hours a week, and did not need a car for their daily commute to work. In several of its cities, the company had formed a public–private partnership with a local public transit entity. For example, in Seattle, they were partnered with King County Metro Transit, which operates the area's buses. The company's advertising materials there said, "Ride Metro when you don't need a car. Use Flexcar when you do." Flexcar's strategic business planning, members relations plans, and branding was started in 1998 by the 4 cofounders of Flexcar - Tracy Carroll, CarSharing Champion, Dave Brook, founder of CarShare Portland, Conrad Wagner of Mobility Switzerland, and Neil Peterson of King County Metro. in January 2000, the Flexcar service was launched to 100 members served by 4 cars in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. Through a public-private partnership with King County Metro, Flexcar became the second company in the United States to become completely carbon neutral in 2003.(the first company was Shaklee Corporation in 2001). By developing a partnership with American Forests, Flexcar ensured that enough trees were planted every year to offset the exhaust from its fleet of shared vehicles. In August 2005, Revolution LLC, the holding company owned by Steve Case, founder of America Online, purchased a 60% holding interest in Flexcar. The company announced that this investment would lead to a rapid expansion of their operations. In January 2007, Flexcar notified the member base of dramatic changes in the billing structure of their hourly rental. Doing away with their flat fee for set hour and unlimited mileage rates, they announced the formation of a "Variable Pricing" plan, which calculated cost on peak and non-peak hours with mileage limited to 150 miles per day. Members were notified on the organization's website and by letter that, "[v]ariable pricing provides two benefits. Members with flexible schedules can now save money by reserving the car during its 'off-peak' time, in this case, on the weekend. Because some members will shift their trips to 'off-peak' times, the car’s availability should also improve during its 'peak' times as well." On 30 October 2007, Flexcar executives announced a merger with car-sharing rival Zipcar. The merger consolidated the operations of the two corporations. Executives from both companies, in the announcement of the merger, stated that the Flexcar headquarters in Seattle would be closed, possibly resulting in the loss of jobs as operations transferred to Zipcar's headquarters