No job? Drive for Uber.
No car? Uber will now rent you one — but only in Denver.
The ride-sharing company is teaming with Enterprise Rent-A-Car on a , which launches in Denver this week. Rental cars will be available to potential Uber drivers by the week or month.
“What we’re trying to do here is lower the barrier to entry for someone who does want to work with Uber but who does not have a qualifying car or doesn’t have a car at all,” said Andrew Chapin, Uber’s Head of Vehicle Solutions.
Uber, which allows people to use their own cars to taxi strangers around town, to be in clean, good condition and built within the past 15 years. Higher-end Uber Black and Uber Select rides must be much newer.
Chapin wouldn’t say many people apply but discover their car doesn’t qualify. “I will say it’s enough for us to undergo these efforts.”
Uber Partners get a special rate of $210 per week, plus taxes and other fees, and a $500 refundable deposit. The charge is automatically deducted from the driver’s earnings. The fee won’t go up during busy seasons, like typical car rental rates do, but if drivers don’t make enough from Uber for the week, they still owe Enterprise.
Uber and Enterprise picked Denver for the test program because of the region’s size, driver demand and regulatory environment — last year, Colorado became the services.
“Denver is interesting to us because demand is very strong and the regulatory environment has been very progressive,” Chapin said.
Enterprise already offers a car-sharing service that has existed in some . But it’s less Uber and more and . Consumers can use the mobile app to locate an available car and rent it. In Denver, car rental starts at $6 an hour. Enterprise last year to build its local program.
Mixing ride-sharing and car rentals isn’t completely Uber’s idea. San Francisco’s HyreCar connects car owners to ride-sharing drivers. Hyre provides but not everything is covered, including flat tires, the clutch or transmission, or damage beyond a prerental agreement between owner and driver. Listings on Monday for available Hyre cars charging $30 to $65 per day and $150 to $315 for the week.
Other companies lease cars to Uber and Lyft drivers. Another San Francisco company, last year to provide a flexible car leasing program on Toyota Priuses — at about $195 per week.
Uber also has a leasing program called , which offers 36-month terms starting at $107 per month, according to . Uber has also been running a subscription that is part leasing, part rental.
But one touchy issue has been car insurance.
This year, a handful of insurers began to cover the gap between personal auto insurance, which ends when a driver turns on the ride-sharing app to get hired, to business coverage, which kicks in after the driver picks up the customer. and now cover this.
The move was a major change in the industry as companies such as Farmer’s Insurance and Geico began offering gap insurance.
“There wasn’t anything like that ever before. It was a very new risk,” said Loretta Worters, a spokeswoman for the
.
And when that ride- sharing driver is renting a car, things get complicated.
“What are the liability limits?” she said, suggesting drivers and consumers should ask that question. “It’s not just a risk to you, but if you’re renting a car to use for business and you get involved in a car accident and it’s severe, — a lost life, someone becomes a paraplegic — you could be on the hook for a couple million dollars.”
Uber said it covers the gap plus the trip through a third-party insurer. Enterprise covers the car as it would with a standard car rental.
Anyone who rents a car through Uber’s new program must still pass Uber and Enterprise eligibility tests, plus a background check. But once vetted, drivers can apply to the program and rent a car.
While drivers can use the car for any purpose
— even driving for a competitor — they are limited by mileage. The rental includes 2,500 miles driven in a 28-day period, which is prorated by the week. Go over, and the driver must pay an extra 25 cents per mile.
In Colorado, Uber has n the three years since Uber started here, they have made 5 million trips.
