Baby You Can Drive My Car - My Experience as a RelayRides Car Owner

 With the announcement that GM's Onstar is partnering with RelayRides to allow GM car owners to sign up their cars to be rented by the hour, I figure there are a lot of people saying "What the shift? There is no way in schnell I would let random people drive my car!"  Some, however, might see this as a great way to put their otherwise-mostly-idle, depreciating car to good use while recouping some of the terrible investment back in the process (or at least paying for gas and maintenance), like I did when I signed up for RelayRides this year.

A while ago, I was watching a Ted Talks video (embedded below) by Rachel Botsman on collaborative consumption.  In it the speaker mentioned a peer-to-peer carsharing service called RelayRides. This piqued my interest, since I really liked the idea of carsharing. In fact, I had been researching whether or not I should sell my car and sign up for Zipcar after visiting my friend in Evan Geer in Portland, who inadvertently showed me how cool it was to be in the system while driving me around Portland. He could easily drive any car he wanted nearby his house when he needed to, and spent way less money per month than I did on car payments and maintenance for a car I rarely use (I telecommute). However, I happen to be somewhat of a smart car enthusiast, and really didn't want to let go of my car. In addition, though Zipcar is hugely popular in S.F., there are no cars to be found near where I live in the Outer Sunset. RelayRides, I figured, might let me get in on the collaborative consumption bandwagon and still get to keep my beloved smart!  Trouble was they were only running in Boston. Nevertheless, I put myself on their waitlist for other cities.

Several months later I got a call in the evening. Expecting a telemarketer, I was pleasently surprised that it was actually someone in the marketing department of RelayRides. They had recently relocated to San Francisco and were looking to expand from downtown, where a few cars were already signed up, to the Sunset. Now, I live as far out in the Sunset as you can get (Ocean Beach), but they were willing to get my car in the system. Sweet! I made an appointment and left my car at a shop where they installed the kit. This kit enables the car to be unlocked and drivable by RelayRides members with their key cards, which means I don't have to interact with anyone to swap keys. The key itsself remains inside the car, but the car is immobilized while it is not rented. An added bonus is that I don't have to remember my car key--I keep my own keycard in my wallet and unlock the car with that. If I forget that I can call RelayRides to unlock my car for me--it is like having my own version of OnStar! 

At first I thought I would take a while to get used to having to reserve my own car and having other people drive my baby. It took a surprisingly short time. Reserving my car has made me much more aware of my useage. After all, time spent driving my car has quite an opportunity cost. I've found myself combining more trips and taking alternate transportation when the car is not necessary. As for other people driving, so far everyone has been very respectful. RelayRides has a huge insurance policy when the car is reserved, and they have some very smart policies to ensure people don't smoke in the car, spill stuff, run over pedestrians etc. After the first few rentals I feel really comfortable with the system. Yes, my seat and mirrors get repositioned a bit sometimes, but hey--if someone came up to me and said "Hey let me move your seat forward and I'll give you $20", I'll happily take the $20. 

As for the cash, I really liked that I was able to set the rate of my car myself. I was able to study other cars in the system and see which ones were having success at prices versus what the styles of cars were at. Whatever the price, I get to keep 65% of the hourly fee. The rest goes to the $1M insurance policy and to RelayRides. My revenue has been growing. I have the most remote RelayRides car in the City, and in the first month I earned about $50 (with an estimated $5 spent in gas). In my second, I earned $80, and it is growing. I think it will keep growing as people in the area find out there is finally a carshare here in Ocean Beach, and get signed up into the system.  I have no doubt that people who are more centrally located are earning a lot more and faster. This is by far one of the easiest ways to make passive income I've seen. 

All-in-all, I've really enjoyed being a RelayRides car owner. Not only have I earned a few extra bucks towards my car, but I've felt like I've been helping my community by enabling at least several people to live a car-free lifestyle and still be able to do the odd heavy grocery trip or jaunt up to Wine Country. In fact, a study shows that on average, each carshare enables 15 other people to live car-free. In additon, I have the ability to rent another car, for instance, when guests are over from out of town and I need more than just two seats. Finally, my always having names for my cars actually makes sense--all RelayRides cars have to have names. I chose Front 2fortwo as a play on words with the model (a fortwo) and a pioneering EBM/electro-industrial band Front 242. It goes well with my taste in music and the black-on-red styling of my car--I even have a selection of good EBM CD's for curious borrowers. What other rental or carsharing company allows that much character into their cars? From my experience, I would definitely recommend signing up to RelayRides if you are a car owner and live in an urban area. 

Interested in renting my car? Check it out here:  http://relayrides/front2fortwo. I'll leave you with this video from RelayRides explaining the system with a nice cartoon.