The share club
hiring something on a pay-per-use basis they don’t want to own, or can’t afford to own. Some may be minimalists, some embracing the vagabond life, others may just be ordinary folk, leading ordinary lives.
But those involved in the sharing economy see clear groupings among the asset-owners, each with subtly different motivations for sharing.
The first are the sharing opportunists.
‘‘There are those who have an existing asset, and realise they aren’t using it as much as they might.
‘‘To them, the opportunity to earn some extra income to offset the ownership costs is attractive.’’
Retirees Grant and Julie McKechnie bought a six-berth exrental campervan, and have used Mighway as a means of meeting the costs of owning their vehicle as well as funding upgrades, including buying an awning.
It wasn’t a big mindshift for them because they were users of Airbnb, the world’s most famous sharing economy business.
Once they’d made the decision to join the sharing economy, they decided to do it well, getting professional marketing pics taken, having their advertising exec son help with the pitch, and going the extra mile in making their Ford camper renter-friendly.
‘‘We’ve been quite successful in the number of hires we get,’’ McKechnie said.
People who rent the camper treat it well, and Mighway has insurance organised to protect the owners, though the extra use it gets does result in wear and tear.
McKechnie admits: ‘‘When you take depreciation into account, I’m not sure whether we’re winners at the end of the day.’’
Simmons says the peer to peer model has also encouraged hirers to become buyers.
‘‘The idea of earning $5000, $10,000 or $15,000 a year towards the cost of owning the asset has encouraged them to make the commitment to buy it.’’
One among them is 21-year-old Aucklander Cameron Wislang.
He started renting cars from owners on the YourDrive platform, which currently has around 500 vehicles listed on it, because as a younger driver he was barred from commercial rental firms, or expected to pay a surcharge, and expected to hand over a bond.
The experience got his entrepreneurial radar pinging. He did the numbers and worked out he could get others to pay for a car.
‘‘I own a Nissan Wingroad which I actually bought as an asset for the sole purpose of listing it on YourDrive.’’
Wislang is saving to buy a house. The sharing economy got him the car, without taking a bite out of his house deposit.
Some start sharing because of economic necessity.
Aucklander Miriam Rutherford invented the Safe T Sleep safe baby sleeping sheet.
The business, which grew from her work as a nurse, has done well, but battling to protect her patent overseas has left her without the financial stability she had hoped for.
So she takes in visitors to her Conifer Grove Oasis through Look After Me – a platform which feels like Airbnb – aimed at mature, and security-conscious women.
Rutherford says: ‘‘I realised how lonely it could be in hotels and motels, and how much nicer it was to stay with people in a B&B.’’
While the money helps keep Rutherford moving forward financially, she also gets a lot out of the people she hosts.
Look After Me effectively filters the people who come her way, allowing her to feel secure about who’s coming to stay.
‘‘I love people, and the extra revenue is nice to have, but because I am a woman on my own, I didn’t want to do Airbnb.’’
Then there are those who are involved in the sharing economy for purely commercial reasons.
‘‘They buy the asset to put it on Mighway,’’ says Simmons.
One farming couple retired to
‘‘A lot of people who own assets do enjoy that social interaction. It is more than just a commercial deal.’’ Dave Simmons from Mighway
Christchurch, and used some of the capital to buy campervans to rent out on the platform.
This is similar to the Trade Meonly retailers which sprung up when the peer-to-peer trading platform developed scale.
The European environment agency says around a fifth of the lifetime carbon emissions from a petrol car are from its manufacture and decommissioning.
Reducing car ownership seems to play a part in some owners’ decision to rent their vehicles out.
‘‘It’s almost mitigating some of their guilt over car ownership,’’ says Oscar Ellison, founder of YourDrive.
Sharing can be climate-friendly as it enables fewer items to be shared among more people.
It can also avoid the need to build assets. Dunedin may have a shortage of hotel rooms, says Charity, but there is no actual shortage of rooms.