Is it Worth Renting a Car for Doordash or Uber?

When it comes to renting a car for your gig work, I have heard both positive and negative remarks from people. Yes, arguments from both sides with opinions stating whether it is worth it or not, and to be honest I can understand both points of view. An individual will have to ultimately decide what's best for them, but I am here to help with my personal experience.

 

I fell in love with this Chevy Bolt EV I rented to do my Doordash Deliveries

The why it's great to rent a car for your gig job people

I'm going to start here with the people that see renting a gig vehicle as a positive thing. These Dashers, Uber, Lyft and other gig drivers swear that it is the way to go. They can't imagine using their own car for their gig job. They can't imagine putting hundreds of miles a day on their own personal vehicle. They'd watch their car depreciate in the fastest way possible. 

The I have no other choice but to rent a car person

This is a gig worker that currently has no other choice when it comes to renting a gig vehicle. They don't have a car, so in order to make some money they rent one. Most of these people come from Uber as they guide people into renting a car from their current partnership. It used to be a company called Fair, but I believe it is now with Hertz. Although Doordash drivers can rent from Hertz also, I would recommend Hyrecar. Getting a car from them is quicker and a bit easier, it all starts with a free background check.

 

The why it's no good to rent a car for your gig job people

These type of people think it is such as waste of money to rent a car for a gig job. They couldn't ever imagine paying $150 to $300 per week renting a car just to dash or uber. They would much rather use their own personal vehicle and believe that it is cheaper overall using their car than renting one. These people believe that the only people that should consider renting a car to work should only be those that don't have a car.

My own personal experience renting a gig vehicle to Doordash and Uber Eat

I am not a regular car renter, but I did do it in 2018 when one of my cars needed some major repairs. I thought it would be a good idea to try it and see how it goes. I searched online, and I found a company that seemed to specialize in electric cars. They had gas vehicles, but they seemed to be pushing their Chevy Bolt EV.

Renting a gig vehicle from Maven Gig

I reserved a car on the Maven Gig app and had an appointment to go to their location. When that day came, once there, I watched a short film, they took copies of my driver's license and asked a few other simple questions. It was as easy as could be. Nothing complicated at all.

In a half hour I was driving out of their parking structure in a brand new Chevy Bolt EV. As a standard procedure they try to teach you about how charging works, etc., but I already knew about all of this since I own an older Nissan Leaf. Let's just say that I was an easy customer..

This Chevy Bolt was a very nice car, and on a full charge I would get about 240 miles. The car would cost me about $230 per week, but it also came with free charging. That meant that I would never have to pay for gas or charging. In case you don't know, charge stations are not normally free, and even though paying to charge your car is much cheaper than gas, it still adds up if you are charging every single day to dash or uber. As I've said though, through this Maven gig program I would be getting totally free charging!

I had this Chevy Bolt for about 3 months, and I never dashed so much in my life. During these three months I was not doing much else, so I was doing Doordash, Uber Eats and Postmates. Also during this time, Uber Eats was giving 2X0 to 2X5 bonuses in my areas, so let's just say I was making some crazy money during those three months.

The reason I stopped renting from Maven Gig

Doing these gig jobs with the rented Chevy Bolt from Maven was great, but I had other business ventures and obligations that I had to take care of in my life, so I knew that I would soon have to return the Maven car. Honestly though, to tell you the truth I was kind of stalling things. This was the easiest money I had ever made in my life. I would sometimes work non-stop throughout the week. At times I even felt like I was homeless because I was never at home. There were times I was so tired I would have to pull over and take an hour or two nap.

I was hustling, and as I've already mentioned, I was stalling to quit, but God made sure that it was time for me to give back my Chevy Bolt. One day while making a pick up, I had to park on the main street. I turned off the car, and before I could get out a car hit my Chevy Bolt. The lady stopped right away and came over to me. She was anxious and in a rush to exchange information and get out of there.

She admitted it was her fault, but to tell you the truth the damage was not much. It was a little dent on the body of the car right above the back tire. We exchanged information, and I reported it to the auto insurance company that Maven provides you with when renting their vehicles.

To shorten this story, they wanted a $1000 deductible from me. Even thought the lady admitted it was her fault, Maven's insurance company still wanted a $1000 deductible from me. They said that it was on the contract when I rented the car that I would have to pay this $1000 deductible if involved in an auto accident whether my fault or not. I told them I would call them back, but I never did.

My thinking was forget all of this. I was just going to give the car back to Maven and be done with them. The problem was the dent. I had a friend of mine mess with the little dent a bit to make it a little more unnoticeable, but you could still see it as my friend's effort really did nothing. Then again maybe its because I knew it was there. Three days later I went into Maven to return the car and hoped that the insurance company had not contacted them about anything. We did the paperwork, they did a walk around inspection of the car, and I was good to go. They never knew anything. Glad to say it all worked out for me.

If you are a full-time dasher renting a car may be worth it

Many of the cars that people rent for their gig jobs are usually around the $200 per week price range. Then you have to consider the gasoline so let's add in $100 more. Of course it may be more or less, but I'm just averaging things out.

If a dasher is making $1000 per week, and the expenses for his rented gig car is around $300, how in the heck can somebody say that it was not worth it. The dasher would make $700 for the week. There are dashers that make more than that in a week of course, but again it's just an example. You will need to do the math for yourself and figure everything out. If you are making $500 per week and have $300 of expenses with the rented car is it worth it? That would be $800 of earnings per month. You would have to decide.

Renting a gig car is probably not good for part time dashers

The price that a part time dasher has to pay for a gig vehicle is the same as a full timer has to pay. The expenses are just too high for a part time dasher. If somebody is out there making $50 per day on a part time basis, that is $350 for the week if they worked all seven days of the week. The cost of the rented car for the week alone makes it all not worthwhile. I just don't think a part timer should ever rent a car to dash. Not worth it at all.

Renting a gig vehicle from Fair

About six months after giving back my Chevy Bolt to Maven Gig, I ended up renting another vehicle from a company called Fair. This company was in a partnership with Uber, and me being an Uber Eats driver I qualified. I got a gas car from Fair. I don't remember the year of the car, but it was a Volkswagen Golf. with it being a gas car, my overall costs was much more than my electric car from Maven. I used this rented car from Fair for a couple of months, but then Uber ended its relationship with Fair due to some insurance thing that they couldn't figure out. Anyways, I returned the car to Fair and that was the end of that.

When I returned the car to Fair, they tried to get me to rent another car from Uber's new partner, Hertz. I passed up on the opportunity though because once again with other things going on in my life I found myself doing these gig jobs less and less. It was coming to the point where I just made enough dashing to pay for this rented car. That's when you know it's time to say good-bye to that car.

Maven Gig out of business

About a month ago I learned that Maven went out of business. By the way, Maven was owned by GM. Apparently, they were already having problems, but when the Corona Virus hit in March-April, it was the last straw. Covid 19 must have really had an impact on the amount of people renting their cars. At the time when I got my Chevy Bolt, it was the complete opposite as there were times when no cars were available and you were put on a waiting list. I know this because people I know had to wait months sometimes. I had just gotten very lucky.

Renting a car during this Covid 19 era

I would recommend that a person keep their rented car as long as they can. I would not advise trading in your rented car for a new one every month or anything like that. Chances are that renting a vehicle is as safe as ever, but some people are nervous and understandably so.

For those that are not nervous at all about renting a gig car, you've got to know that there will be many cars available to you. You'll most likely be able to get what ever you want. These companies are probably hurting for business too, so you may want to even talk down the price. You just never know.

Overall my gig car renting experience was great. I made some crazy money during those times. Sure, I may have been like a homeless man working 16 hours a day and 7 days a week, but again it was well worth it. Happy Dashing!