Car hire joins sharing economy
A new deal between a car rental company and a peer-to-peer platform is being tipped to give car owners more opportunity to make money by renting out vehicles that are not being used.
Jucy has taken a 50 per cent share of YourDrive, the country’s biggest peer-to-peer car rental platform, which connects private vehicle owners with people looking to rent a car.
Jucy chief executive Tim Alpe said it would help the company expand without needing to purchase its own vehicles.
‘‘We are currently turning away 20 per cent to 30 per cent of our customer orders every day – mainly because we don’t have a car in the right place at the right time.
‘‘We will be able to now channel this surplus demand into the YourDrive network,’’ he said.
Jucy had been pondering the move for some time, as Airbnb and Uber cemented the sharing economy.
‘‘Car ownership is inherently inefficient and is traditionally seen as a sunk cost with most of us driving for on average for an hour a day, this new model allows owners to derive a revenue for the remainder of that time,’’ Alpe said.
‘‘The peer-to-peer model helps maximise the use of the resource in an environmentally and financially sound way. It is estimated that for every car that is shared, it takes ten more off the road.’’
Jucy hoped to grow its use of YourDrive to 1000 vehicles over the next 12 months. It currently owns its own fleet of 3000.
Alpe said part of the key to success would be raising awareness of the opportunity, and encouraging car owners to consider renting out their vehicles. One owner had already made $8000 in a year through YourDrive.
Fewer than 1 per cent of YourDrive rentals had resulted in a claim for damages, which are covered by the platform’s insurance policy.
An increasing number of domestic customers who did not own a car of their own wanted the flexibility of occasionally having access to a vehicle, he said.
Improvements in public transport infrastructure increase the demand for car rentals.
‘‘With more consumers relying on trains, buses, cycling and even walking to meet the bulk of their transport needs, the need to own a vehicle begins to decline. Although public transport can meet your needs most of the time, not owning a car can be limiting if you want to get out of the city on the weekend.’’
YourDrive can offer cars on a daily or even hourly rate. The new fleet will include everything from a scooter to small trucks. Susan Edmunds