Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Baby, You Can Rent My Car

IT is the sort of challenge that makes an economist’s heart beat faster: wringing some revenue out of a privately owned midsize car that costs about $8,000 a year to own and operate, according to AAA, but spends most of its time sitting in the driveway or parking garage.

Shelby Clark set out to solve the problem of these underutilized assets with RelayRides, a service he created to help owners rent their cars by the hour. Mr. Clark, 28, whose service began operations in June, estimates that car owners in the RelayRides program can recoup hundreds of dollars a month to offset car payments, insurance and other costs of ownership.

Mr. Clark happened onto the idea two winters ago while riding his bicycle to pick up a Zipcar in Boston.

“Along the way, I passed dozens of cars that hadn’t been driven in weeks, and it dawned on me that there are these high fixed costs, so perhaps we could leverage this resource,” said Mr. Clark, who was attending Harvard Business School at the time. “I began to research how to connect people in their communities.”

The service works in a manner similar to other car-sharing services: members reserve vehicles online at RelayRides’ Web site (or by telephone) and use programmed cards to unlock cars that are in commercial or residential parking lots or the owner’s driveway. Drivers rent by the hour or day, with gas and insurance fees included in the rate. So far, the service is available only in Boston and nearby Cambridge.

Image
FOUNDER Shelby Clark started RelayRides to link car owners with renters.Credit...Michael Lutch for The New York Times

To ensure that renters treat the vehicles well, Mr. Clark personalizes the cars. Renters are told that they are borrowing Anthony’s 2010 Toyota Prius, for instance, not just a generic Prius from the corporate fleet. A letter is left in each car to remind drivers that they are in a private individual’s car, not a company-owned car.

Likewise, owners are encouraged to keep up with their cars’ maintenance and repairs: drivers rate cars they borrow using a five-star system similar to Yelp.

So far, the system seems to work well for owners. Pedro Santos, who works at a tech company in Cambridge, said that the biggest problem he had had since he enrolled with RelayRides this summer was some leaves left on the floor.

Mr. Santos uses his Toyota RAV4 only about 15 hours a month for grocery shopping and other errands. At other times it is available for rental at $10 an hour — $1 less than a Zipcar parked nearby, he said. RelayRides takes a 15 percent share of the rental fee.

“I’m making some cash from the car,” said Mr. Santos, who has been earning $200 a month, more than enough to cover his insurance, fuel and other costs. Most customers, he said, borrow his car in the early evenings and on weekends. When he wants to use it, he blocks out his schedule in advance.

“I was a bit hesitant,” he said, “but people take extremely good care of my car.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section AU, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: Baby, You Can Rent My Car. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT