Any - Whipcar rental

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Tue 12 Feb 2013 13:29
Any - Whipcar rental - tony g
Hi,
Just reading a feature on a company called whipcar .

They offer an unusual service ,offering a facility for private owners to rent out thier own car .

They offer a booking and driver checking facility ,take payment for the car and provide insurance .Presumably they will take a commission before forwarding the payment to the car owner .

Have any forum members come across the company or used it to rent a car ,alternatively what would could the potential problems be www.WhipCar.co

Edited by tony g on 12/02/2013 at 13:31

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Tue 12 Feb 2013 17:37
Any - Whipcar rental - John Boy

There's a letter missing in the link address. It should be this:

www.whipcar.com/

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Tue 12 Mar 2013 11:53
Any - Whipcar rental - mortlake64

Tony G and Johnboy: you are jinxed: the very day you discover it the company closes!

There's a web post on www.employees.org.uk/hustings.html suggesting that Whipcar users sign-up with topcashback and tempcover to get a day's car insurance for I think about £20 from my first glance. One or other side pays for that and anything else now has to be paid between driver and car owner.

A problem of the old Whipcar system was that it didn't cover vans and only covered cars up to eight years old. I don't know if the tempcover system is more flexible.

As for the old Whipcar.com site, it's closure at zero notice is puzzling. Here's what Whipcar.com write...

...there are still barriers to widespread adoption of peer-to-peer car rental in the UK. As a small team with limited resources, we have taken a good long look at these scaling challenges. And, after much thought, we have made the extremely difficult decision to close WhipCar.

What this means for our customers:
  • Beginning March 12th 2013, we are no longer accepting any new bookings or new membership. Members will no longer be able to log-in and access our site.
  • Bookings due to begin on or after March 12th have been cancelled, and all affected drivers have been fully refunded.
  • Owners with bookings ending in March will be paid during the week beginning March 18th and will be notified when this payment has been issued.

Edited by mortlake64 on 12/03/2013 at 12:00

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Tue 12 Mar 2013 17:09
Any - Whipcar rental - oldtoffee

>>>>>>As for the old Whipcar.com site, it's closure at zero notice is puzzling. Here's what Whipcar.com write......there are still barriers to widespread adoption of peer-to-peer car rental in the UK. As a small team with limited resources, we have taken a good long look at these scaling challenges.

Looked quite a successful company a year ago, filed accounts showing a worth of £1.6m with £1.2m of cash so if that's their definition of "limited resources" their "scaling challenges" must have been part of a very grand plan.

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Tue 12 Mar 2013 18:40
Any - Whipcar rental - tony g
Hi all,
The concept of peer to peer car hire was always more interesting than the reality .i found that the-returns would have been pretty meagre and the potential risks were quite large .
In addition the actual cost to the hirer wouldn't have been competitive when compared to companies like enterprise .

I thought that my cars would quickly become shabby with minor scratches and kerbed alloys etc ,in addition because hirers have no interest in the long term viability of a car they wouldn't drive carefully .

If the car was involved in an accident , enevitably I would be in a situation where I didn't have the use of the car or an income from it .So definitely not for me .
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Thu 14 Mar 2013 16:00
Any - Whipcar rental - unthrottled

in addition because hirers have no interest in the long term viability of a car they wouldn't drive carefully .

There's an element of that, but how do car hire firms make money? Presumably most hirers are reasonably honest and don't abuse the cars.

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Thu 14 Mar 2013 18:24
Any - Whipcar rental - tony g
(There's an element of that, but how do car hire firms make money? Presumably most hirers are reasonably honest and don't abuse the cars.)

I don't think it's a secret that companies like hertz etc buy cars very cheaply ,perhaps 25 or 30 % off list ,perhaps leaseman would know what kind of discount large companies receive .

In addition the cars they own are covered by manufacturers warranties ,so I suppose you are then looking at minor accident damage ,some of which the customer would have to pay for .
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Thu 14 Mar 2013 18:32
Any - Whipcar rental - RT
I don't think it's a secret that companies like hertz etc buy cars very cheaply ,perhaps 25 or 30 % off list ,perhaps leaseman would know what kind of discount large companies receive .

I don't know about these days but prices could be as low as 50% of list price a decade or so ago.

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Thu 14 Mar 2013 14:10
Any - Whipcar rental - leaseman

"Looked quite a successful company a year ago, filed accounts showing a worth of £1.6m with £1.2m of cash so if that's their definition of "limited resources" their "scaling challenges" must have been part of a very grand plan".

It showed a net worth of £1.6 million about 12 months ago, but the shareholders have subscribed for just under £3 million of shares in the previous 3 years, so had lost almost half of their cash by then. Hardly a successful company and not surprising that another year down the track and bingo.

Edited by leaseman on 14/03/2013 at 14:11

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