First off, I can’t believe I haven’t made a blog post since June. It’s been over 3 months! I had quite a busy summer; did some travelling, switched careers entirely and joined a great company that rhymes with the word moogle, and started working on a new web service. My old routines have been completely 360'd but I’m starting to get back into the groove and hopefully I’ll be posting more in the coming months.
On to the clever business idea. A few years ago I remember a home business where you “got paid to drive your car” by volunteering to have it plastered with ads for a company. The idea had potential but never reached any kind of mass tipping point. A reader alerted me to a business he launched in London this year called WhipCar. With WhipCar, the world’s first neighbour-to-neighbour car rental service, you can now rent the cars that are sitting idle on your street. The service is growing fast and already in over 300 towns and cities across the UK. It’s just like a car club but free to join and about making better use of the cars that are already sitting idle on your street.
Here’s an overview of how it works:
This is a great idea. I just recently signed up for ZipCar after I sold my beloved corvette and I love how this new service takes a distributed, leaner approach to the whole car sharing business vs. taking on the liability for an entire vehicle fleet like ZipCar.
With respect to liability and insurance, WhipCar take care of everything including screening of drivers, and also handles payment back to owners. According to the sites founder, there are thousands of WhipCar members across the country and many owners are making several hundred pounds (dollars for the rest of us) every month.
If you live in the UK and this peaks your interest, you can find out how much your car could make with the service simply enter your number plate and postal code details here for a personal rental estimation. Once you register with the service they send you a personalised pack in the post with materials to help you promote your car in the local area.
Sounds like a great business idea to me, hopefully they bring the business to North America soon!
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