How to Make Money by Sharing Your Car?

What exactly is Car Sharing?

If you have a car that you don’t use so much, there is an easy way to make money. You may call it car sharing in Australia, New Zealand or Canada, or car pooling and ride sharing in United States, or call it car clubs, in United Kingdom. It doesn’t matter the way you call it, car sharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour.

It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often private individuals themselves, and the car sharing facilitator is generally distinct from the car owner. Car sharing is part of a larger trend of shared mobility.

Currently there is a roundup of car sharing services such as Zip Car, Turo, Maven, Enterprise CarShare, Communauto.

Different Types of Car Sharing

Generally, car sharing programs fall into one of four sharing models: roundtrip, one-way, peer-to-peer, or fractional.

Roundtrip car sharing: Members begin and end their trip at the same location, often paying by the hour, mile, or both.
One-way car sharing: Enables members to begin and end their trip at different locations through free floating zones or station-based models with designated parking locations
Peer-to-peer car sharing (sometimes referred to as P2P or Personal Vehicle Sharing): Operates similarly to roundtrip car sharing in trip and payment type; however, the vehicles themselves are typically privately owned or leased with the sharing system operated by a third-party.
Fractional ownership: Allows users to co-own a vehicle and share its costs and use.

Neighborhood car sharing is often promoted as an alternative to owning a car where public transit, walking, and cycling can be used most of the time and a car is only necessary for out-of-town trips, moving large items, or special occasions. It can also be an alternative to owning multiple cars for households with more than one driver.

Difference between Car Sharing and Traditional Car Rentals

Car sharing differs from traditional car rentals in the following ways:

Car sharing is not limited by office hours
Reservation, pickup, and return is all self-service
Vehicles can be rented by the minute, by the hour, as well as by the day
Users are members and have been pre-approved to drive (background driving checks have been performed and a payment mechanism has been established).
Vehicle locations are distributed throughout the service area, and often located for access by public transit.
Insurance: state minimum liability insurance, comprehensive and collision insurance. They do not provide uninsured, under-insured or personal injury protection insurance.
Fuel costs are included in the rates.
Vehicles are not serviced (cleaning, fueling) after each use, although certain programs (such as Car2Go or GoGet) continuously clean and fuel their fleet.

With car sharing, individuals have access to private cars without having costs and responsibilities associated with car ownership (except for fractional ownerships). Some car share operations cooperate with local car rental firms, in particular in situations wherein classic rental may be the cheaper option.

The insurance policies on car sharing greatly varies among companies, but all car sharing firms provide insurance that at least meets the legal minimum requirements for the given region of operation.

Benefits of Car Charing

According to how stuff works website, one of the major benefits of car sharing is that it saves money. Owning a private vehicle, while very convenient, has many attached costs – monthly payments, gasoline, oil changes and maintenance, parking, and insurance. So car sharing spreads those costs among several people instead of having one person shoulder the burden.

Besides, car sharing takes more cars off the road. People who frequently use car sharing tend to sell their own cars eventually and start using alternate modes of transportation, like biking and walking. They indefinitely postpone a vehicle purchase and drive less overall.

As you can probably imagine, the idea of fewer people sitting behind the wheel of a car has quite a few benefits. For one, it helps reduce traffic congestion and wear and tear on the roads. Car sharing decreases air pollution and energy dependency. Furthermore, as time passes, people hope the level of urban car sharing will tip the scales so less parking infrastructure and road expansions will be needed. This could mean more resources reserved for developing parks and urban green spaces.

That said, car sharing ends up having environmental costs, too, in air and water pollution, and emissions that contribute to climate change.

Other benefits may include overall better health due to an increase in biking and walking. Even if you just walk to get to a car-share parking spot, it’s better for your health than constantly driving everywhere. Car sharing also allows people who cannot afford their own vehicles access to a car.

The Future of Car Sharing

Zipcar website has a few interesting information that I would like to share with you. According to the site, 10% of the population is expected to adopt car sharing as their primary mode of transportation by 2025. Additionally, it’s assumed that every shared car from Zipcar takes 13 personally-owned vehicles off the road. Plus 90% of drivers subscribed in the website drove 5500 miles or less per year, saving 32 million gallons of oil (219 gallons each!).

Our Own Experience with Turo Car Sharing

A while ago my husband and I listed our car to Turo and until now, everything worked fine. So fa so good. You think about it, it really is a great easy way to earn money, turning your depreciating asset into an earnings engine.

What is Turo?

Turo, formerly RelayRides, is an American peer-to-peer car sharing company, launched in Boston in June 2010. The concept was inspired by similar online marketplaces such as Airbnb and Ebay In late 2010, the company expanded to San Francisco, where it is now headquartered. The company allows private car owners to rent out their vehicles via an online and mobile interface.

This car sharing marketplace where you can book any car you want, wherever you want it, from local hosts across the US, Canada, the UK, and Germany. A vibrant community over five million car owners and more than 200,000 vehicles listed worldwide, Turo guests can choose from over 850 unique makes and models, while hosts earn extra money to offset the costs of car ownership.

Turo is basically like AirBNB for cars.

Advantages of using Turo for guests (car renters):

Choose from a totally unique selection of cars and drive the perfect one for your trip
Book cars directly from local hosts, as much as 30% less than traditional car rental agencies
Get the car delivered, and book trips on the go with a quick tap

Advantages of using Turo for hosts (car owners):

You can share your car and turn your depreciating asset into an earnings engine.
Rest assured with up to $1 million (CA$2 million for Canadian vehicles) in liability insurance backing each trip

Rest assured with up to $1 million (CA$2 million for Canadian vehicles) in liability insurance backing each trip

Comparing Turo with other platforms

Turo vs Zipcar

Zipcar is one of the largest services in the world. You basically use the app to book a car and use the card key provided to unlock it. Zipcar is a standard car sharing company, currently owned by Avis, vehicles are allocated to a parking spot and can be used and returned to designated parking spot. Zipcar requires a monthly subscription, there is two membership plans, free and paid, vehicle pricing can vary depending on membership. With Zipcar, mileage seems more limited than in Turo and it seems to have a limited choice and more expensive options.

Turo vs Maven

Like Zipcar, Maven is a standard car sharing company(run by GM) with vehicles parked at designated parking spots. With Maven, you have to subscribe for a Free membership. Unike Maven, with Turo you can list more than just GM cars, and you can park it for pickup and drop in more places.

Turo vs Communauto

This option is completely different from Turo. Free floating car sharing. Cars are owned and maintained by the company and you are allowed to take and park vehicles in designated legal parking locations.

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