IT consultant earns £1.5k a year renting out his Vauxhall Corsa to strangers while he’s at work
Edward Turay, 26, from London charges £30 a day for drivers to hire his car - here's how you can make money from your car too
A CAR owner from London makes £1,500 a year by hiring his car out to strangers while he's at work.
Edward Turay, 26, from Battersea, gets a train to work in Moorgate which means his nine-year-old Vauxhall Corsa sits on his driveway unused for five days a week.
But the savvy motorist makes some extra cash by charging strangers £10 an hour or £30 a day to use it.
Car sharing app connects motor owners with drivers who want to hire one for up to a month at a time.
Edward, an IT consultant, signed up to the service two years ago and since then has made more than £3,132.
"My insurance is about £70 a month and the MOT costs me around £100 a year," explained Edward. "So it basically pays for itself now.
"I haven't had to buy fuel for three months either because people fill up the tank to where it was before they used it, and often they top it up a bit more.
"Driving to work was too expensive as I had to pay the congestion charge, but it meant that it was just sat on the drive at home everyday.
"At least this way it's being used and I'm making some money from it."
Edward uses his car mainly on weekends to visit friends and family in Leicester where he went to university.
Since signing up to the app, his car has been rented 64 times - between two to five times a month - but the firm do take a 30 per cent cut of whatever he makes.
That means if he earns £100 for hiring his car out for a week, he'll actually only take home £70.
He added: "It depends on the month but bank holidays and Christmas are always pretty busy.
Cheap ways to hire a car for the day
HIRING a car from a local can be a much cheaper alternative than hiring one from a specialist provider - but it can also be a money-earner on the side. Here are your options:
Drivy
Earn: Between £45 and £50 a day
Cost: 30 per cent commission
What to watch out for: You'll need to install a Drivy "Open Rental" system on to your car where you'll keep a spare key. Renters can unlock the box to get the key using an app so you don't need to be there to hand it over. Make sure that your insurance covers you when the spare key is in the car.
Car & Away
Earn: Between £16 and £50 a day
Cost: 40 per cent commission plus Gatwick Airport parking fee
What to watch out for: This service is only for holidaymakers flying from Gatwick Airport. You'll still need to pay a small fee to park your car while you're away but it typically costs £40 less than parking it in longstay.
hiyacar
Earn: Between £16 to £100+ a day
Cost: 30 per cent commission
What to watch out for: Cars must be under eight-years-old and have a maximum of eight seats.
easyCar
Earn: Between £30 and £100 a day
Cost: 10 per cent commission
What to watch out for: Rents vary depending on the location that you're renting the car from.
"People want to get out of London to go home for a few weeks and so they'll hire my car if I'm not planning on using it."
Car owners can charge as much as they like for the car hire - more than £100 if they want to - but the app is used by drivers looking for cheap car hire so most of the cars cost between £20 to £40 a day.
All of the drivers that sign up to hiyacar are screened by the firm, to make sure they have a clean drivers licence and be 23-years-old with at least two years experience under their belts.
Edward has chosen to meet the drivers in person so that he can hand over the keys, but owners have the option to fit their car with a "QuickStart" box which allows renters to pick up it up when you're not there.
Three ways to cut your fuel costs
HERE are three ways to drive down your fuel costs:
- Make your car more fuel-efficient. You can do this by keeping your tyres inflated, taking the roof rack off, emptying your car of clutter and turning off your air con when driving at lower speeds.
- Find the cheapest fuel prices. Use PetrolPrices.com. All you need to do is enter your postcode and tell it how far you want to travel (up to 20 miles).
- Drive more efficiently. Some ways to do this, include:
- Accelerate gradually without over-revving
- Always drive on the highest possible gear
- If you can, allow your car to slow down naturally as your brake is a money burner
- Re-starting your car is expensive, if you can, keep moving
The piece of tech is fixed under the dash and can be unlocked by a unique key using an app, which is deleted after each hire.
But if you're thinking about having one of these installed, you'll need to make sure that your own insurance covers the system.
Drivers have to take out an Axa insurance policy with the firm which starts at £6 a day - although it can cost more depending on your motor history.
"I've only had one bad experience before where the driver filled it up with petrol when it's a diesel car," said Edward.
"But I called hiyacar who arrange for the AA to come and fix it. It was back on the road in about an hour."
If you're thinking about making money by hiring out your car, Martyn John from GoCompare warns that most domestic car insurance policies won’t cover your vehicle if it’s being used for commercial use.
Some policies outright ban using a peer-to-peer lending system or leaving your keys in a box for the driver to pick-up so it's worth double checking.
You will also need to take into account the wear and tear of your car. The cost of adding miles to the clock and tread to the tyres could leave you picking up a bill at the garage sooner than you'd expected.
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There are plenty of ways to make some extra cash. Did you know you can make hundreds of pounds by selling your ponytail online - but only if you've got blonde hair.
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To earn some extra cash you can also try out these 25 ways to make money from home.
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