow students share a car. Most likely the one closest to your house, but with your keycard its also possible to pick up the car at the other student house, the university or the ones in a completely different city.

Car sharing was introduced a while ago, but only in the last decade it has caught on. It’s cheap, it’s convenient, its easy and it environmental. What’s not to like? That’s what we thought at least, when we came across this article about ZipCar, the largest car sharing company in the world. They are mostly active in the US, and or also focusing on students.

That’s brilliant! I want a freaking ZipCar! But since they did not plan on placing these cars on the Erasmus, or even the Netherlands, we decided to do it ourselves.

We came across and other student who was playing with the same thoughts, teamed up, got some more support, did some entrepreneurial things, did some legal things and… StudentCar, the car sharing organization for Students was born!    Ready to fire up that (Toyota Aygo) engine and get going!

Stay in touch and we’ll tell you more about the ambitious plans of StudentCar, successes and how things don’t always go as planned.

In the mean time, check out www.StudentCar.nl (StudentCar.nl/en for English) and follow us on twitter or join or facebook to keep you updated on the trials and tribulations of the StudentCar team and heads up on when new blogs are posted.

Take care and drive safely.

Greets,

Sjoerd for StudentCar.

StudentCar Showcase

Here are some pictures of our beautiful cars. They are always in a place close to you, waiting for you to get in and drive. Enjoy

Isn't she a beauty?