Personal car-sharing takes off as states ease insurance laws

[Liberal_in_LA]

Personal car-sharing takes off as states ease insurance laws

Seeing a business opportunity in millions of cars that sit idle at office parking lots or on weekends, several start-up companies have introduced "peer-to-peer" car-sharing services aimed at matching urban dwellers without cars and car owners looking to make some extra cash.

There are about 250 million personal cars in the USA, and they're idle an average of 22 hours a day, according to Getaround, the largest of the start-ups with about 1,500 cars, mostly in San Francisco and parts of San Diego. Its competitors include Spride Share, RelayRides and JustShareIt.

Spride operates only in the San Francisco area. RelayRides has operations in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass. JustShareIt, which hasn't launched publicly and allows only invited users for now, has cars and motorcycles in San Francisco and Los Angeles. They hope to expand if more states help clear some insurance problems that can result from owners sharing their cars.

Renters pay typically $5 to $15 an hour for a car in their neighbor's garage or office parking lot. A Subaru Impreza hatchback sedan at Getaround costs $6 an hour, while an electric Tesla Roadster sports car comes with a $50-an-hour price tag. Renters agree to drive with reasonable care, pay any parking tickets and refrain from smoking in the car. An insurance policy provided by the rental company covers any accident, typically up to $1 million in liability (and $500 deductible for borrowers).

Car owners agree to have a remote entry system installed in their cars and can earn up to 40% to 60% of the borrower's fee, or about $200 to $300 a month if they rent an hour a day.

http://travel.usatoday.com/news/story/2011/06/Personal-car-sharing-takes-off-as-states-ease-insurance-laws/48725904/1?csp=24

[TheWraith]

1. Interesting. Wish I could get in on this, but my area is too rural. nt

[kestrel91316]

2. Wow! I am loving this concept!!

[taterguy]

3. This common sense measure could save millions of gallons of gasoline

If you can earn money by not using your car then people will be more particular about how often they use it.