Canvas works for people who can’t get on board with car ownership or leasing but don’t want to rely on public transit, ridesharing, or car sharing 100% of the time. It’s also the perfect solution if you’re not into rentals but you want to go beyond where your favorite rideshare app can take you.
So, who really uses Canvas? Let us paint a picture for you. A few, actually.
Meet Candace.
She is young, ambitious, and focused on her career. Candace also happens to work for a marketing agency, and for the last few years, she has been taking the train to her office in the city from Palo Alto. Great news — Candace just got a promotion! Less-than-great news — taking the train isn’t gonna cut it anymore. Her new responsibilities require her to roam about the Bay Area meeting with clients and partners, so she must have reliable transportation. Even though Candace needs a car for work, she doesn’t want to buy one. Her long-term plan includes being car-free again (someday). Frankly, the idea of sinking money into a car she might want to break up with in a year or two stresses her out.
But there is good news! Candace is about to sign up for Canvas, keep her ride for the next 12 months while she cruises around the Bay Area for work, and then turn in the keys when she moves into a new role that allows her to remain in the city again.
Meet Peter.
We all know someone who’s always shaking sand loose from his hair and has a perpetual tan. He’s probably late a lot because the swells were too rad to abandon. That’s Peter. Peter is the ultimate adventurer. He lives his life by which board he breaks out on the weekends. For the record, that’s a surfboard in the summer and a snowboard in the winter. He’s always somewhere between Half Moon Bay and Lake Tahoe, and he always seems to be having the time of his life. Peter obviously needs a ride to get to his adventurous destinations, but he lives in the city so he doesn’t want to commit to a long-term lease or financing a car. He just needs a car on the weekends, and he’s the type of person who’s not sure what the future holds, so there’s no reason to invest in his own ride. And renting a car every Friday to Sunday is taking its toll on his wallet.
Canvas is perfect for Peter. He can get an SUV in the winter when he has more gear, and switch to a smaller ride in the summer (all he needs then is a roof rack to tie his surfboard to). Not to mention, he pays a little less than he was renting a car every weekend, and he gets the added benefit of having the car 24/7. Peter has subscribed to his car for 8 months, then he’ll return it when he finally saves up enough cash to go backpacking through South America.
Meet Josephine.
Graduate students have enough to worry about. They are always elbow-deep in a research paper, they’re trying to juggle a part-time job with their studies, and they’re still expected to get a solid eight hours of sleep a night. All of that is to say, they don’t have time to worry about buying a car. Josephine’s life fits the bill. She is in her final year at Berkeley, earning her master’s degree and spending her weekends driving down the coast for a bit of stress relief. Josephine doesn’t know where she’ll find a job after she graduates, so buying a car or entering a long-term lease doesn’t make a lot of sense right now. She is still not sure what life holds.
Canvas is perfect for Josephine. She has a car to get in and out of the city and travel to job interviews, but when she graduates in 10 months she’ll be able to return the car if she takes a job on the east coast.
Overall, it’s a convenient alternative to traditional car ownership.
Canvas is ideal for people like Candace, Peter, and Josephine — and you. Whether you’re not sure how long you’ll be living in San Francisco, you want to return to a car-free life within two years, or you’re just not willing to make a financial commitment — Canvas is here for you. You’ll pay just one monthly bill that includes your subscription fee, vehicle fee, comprehensive.insurance, bumper to bumper maintenance, and flexible mileage packages. Subscribe with Canvas for 1 month or 12. Then stay in your car, swap to another one, or skip a month or two. The choice is yours!
