​What Will be the Future of Privately Owned Vehicle Part-Time Rentals?

The question on whether privately owned vehicle rental is often used as much as private homes is generating a lot of debate. Interestingly, most people don't rent out their privately owned vehicles as much as they do with their homes irrespective of the fact that they don't use them for several hours on a normal day.

Change of car ownership culture

The advent of car sharing, ride-hailing, and driverless cars has transformed the American culture of owning a car as an expression of identity and a way of revealing personal preferences or status. Baby boomers and millennials are already involved in changing the automobile industry with the evolving "sharing economy" in surprising ways.

The urban-savvy population of the American society has embraced the idea of renting out their privately owned vehicles while others still seem skeptical. Because millennials have a lower rate of vehicle ownership than previous generations at their age, urban baby boomers can be regarded as the active consumers of the privately owned vehicle rentals business.

Companies with rental platforms

Airbnb has been at the forefront in helping most families and holiday makers to utilize rental platforms for years. Other major players in this sector that have become household names include Lyft, Uber, and Turo (formerly called RelayRides). Get around is another company that has also been encouraging private vehicle owners to use their cars to make thousands of dollars annually by renting them out.

Surprisingly, people put their vehicles back on these companies' rental platform even after being involved in dangerous crashes. RelayRides and Getaround have insurance policies that protect people who put their cars up for rent on their rental pools. However, these companies have pulled out their operations in certain states like New York because of the controversies surrounding their insurance coverages and the potential financial dangers that they expose their private car owners to.

Some of these players in the private owned vehicle part-time rental business are also not transparent in revealing information about their current status; including the number of vehicles on their rental platforms due to these controversies – even though they claim to be running business smoothly. The viability of putting a privately owned car on a rental pool is far from reflex for most car owners. This is because most people use their cars on a daily basis and need them for running random errands or family rides over the weekend. It's also not clear whether the companies should cater for the insurance liabilities in case of an accident that is caused by a driver who is not the authorized renter. Insurance companies are not readily willing to offer cheapest car insurance for private vehicle owners who put up their cars for rental. This makes the entire future of privately owned vehicle part-time rentals a twisted income-supplement approach.

On a different twist of affairs, some of these companies provide car owners with an opportunity to cover their own payments through the irresistible lease payments. For instance, Getaround has a package that enables its car owners to make their payments to Lexus and Mercedes-Benz by using the revenue they earn from the rentals. Turo offers Tesla owners, especially those who can't afford the expensive cars a chance to settle their payments as well.

The entire process begs the question: is it viable to accommodate the aforementioned risks in order to get the money offered by these companies? Surprisingly, the money from the monthly lease payments is so enticing that most car owners feel the risk is worth it as it enables an individual leverage his or her assets strategically to generate income. To some people, the cost of repairing their vehicles and returning them to the companies is lesser than the overall income accrued from the monthly payments.