Car sharing business
It’s probably safe to say Getaround as the no-frills version of bigger car rental services, such as ZipCar. Instead of charging you $80+ per day rate like ZipCar (excluding the annual fee,) car renters can rent cars at $8 per hour (the average according to Getaround) – with no sign-up fee.
For car owners, Getaround offers a unique opportunity to supplement their cars’ expenses – and turn their cars into good, real assets – by charging hourly rates to renters. You can rent out your car by specifying your own hourly rate and schedules.
By participating in car sharing program, such as Getaround’s, you are also doing good to the environment by reducing your personal carbon emissions by more than 40 percent (one shared car equals taking 1- cars off the road) – indeed, this is something to think about…
How Getaround car rental works
For renters, all you need to do is to sign up for free from Getaround website, view car owner’s profile and rating, and choose whose car you want to rent. Unlike the conventional car rental procedures, all you need to do with Getaround is by reserving and accessing your rental car using your iPhone. Car insurance? No worries – it’s all-inclusive in the hourly rates.
For car owners, you can make money, as well as supplementing your car-related expenses, by sharing your car to your friends and neighbours. Consider this: Sharing your car for one hour per day can make you $150 a month (assuming that your car’s “net” hourly rate is about $5 an hour.) Not bad, eh? All you need to do is list your car via Facebook connect.
How Getaround business works
The peer-to-peer car sharing business idea works by creating a “marketplace” in which car owners can share their car at their own hourly rates and schedules and car renters can rent a car at a much cheaper rate than the big guys.
For car owners Getaround offers free Getaround Carkit, installed in car owners’ cars and functions as GPS tracker and key mechanism. The Carkit allows renters to access car owners’ cars via their smartphone. Pretty smart.
The service monetization concept is simple – Getaround take a 40 percent commission off your hourly rate. So if you rent your car at $10 an hour, Getaround will get a share of $4 an hour.
The future monetization can be explored might include in-car ad placements (of course, with revenue sharing arrangements with car owners.)
Conclusions…
This peer-to-peer car sharing business is lucrative, indeed; it’s both eco-friendly and good for everybody’s personal finance.
Renters – you don’t need to own a car to get you around… car owners – you can supplement your car-related costs. Car rental service business owner – you offer solutions and solve problems while generating business revenues at the same time. Indeed, this small business idea offers a win-win situation for everybody.
What do you think of this kind of car rental business idea? Is it lucrative? Will it become a trend? Please share your thoughts by leaving your comment on this article.
Ivan Widjaya
Car rental service small business idea
Image: Andy Newson
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Ingenious idea. Not sure if it would work in the UK as the insurance companies are more than likely to penalise the owners for using their car in this way. We pay a higher premium for insuring for business use and to have any other drivers included on the policy.