[Reducing motoring costs] Anyone rent their car out to car sharing services like Hiya?

BOWFER

Herzlos said:

It looks like a great deal on an hourly basis (there's a Peugeot  208 near me for £2/hour) before booking fees and insurance. Though I don't know how practical it is for me to go and get it without a car.

£4 an hour for a 13 plate Fiesta or £5 an hour for a Mitsubishi ASX (age unknown but looks recent) near me.

jimjames

BOWFER said:

Herzlos said:

It looks like a great deal on an hourly basis (there's a Peugeot  208 near me for £2/hour) before booking fees and insurance. Though I don't know how practical it is for me to go and get it without a car.

£4 an hour for a 13 plate Fiesta or £5 an hour for a Mitsubishi ASX (age unknown but looks recent) near me.

Interesting numbers but I'm not sure what's in it for the owners at those sort of rates. Even my ancient car I wouldn't really be bothered at hiring it out if I only got £4 for the hassle (and presumably the hire company take some commission out)

Grumpy_chap

BOWFER said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I don't really understand these HIYAcar type services from the point of view of the renter.

If I want to hire a car for the coming weekend, Friday to Sunday, I can go to a national hire firm and book a Focus or equivalent for £141.51.  For that price I will get a new / nearly new modern, fully maintained car and proper business / professional service, breakdown cover, etc.

Alternatively, I can use HIYAcar to borrow a 10 yo Golf with a small dent in the rear wheel arch, unknown service history and a daily mileage limit, all for the princely sum of £209.11.

HIYAcar does not seem to make any sense.  Plus, in the event of damaging the vehicle, I know I'd much rather return to a car hire depot where it will be dealt with entirely impassionate manner rather than risk the wrath of an individual ranting over their pride-and-joy.

I think it's more aimed at people wanting to hire by the hour.

For a one hour hire, that same Golf is £5.
That is then competing with Uber.

I can't think of many times I'd want to hire a car for an hour or so, except, perhaps, taking a load of garden waste to the dump?

BOWFER

jimjames said:

Interesting numbers but I'm not sure what's in it for the owners at those sort of rates. Even my ancient car I wouldn't really be bothered at hiring it out if I only got £4 for the hassle (and presumably the hire company take some commission out)

I agree, seems a lot of potential hassle for little return.
But you get people selling stuff on faceook messenger for £3, so what I do I know.

Herzlos

Grumpy_chap said:

For a one hour hire, that same Golf is £5.
That is then competing with Uber.

I can't think of many times I'd want to hire a car for an hour or so, except, perhaps, taking a load of garden waste to the dump?

I never really use my car for more than a couple of hours at at time, to be fair.

Maybe an hour is a bit of a waste of time unless you need to go shopping, but maybe a 4 hour hire to take the kids to the beach or something would work.
I'd totally hire a bigger car for 2 hours to do a trip to Ikea, since it's cheaper than delivery.

jimjames said:

Interesting numbers but I'm not sure what's in it for the owners at those sort of rates. Even my ancient car I wouldn't really be bothered at hiring it out if I only got £4 for the hassle (and presumably the hire company take some commission out)

It sounds like the £4/hour goes to the owner, and the hire company takes a fee on top.

I agree I certainly wouldn't want to deal with the hassle for £4/hour, but I guess it all adds up and if the car isn't doing anything anyway.

Though I don't know how they deal with fuel.

NBLondon

BOWFER said:

Herzlos said:

It looks like a great deal on an hourly basis (there's a Peugeot  208 near me for £2/hour) before booking fees and insurance. Though I don't know how practical it is for me to go and get it without a car.

£4 an hour for a 13 plate Fiesta or £5 an hour for a Mitsubishi ASX (age unknown but looks recent) near me.

Within a half mile of me I have a choice of Toyota C-HR, Seat Ibiza, Vauxhall Astra at £3 an hour (2019 vintage) or a 2021 Citroen C3 at £4 an hour.  These all seem to be "Car Club" rather than owned by an individual.  I have to go 0.9 miles to get Gloria's 2017 Focus Diesel for £4 an hour or 1.9 miles to get Denzel's 2017 Smart ForFour for only £2 an hour.

If hypothetically I didn't have access to my own Focus then hiring Gloria's might be an option for some trips.

However - if I wanted a larger vehicle for going to the tip - or collecting from Ikea then I've got to go 3 miles for David's 2009 Octavia Estate at £3.  If I want something bigger than a small hatch then I'm going 4 miles for Olade's 2016 Vauxhall Insignia at £4.

That's suburban South London.  The balance of possible hirers to available cars might be quite different in other locations.

I notice that some of these individual owned cars are branded (wrapped I presume) and offer keyless entry.  So if you sign up as a car owner, you've presumably got the cost of that to consider (whether it is upfront or comes out of the Hiya commission on each hire).  And if you start to need your car regularly again (new job?) would you pay the cost of removing those?

AdrianC

NBLondon said:

That's suburban South London.  The balance of possible hirers to available cars might be quite different in other locations.

Yes, I have a choice of an 8yo A180 or 7yo i20, each for a fiver an hour. And that's it within a 40 mile radius.

Dr_Crypto

Is your name Warren Avis? If not then you’re not the right person to be renting out cars. 

veganline

My experience with peer-to-peer car hire (Hiyacar, Turo, etc.)

I’ve rented out cars for a few years — first on Easycar (deceased), briefly Turo, now Hiyacar.

When I started, Hiyacar offered free “robots” (devices under the dashboard) to owners in areas like London, Brighton, and Edinburgh. These allow keyless entry, so drivers can pick up a car any time — even at midnight for a one-hour booking — as long as you allow it in your settings.

Because I’m near public transport, I get some business. One car hides near allotments, the other uses my council permit.

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From a driver’s point of view

• National car hire firms: Many customers come to Hiyacar or Turo after bad experiences with traditional firms (e.g. Green Motion was exposed for charging multiple customers for the same scratch). Damage claims can be a real issue.

• Insurance: Prices keep rising. Most firms show a low rate up front, then add insurance costs later. This applies whether it’s a big company that mainly does airports, a local firm that mainly does van hire, or a kirb pickup service like Hiyacar, Turo, Zipcar, CoWheels, or Enterprise

• Technology: Hiyacar is ahead of Turo here. Most Hiyacar cars can be unlocked via the app, like Zipcar, CoWheels, or Enterprise. Some Turo cars have this, but fewer.

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From an owner’s point of view

• Location matters most:

  • Near stations with your own parking = very good.

  • At a train terminus = goldmine.

  • In remote areas with no other hire cars (e.g. Hebrides) = people will be glad you exist.

  • Without public transport nearby = not much demand, and the agency will be even less keen to provide a robot. You’ll have to hand over keys yourself. Nest offer a romote control key safe. You can text customer to say that the keys are under the mat. You can set settings so that there is plenty of notice.
    
    

• Practical setup:

  • Use a car with cheap insurance and good reliability.

  • Think about small upgrades (e.g. built-in satnavs feel more normal now than old Garmins).

  • Expect parking ticket notices — try to pass them to the driver yourself, since Hiyacar charges £20 for handling them and assumes guilt, although this might change.

  • You can do your own leafletting (Ecotank + Premium Inks of Louth is a good combinatin) but it doesn't make a huge difference. Likewise flyposting. A sign in the car window that can be removed by the driver is a good bet.

  • Hiyacar will help case your car in branded plastic but this could put some drivers off and they might not want to help if nobody will see. If your parking spot is hugely visible, ask for help branding a car.
    
    

• Choosing between agencies:

• Several platforms have shut down.

• Hiyacar: best tech, but weak on advertising. You can do your own leafeltting and flyposting but it doesn't necessarilly make much difference. A sign in the car window is good. Hiyacar accept older cars.

• Turo: bigger, US-backed, more customers from abroad. Glossy branding, but unclear insurance details as I read them. You could do your own googling to check my impression. When I used Turo, they did not offer robot car access at all and although this has changed it looks as though they provide it to a minority of car owners. Also, the Airbnb style scares me: they might think that the customer is always right. That's a weird american thing.
  
  

Please excuse me for using AI to put this into Vibe bulletpoint language. My own thoughts are rather rambling and would have been harder to read if I had put them in my own words

Grey_Critic

Once had to sort out a problem caused by one of these Rent-A-Wreck outfits.