An Edmonton car share company went on a retrieval mission (and impromptu ski trip) on Thursday after a customer left their car nearly 900 kilometres outside the company's home zone.
Car sharing company Pogo was alerted by a Vernon, B.C. resident who spotted one of its cars abandoned in the city.
The car share program allows drivers to rent cars for 47 cents per minute, and drive them anywhere — as long as they leave the car in Pogo's home zone (downtown Edmonton) once they are done.
"This takes the cake!"
A Pogo representative told The Huffington Post Alberta that this was definitely the farthest away one of the company's cars has ended up.
"This takes the cake! We've had Pogos left outside of the Zone before, but they have always been returned to the Zone once contacted," said Allison Harrison, marketing and communications manager with Pogo.
"Pogos are absolutely allowed to be taken on trips around Canada, as a lot of our users use Pogos are their primary or secondary vehicle. However, Pogos are meant to be returned to the Zone when the user is finished with it."
A Pogo employee ended up taking a bus out to B.C. to retrieve the car and drive it back.
The company took the situation in good humour — giving the employee a chance to do some skiing on the unexpected trip.
Pogo's website says that drivers continue to be charged until their car is returned to the zone.
"The user will definitely have to pay for the time the car was used, as well as the cost of retrieval," said Harrison.
Pogo cars are equipped with GPS, which made for easy retrieval once the employee got to Vernon. The company said the user didn't give an excuse or explanation for leaving the car in the wrong province.
CORRECTION - April 12, 2016: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Pogo charges 47 cents per hour, not per minute.
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