I recently had the pleasure of meeting Cody Cancade, an employee at Standard Aero, who is part of a successful independent 6-person vanpool. Cody shared their incredible story with me, and I thought you would all enjoy it!
Q. How long have you been vanpooling together? How did you decide to purchase a van together?
A. The carpool was started 10 or so years ago with just 3 guys and it evolved into the 6 of us about 4 years ago. We bought the van 4 years ago when I moved from the city to St Malo. Guy, Darrel C, Rick and Justin had a car together before that but after discussion and the ability to bring me and Darrel F in it was a no brainer. We bought it for financial reasons, this way we split repairs, fuel, insurance and save wear and km on our own vehicles.
Q. Who started the vanpool? How many kms does your ‘pool travel?
A. I’m not exactly sure who started it. We all work at Standard Aero. Five of us live in St Malo and one lives in St Pierre. We travel a total of 180km per day, 4 days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Q. What is your favourite thing about vanpooling together?
A. Favourite thing would be only driving once every 5 weeks and having the ability to sleep an extra little bit on your off weeks. Also all the BSing we do with each other on the ride home.
Q. Do you have any tips for others who might want to start a vanpool?
A. Open a joint bank account and put money in it every week so if there is an unexpected repair the money is there. Make a strict no detour rule (we incorporated a case of beer per detour). Everyone has their own lives and does not need someone’s detour to interfere with it. Just helps keep the peace. We also keep a calendar in the van to keep track of when everyone drives, oil changes and vacations.
Thanks for sharing your vanpool story with us Cody, Guy, Darrel C., Rick, Justin, and Darrel F!
