Published on : 18 September 20194 min reading time

Renting a car is the order of the day. The vast majority of people decide to rent a car when they go on vacation to move around the city. In this way, you avoid depending on public transport, you can go wherever you want and even if you travel with family or friends, it is even cheaper than buying bus or train tickets. But what if I just need to rent a car for a couple of hours?

What is carsharing?

Carsharing, also known as carpooling, is an hourly car rental system whereby different people can use the same car on the same day. Visit www.drivy.co.uk/ and learn more information about peer to peer car rental.

Through this curious model of Rent a car the customer rents the vehicle for short periods of time that can range from one hour to several days.

The rental of a vehicle through this system can be done from the mobile phone or internet so it provides the user comfort and immediacy, also once a car is reserved the user will have an electronic card with which to open and close the car, without having to mediate with the company to get the key. In addition, the operator of the service will be in charge of the revisions and maintenance of the cars. Together with the fuel and the all-risk insurance, included in the final price.

Profile of the carsharing user

This type of service is intended for various customer profiles. On the one hand, to those who want to enjoy for a few minutes the pleasure of driving the car of their dreams or who want to ride in a different vehicle to the one they use every day. On the other hand, and more common, the customer who goes to carsharing is one who wants to use a vehicle occasionally to perform some kind of errand or move to a point which would be very difficult or even impossible to reach by any means other than car. How is carsharing carried out?

Carsharing for companies

The carsharing service can be offered by companies, which offer their customers the use of vehicles for a short period of time in the area where they live or work. These users must reserve the vehicle via the Internet or telephone and will access it via a smart card (RFID). Customers will be able to use this service 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

Carsharing for individuals

The service of carsharing between private individuals is called peer to peer, or car rental between private individuals. This rental is done by a third party, which provides the service in a professional manner. The peer to peer is governed by the principles of collaborative consumption.

How does Carsharing work?

To be able to make use of this service the first thing you need is to become a member of one or more Carsharing companies, once discharged the customer receives a card that will be used as a key.

Vehicle reservations are made online through the smartphone or by phone with an advance that ranges from just a couple of minutes to even several weeks. Once completed, the customer can use the vehicle that is parked in the plaza he has selected.

The card acts as a key, in the case of cars rented, it is only necessary to swipe the card through the windscreen and the car is automatically unlocked. Once the contracted time has elapsed, the client must return the car to the same place where it was picked up.