Community Spotlight – Joe Colangelo

For those who don’t know, what is Boxcar?

At Boxcar, we spend our days helping make commuting more convenient. We partner with local businesses and organizations, from churches and funeral homes to VFWs and private homeowners, who have extra parking that sits unused during the week.

Through our app, commuters can reserve those spots and save themselves the hassle of looking for a space before they catch a train. And since the majority of the proceeds go to the property owner, the churches get a great revenue stream from something that was going to waste before.

 

Boxcar has evolved since its inception – what else can users book through the app?

Office space, for one thing! You can book a daily workspace at The Station, or several other coworking facilities around the state, through our app. We also provide luxury commuter bus service to Midtown.

During the NJ Transit Summer of Hell, we started running our buses to help the people left stranded by the cancellation of the Midtown Direct train service. Once the trains opened back up, we kept the service going in towns where it really took off. We now provide daily buses from Chatham, Madison, Summit, Westfield and Cranford, giving our customers a more civilized commute.

 

What’s next for Boxcar?

Over the past three years we’ve expanded from one to 40 towns across five states. We now provide parking throughout New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and California. We recently closed a fundraising round that will help us continue our expansion, hopefully taking Boxcar’s simplified commute nationwide!

 

Why choose Chatham Borough as the company HQ?

Chatham is one of our major customer bases, and a great town. The residents and government have been incredibly supportive of Boxcar from the beginning. With all the new restaurants opening up on Main Street, we can eat somewhere different for lunch every day of the week. It’s also home to one of our employees. When the opportunity arose to move our headquarters to The Station, it seemed like a match made in Heaven!

 

What do you enjoy most about The Station?

The Station has been great for us. It gives us the space we need, with more available as we grow. It’s also great to have the opportunity to network with other small businesses, and the great folks at The Garibaldi Group. Plus, who doesn’t love an office with free snacks and monthly Trivia Night?

 

Will the viral homemade ice luge make a return this winter?

You really get an uncomfortable amount of attention when you have a viral video. If I make a luge this winter I’ll probably just enjoy the moment instead of posting it anywhere.

 

We ask everybody this – what’s the last song you listened to?

“From Now On” from the Soundtrack to The Greatest Showman. It’s both my kids and my favorite soundtrack for two years now and my 5 year old always asks to play “the song they sing in the restaurant” which is too adorable a request to deny.

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