Zipcar is beefing up its Chicago presence with a line of cargo vans ahead of Memorial Day and summer travel.
The “Zipvan” program, which originally launched in San Francisco in November 2011 and in Boston and Washington D.C. in March 2012, is launching in Chicago with 15 Ford E-150 full-size cargo vans available in nine locations, including Zipcar pods in Lakeview, Wrigleyville, the West Loop, Chinatown and the South Loop, a company press release said Thursday.
“The Zipvans will be available for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, which is always a busy moving weekend,” said Charles Stephens, general manager of Zipcar Chicago.
The vans feature two up-front seats and 230 cubic feet of cargo space, and can fit a queen-sized mattress, Zipcar said. Customers can rent the vans for hourly or daily use starting at $15.75 per hour or $109 per day, and, like all Zipcar-fleet vehicles, the price includes gas, insurance, parking, roadside assistance, and up to 180 miles of driving per day.
Zipcar is a car-sharing service with more than 700,000 members and 9,000 vehicles in cities and college campuses throughout the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Spain.