Have you ever let your neighbour borrow your car for a nip around to the shop? How about for the whole day to travel across the country? Probably not!! However this seemingly crazy idea is becoming a reality in the UK - meet WhipCar.com, the UK’s first peer-to-peer car sharing site.
It’s a novel idea. Reports suggest that of the 30m+ cars in the UK, a large percentage of them are on the road for less than 1 hour a day. Instead they’re in driveways & parking lots up and down the country, while their owners pay insurance, tax and perhaps parking costs.
So why not turn your set of wheels into a little money making machine? Well that’s exactly the aim of WhipCar. They’re a UK based website, where you can register for free, and proceed to rent your car to other members for anything from a few hours to a few weeks at a time. WhipCar look after the payments & insurance (owners insurance is not affected at all by any claims made) and then charges owners a 15% commission on the rental cost. Simple!
Cars are no more than 8 years old, must have a valid MOT cert and be in decent nick, inside and out. Worried about who rents your car? Well WhipCar looks after all that as well, doing a full licence check, as well as checks to see if the renter has any convictions for things relating to no insurance or drink driving. They then agree an hourly or daily cost, plus a charge for fully comprehensive insurance on the vehicle and a small £2.50 charge which goes to WhipCar.
I think it’s a cracking idea; why not earn a little bit of cash while you’re in work or college?! However you do need to question the downside of it all - the additional depreciation of your car, the fear of misuse, food & drink consumption in the car etc.. On the other hand though, the model that WhipCar has adopted seems pretty secure, and that’s probably the main reason why so many people are signing up to become a part of it.
