Do you find you don’t drive your car as often as you used to? Does it annoy you to realise how much it costs in car insurance and registration while it stays parked in the garage, especially when you are away on holidays?
If you don’t mind ‘sharing’ your four wheels, you could make up to twice as much as the car’s ‘standing’ costs and have some left over to pay for running costs as well.
There are a number of car sharing organisations – such as DriveMyCar and Car Next Door – providing online platforms for drivers to make some fast cash by renting their cars out.
DriveMyCar says it has created “trusted marketplace where owners list their vehicles for free, and renters find and book the vehicles after passing our verification processes”. The platform provides for accidental damage and theft from the rental charged. Third-Party insurance up to $30 million is also thrown in as is roadside assistance in some states.
Cars can be hired on a daily basis or for longer stretches. When I searched for car availability in my suburb, dozens of matches were returned. They ranged from $20 a day for a small Suzuki to nearly $90 a day for a BMW SUV.
The site claims: “We calculate the amount you earn from renting your car according to its market value. For example, if your car is worth $24,000 you could earn $840 per month or $10,080 per year, that’s a return of 42 per cent if rented for a year.”
But you can’t offer up any old jalopy. Among the restrictions imposed are that the car must have fewer than 150,000km on the clock, be no more than 10 years old, is well maintained and insured.
Car Next Door is a little more forgiving. A listed car can have up to 200,000 clicks on the clock, be up to 12 years old, and just needs to be in a reasonable condition. “A few scratches and marks are totally fine, but it has to be running well,” the site says.
The operators of Car Next Door guarantee that you will earn at least $2000 a month.
The organisation installs technology in your car to keep it safe and manages the handover of keys and administration. Owners set the hourly or daily rental rates and decide when they want to hire out their car.
The bonus with this scheme is that you will no longer have to pay car insurance or roadside assistance once you join. There is a fee for $60 a month which covers these.
According to Car Next Door: “Most cars are listed for $5 to $8 an hour, or $25 a $40 a day. Vans, utes and fancy cars can earn up to $100 a day or more.”
Joining the scheme will allow you to keep half of the first $240 of hourly income each month and 75 per cent of the total beyond that.
If you feel your car ownership status is just idling away and you want to explore options for some quick money for little effort, it might be worth looking up these and other car sharing schemes.
Would you rent out your car to a stranger? Does the cost of car insurance and registration put a financial strain on your budget? Would you prefer to rent a car occasionally rather than have outright ownership?
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