The benefits of car sharing using our mates rates

At Hiyacar, we’re on a mission to make communities smarter and wealthier by changing the way we think about cars. Furthermore, we want car owners to be able to lend their cars to family and friends, even if it’s only for a couple of hours, making sure that all parties are properly insured.

mates rates was introduced early last year so that drivers didn’t need to take out expensive daily insurance to drive their neighbour’s car. We’ve seen many of our owners use mates rates for a number of different reasons.

Here are the top 3 reasons why our owners use mates rates:

1. Lend your car to a neighbour/relative

Some of our car owners found out about us purely because they were looking for a way to insure someone on their car for a few hours without having to spend a fortune or add an extra driver to their own insurance. With mates rates you can choose a percentage of the rental price you want to offer as a discount. The discount will only be applied to the rental price that you’d receive, it excludes insurance and service fees & commission, but is a much cheaper way of insuring a driver on your car.

2. Lend your car to a regular hirer

Some owners have drivers who regularly hire their car, using mates rates they can give the driver a discount on their booking. The discount could be 20% or 50% off, it’s completely up to the owner and really easy to set up. (See below)

3. In exchange for something else

Some of our owners use mates rates in exchange for something else. For instance, Uzair used it so he could discount his car for a local mechanic in exchange for a car service.

Rob, who is one of my regular hirers, is also a mechanic. Instead of charging me to do a service on my car, he did it for free in exchange for a 100% discount so he could use it for the weekend.

As an existing car owner, you can find this in the ‘Promote’ tab under your cars. If you’re not an owner already, why not list your car and see how much you could earn.

Here’s how it works:

• You can create as many discount codes as you like, and remove them at any time. Each code expires in 30 days and can be used multiple times by one or many hirers.
• Choose a percentage of the rental price you want to offer as a discount. The discount will only be applied to the rental price that you’d receive, that is, it excludes insurance and service fees & commission.
• Add a description — this is a good way to personalise or keep tabs on what you are using the vouchers for.
• Send the code to whoever you wish or share it on your social networks.

Our exclusive peer-to-peer insurance policy with AXA enables Hiyacar’s model in the UK at a very competitive rate. Our daily price at minimum is just £9.50, and it covers both owner and driver. To be more specific, our insurance policy with AXA supersedes the car owner’s policy for the duration of the hire. In the event of damage, for example, the car is covered by our policy and the owner’s personal policy will not be affected. For drivers hiring a car, the insurance premium is calculated per individual and displayed clearly at the checkout.