Uber and Enterprise Rent-A-Car announced Tuesday a pilot program in Denver to rent cars to mobile entrepreneurs for ride-sharing services, according to the Denver Post.
The program, which will cost $210 a week on top of a $500 deposit, will make available cars to roam the city streets for people who don’t sleep for a week at a time. The $210 cost for the rental will be automatically deducted from the driver’s earnings, and if the driver doesn’t make enough to cover the cost of the car they’re still totally on the hook.
“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,” Andrew Chapin, Uber’s Head of Vehicle Solutions, told the Denver Post.
The insurance situation is a little cloudy, however.
According to Uber, the trip would be covered through its third-party insurance program like any other Uber driver. Enterprise says the car is covered like any other rental car. Does my Visa help us out at all?
“What are the liability limits?” Loretta Worters, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute told the Denver Post. “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.”
Prospective, but car-less, Uber drivers must still apply and pass background checks to pick up complete strangers in rented cars, the company said. Enterprise said the rentals would be allowed to travel 2,500 miles in 28 days, or the driver would pay 25 cents per mile over the allowed mileage.
Uber offers Uber Xchange Leasing that leases new and used cars to drivers for $250 a month in specific cities. Those cars must be 2010 or newer and cost less than $20,000, according to Uber. In addition to financing through Uber, drivers must work for Uber through the car’s 36-month term or pay an early termination fee of $250.
Enterprise didn’t specify what kinds of cars it would make available to Uber drivers. The program is slated to begin in Denver this month.
2500 miles in 28 days? That’s not even 100 miles a day. Try driving people around, from one fare to another, etc….sounds like Enterprise is the winner here.
John
Perhaps the thinking is that if you’re Uber-ing more than 2500 miles per 28 days, you’re pulling in enough to pay an extra mileage fee. I’m OK with that.
UBER is awesome.
It doesn’t discriminate.
It is far more flexible and far more efficient.
It allows people to work when they want to work without letting the Unions slow them down or obstruct them.
And now NYC soon-to-be-a-1-term-mayor DiBlasio is trying to ruin them through regulation and taxation.
THAT AIN’T MURICA.
>>> UBER is awesome <<<
Totally agree with this statement!
Last year I scheduled my car's yearly maintenance more than 2 weeks in advance so I drop off my car, walk to the rental car place, and rent a car for $25 for the day. Car rental would be $50+ for the day without the advanced rental arrangement. (This is silicon valley where everything costs more.)
This year I scheduled maintenance for the next day and took Uber to and from work for $15 each way. Awesome.
Hopefully Uber will break the San Jose Airport pickup cartel soon.
Uber is discriminatory but it’s harder to track. It’s hard to define ‘flexible’ and ‘efficient’ unless we’re going to debate the nuts and bolts of the operation and frankly it seems that Uber itself is profitable but a churn of drivers are not. Unions don’t slow them down, least of all any ‘taxi union’ which is trying to protect the jobs rather than breakup jobs that actually make a living wage.
By the way, DeBlasio is likely to cruise to a second term, 2016 will likely tamp down a great number of feelings and send the moderate white vote back into the arms of Liberals. But hey, we all have our fantasies, thank goodness your’s end at your finger tips…
>>> Enterprise says the car is covered like any other rental car. Does my Visa help us out at all? <<<
In California you still need liability insurance. That isn't covered by Enterprise or Visa. However, if you are old, have a clean driving record, and few miles per year getting liability insurance is relative inexpensive. (I pay $500 per year for my $200k/$500k liability plan.)
Interesting, if tangentially-related question…
I’m looking at buying a new Hyundai. Hyundai is offering an additional $1000 off for Uber drivers.
What’s to stop me from signing up as an Uber driver, taking the discount, and never picking up a fare?
Honestly, Uber is sounding more and more like an employee flood scheme. They’ll take any tom, dick, or harry off the street, give them the app then get their nip of the action while letting everybody else suffer. It’s like the 19th century gilded age playing out before our very eyes…
Tell ya what Xeranar, I’ll take the 21st century gilded age where I can get a damn taxi ride in Manhattan versus this supposed glorious age you refer to where this 300# brown man turns invisible to cabbies.
Why not just tell them to eat cake while you’re at it? I’m all for less racial discrimination but do we have to make it so that Uber bubbles burst and re-rise while increasing debt for the underclass?
Mmmmmmmm cake.
I don’t understand why the media so readily adopts Uber’s description of its service as “ride sharing”, like it is some kind of car pool system, when it clearly is not.
Yeah, “ride sharing” is what I would call a marketing lie. However, Uber actually does offer an optional ride sharing feature: when summoning an Uber ride you can specify that you don’t mind sharing the trip with other random passengers for a reduced fare. If you are in a popular Uber area and going to a far-away popular Uber area, you can save a bunch of money this way.
I don’t like or dislike Uber one way or the other, you don’t have to use it and you don’t have to drive for them. My only concern pretty much is if they have insurance to cover any incidents should they happen. The cab companies cut their own throats, if they weren’t so bad then Uber and Lyft would not exist and be successful today.
Venom, I have no doubt that the taxi companies did a lot to make Uber desireable, but at the same time, I don’t understand how Uber continues to avoid the same regulations that Taxis have to work by. I suspect NY and Mayor DiBlasio aren’t alone in asking these questions and some cities around the world have already banned them, no?
Frankly, what’s to stop the driver of a yellow cab from using a dispatching service application similar to Uber? There is even a roadside assistance company offering a similar service (urgent.ly). The technology isn’t proprietary and Uber could also include cab companies if they cooperated rather than ignored the regulatory hurdles. When I was last in NY the Uber driver told me that he drives a yellow cab some days and his Uber car the next. I suspect there are people making money buying the cars and subletting them to drivers already, even before Enterprise.
Frankly, I don’t see a functional difference between a cab and Uber EXCEPT for a superior dispatching app and payment mechanism. There is nothing to stop a cab company from using newer, cleaner, and less stinky cars.
Except most cities have regulations limiting the way they pick up fares, meter the rides, and employ their drivers. I think some fair regulations ARE called for. Drivers should be properly licensed and insured, for example. This isn’t un-American, it’s simply common-sense. The only thing different about Uber is the dispatch app, in every other way they are a taxi service despite what they want to believe.
You ask a lot of the same questions I do. I have no idea why Uber is so successful, you would think anyone could just copy what they do, it’s just and app that facilitates a transaction between a driver and a passenger, easily copied. Also I don’t understand how with the high cost of medallions for cabs how the cab companies were not protected from competition from Uber and how they have not sued the government for allowing Uber and others to exist? That would be like me spending $100,000 to buy a liquor license, thousands on an attorney, background checks etc etc and then some guy named Bob opening a store a block away from me selling liquor and never having to go through what I did, it makes no sense.
I think taxi services in many areas of the country demonstrate the classic problems of government enforced monopolies. Regulation, rent-seeking, boondoggles, etc have resulted in poor service at a very high price.
Steve mentioned lack of newer, cleaner, and less stinky cars… Why would the owners of the taxi cabs and medallions bother? People will still use the old, dirty, stinky cabs because they have no choice (before Uber). Upgrading the cars won’t earn more money. Maybe the driver would get a better tip, but that tip doesn’t go to the owner of the car.
In addition to being better in almost every way, Uber is substantially cheaper. A few weeks ago I took a ride to San Francisco airport. The taxi service estimated $111 for the ride. I used Uber, rode in a spotless Jaguar (yes, really!), and paid $55. Actually, even better, I didn’t do any “paying” at all… the cost was directly charged to my credit card that was on file already.
>>> how the cab companies were not protected from competition from Uber <<<
I believe Uber gets around the taxi regulation because the taxi regulation is so out-of-date it didn't anticipate smartphones. I believe that taxies gain their monopoly by having laws that say only people with the precious medallions can be "hailed" in the conventional sense. Notice that it is absolutely impossible to "hail" an Uber; you _must_ use the Uber app on your cell phone. So, no taxi regulations.