Sharemine’s ‘Airbnb for cars’ is launching in the UK – and you could earn £100 a week while you’re sat in the office
You can rent out your car while you're not using it with a new car sharing community site. Drivers can earn an average of £30 for the eight hours a day you sit at your desk
AIRBNB for cars is launching the UK with owners able to rent out their unused cars
Brits can now earn up to £100 while their car is parked up during office hours using the new Sharemine service.
And users who need transport will be able to book a set of wheels as easily as reserving a house or flat on Airbnb.
Renters will be able to leave reviews after owners on car cleanliness, condition and ease of pickup.
And bad drivers will be kept in check with a review system that penalises reckless behaviour using black box technology.
Your rental will be tracked using telematics fitted to the cars to give you a score based on how well you drive.
This'll be logged on your profile so if you start racking up bad ratings for speeding and harsh braking, owners can turn you down for future bookings.
It mirrors the system on Airbnb where homeowners can refuse your booking if you live the property dirty or damaged.
Sharemine is aimed at creating communities run by local businesses rather than individuals having the hassle of dishing out keys.
For example, commuters could drop their motor off at a local pub or corner shop near a train station rather than park in a pricey car park.
Community managers can rent their car for the day with renters collecting keys and delivering them back to the manager.
For an eight-hour period, Sharemine says the average income is £30 with a slice of the profits going to the company and the community manager.
It means for a five-day week, car owners could expect to rake in around £100 for just sitting at their desk.
Insurance is currently the responsibility of the owner but in the future Sharemine will offer a policy to cover the rental period.
Car sharing: the options
Sharemine is by no means the first car sharing scheme in the UK - but it's the latest to enter a growing market.
Car sharing can be split into two different areas - traditional schemes run by companies offering cars for rent on a flexible basis, and peer-to-peer set-ups that let owners rent their cars for others or share rides.
Traditional schemes include big names like DriveNow and ZipCar which you sign up to and pay a subscription fee or choose pay-as-you-go to access cars parked around - mainly in major cities.
The peer-to-peer systems are split into renting a car off a driver who isn't using it and sharing a ride with someone going the same way.
For example, BlaBlaCar or Liftshare link people together heading to popular destinations with costs split.
While sites like HiyaCar and easyCar allows users to rent cars available nearby - this is the closest to Sharemine but isn't led by community managers.
All users have to provide detailed personal information including driving licence codes, addresses and payment details before they can make a booking.
Sharemine hopes to have around 200 communities with access to 5,000 cars across the UK in the first year.
The system also allows communities to share cars for events like sports fans arranging transport to away games or parents looking to carpool for school drop-offs and pick-ups.
From its launch on October 19, it'll only be available online but an app is expected to follow as early as 2018.
Edwin Colella, chief sales and marketing officer of Sharemine, said: "The high cost of vehicle ownership means that this area has huge cost savings potential for car owners.
"It enables anyone to become a shared-mobility entrepreneur through operating a car- or ridesharing community."
