THE SHARING ECONOMY
Finding ways to make extra cash
Debra Gazeley bought a sunny yellow Fiat convertible this past April.
That same day, she listed it on Turo and, shortly after that, she had already rented it to someone.
She doesn’t own a car rental agency. She just has a penchant for cool cars and a good understanding of the sharing economy.
“I tell people Turo is like Airbnb, but for cars,” Gazeley says. “When you’re an early adopter that’s into tech, you have an edge because you’re one of the first people out there doing it.
“The disadvantage, though, is that it hasn’t been advertised much yet, so you’re always explaining what it is to people.”
That’s why, every chance she gets, she tells people about what she does and why. She’s part of the sharing economy, a global economic system where people share their belongings or services through the internet.
April Rinne, the founder of April Worldwide, an American business that advises global startups and governments on the sharing economy, says there are many factors behind its continued growth, including sustainability issues and new technologies (especially mobile devices). “I don’t see us giving up our smartphones any time soon,” Rinne says.
“The sharing economy will be a key driver of future economic growth, period. It won’t overtake ownership entirely — we’re still a long way from that — however it will undoubtedly be a relatively more important piece of our economic pie.”
Airbnb and Uber are perhaps two of the most famous examples of the sharing economy, but others include crowdfunding, cowork spaces, and, yes, the Lime and Bird scooters that filled downtown sidewalks in Calgary earlier this year.
Calgary even has a tool sharing option called — right to the point — the Calgary Tool Library. People pay a small annual fee and can then borrow from a vast list: Allen wrenches, bolt cutters, hedge trimmers, saws, you name it.
“Things like tools are expensive and yet we all still need them,” says Nathan Gignac, the library’s executive director. “One way to remove the barrier of the price is to share the cost and share the tools.”
Sharing-based businesses create community, which then creates “both sustainability and mutual generosity,” Gignac says.
It also “challenges the way we’ve been taught to root our identity in the things that we own,” he says.
“Sharing economies let people choose to own less, but have more.”
And, in some examples, it lets people make money from the things they do own. A grandmother and mom of grown children, Gazeley lives in Lethbridge and works as a counsellor when she’s not renting out her car or home.
Yes, she signed up to be a host on Airbnb, too. She enjoyed her Turo experience so much, she and her husband renovated their basement suite and now rent it out to visitors for a nightly fee.
And shortly after listing her first car, she also listed her husband’s Jeep on Turo. She’s not getting rich off her ventures, but she’s making more than if either vehicle sat idle in her driveway. When they’re not rented out, she and her husband can still drive them, she points out.
And the space in her basement? She’s making more on Airbnb than she would dealing with long-term renters.
“The hardest part is that Lethbridge generally isn’t a city that tourists come to that often,” she says. “And people don’t want to rent a convertible in the winter. They want an SUV.”
Turo bills itself as “the world’s largest car sharing marketplace,” with close to 800,000 members in Canada and about 10 million worldwide. You can search for cars that are camping-friendly or pet-friendly, or cars with ski racks or car seats for kids, and each car owner’s insurance is covered by Turo’s commercial insurance policy.
That’s a good thing, Gazeley says. “The down side is that you get the occasional person that doesn’t take care of your car,” she says. “And accidents happen. People spill stuff. Make sure you’re not emotionally attached to your car and that it’s not your favourite.”
Gazeley has rented both her cars and her Airbnb suite to people from around the world: a family from Paraguay who rented her Jeep for 10 days, and a fellow from Thailand, who gave her a silk elephant ornament as a thank-you at the end of his visit.
Then there was a young woman from France who showed up in early September to rent the convertible — just as a massive snowstorm blanketed southern Alberta.
The woman drove exactly 17 kilometres before returning to her hotel. Although Gazeley has winter tires on her cars, the young woman was still terrified of driving on the snow- and ice-covered roads.
“I felt so bad. The weather was so bad, and she had come all that way to see Waterton,” Gazeley says. “I ended up picking her up and taking her there myself. It was really cool to chat with her about her life.”
After hearing that, perhaps it’s not surprising to find out that Gazeley says the sharing economy is made for extroverts. “It’s a really great thing if you’re social and you like people,” she says. “I’m really social.”
The sharing economy will be a key driver of future economic growth, period. It won’t overtake ownership entirely — we’re still a long way from that...