What is Modo's Open Return & Why Should I Care?

Bringing his "jetpack" (aka booster seat) to the Modo car

I've been a Modo member since before it was called Modo, waaaaaaay back in the days of the Cooperative Auto Network. In the 16 years since I joined, I've driven all kinds of different vehicles. Most of the time we bike, but once or twice a month, for those times when we're going somewhere that is too far to haul the kids in a cargo bike, or the weather is dreary, or we're planing to carry something massive, it's great to have the option of using a Modo.

Heading out to pick up B & O after her ballet class

I'm really used to planning out our car usage, figuring out how long it's going to take us to drive to & from our destination, how long to install boosters seats, unload our stuff, how long we'll want to stay wherever it is we're going. But sometimes, stuff happens. Like a collision on the bridge that snarls up traffic. Or we just feel like hanging out with the fam a little longer. Or we remember a thing we could pick up at that store on the way home.

Often, we can extend our booking to include the extra time to do this stuff, but sometimes not. It's all part of sharing these cars with the other tens of thousands of members. Sometimes you gotta get back because someone else has the vehicle booked right after you.

Oliver's turn to drive the Modo

Until Modo introduced something new: OPEN RETURN.

If you haven't heard about it yet, Open Return is a new booking option that allows you to reserve a car for a full 24 hours, & then return it whenever you want within that time. Once you park the car & fob out, you go to the Modo app & end your booking manually, paying for just the time that you used, plus a $3 fee. Cool, right?

B likes to help fob out

Like I said, I've been a Modo member for almost 16 years now & I'm used to planning my trips & having a deadline that we need to get the car back by. However, having this flexibility is awesome. Particularly with kids. It can be hard to predict in advance how the day is going to go when we're out & about, so using Open Return means we can come home early & save a bit on our booking. Then the car is available for another member to use. Or we can stay out later & not have to worry about rushing home or checking to see if we can extend or if someone else has the car booked right after us. No need to worry if you get stuck crawling through traffic over a bridge or through a tunnel. Or if everyone is happy & we have not reached critical child meltdown phase, we can squeeze in one more errand that we remember on the fly.

Last weekend we made an Open Return booking to go to my nephew's second birthday party on the North Shore. We also had a great visit with the other side of the family & even got in a little hot tub time! It was really nice to just relax & not have to keep an eye on the time or extend our booking. We ended up hanging out longer than expected & just headed home when it was time to get the kids to bed.

If you're a Modo Member, have you tried Open Return yet? What do you think? If you haven't, you can find out even more about Open Return on Modo's website right here.



Disclaimer: As an Official Blogger Ambassador, Modo provides me with driving credits in return for blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, & Instagramming about our adventures big & small with Modo.

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