A platform to match car hirers to car owners, turning idle cars into income generating assets.
Business overview
| Location | Maidstone, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Social media | |
| Website | ascendiadrive.co.uk |
| Sectors | Automotive & Transport Mixed Digital/Non-Digital B2C |
| Company number | 08690056 |
| Incorporation date | 13 Sep 2013 |
Idea
Introduction
Simply put, HiyaCar is the Airbnb for motor vehicles with all the insurance barriers overcome, matching car hirers with car owners and changing the way we use cars forever.
HiyaCar is a peer to peer car rental platform which will allow users to own their driving experience, without owning the car. The platform will allow drivers to find, review and rent cars they could or would not usually buy. It also allows owners to list and let out their cars, which may otherwise be sat on a driveway, costing money but not seeing much use. Now car owners can generate additional income on every hire.
HiyaCar aims to disrupt the $60bn car hire industry which in the UK consisted of 10 million car rental transactions last year.
Car sharing is great for the environment and the economy whilst peer to peer sharing bridges the inequality gap and brings people together. HiyaCar raises aspirations for those who previously could not afford certain models of cars or have no access to cars.
Intended impact
The Sharing Economy is a relatively new market but is quoted as potentially having the biggest impact on society since the Industrial Revolution. We feel that the Sharing Economy is already having a huge positive impact environmentally as sharing is sustainable, sharing is infinite and owning is finite. P2P hires will lead to less cars being on the road through reducing car ownership, which will be good for traffic, creating lower emissions which are of benefit to the environment. The HiyaCar platform will promote ‘access over ownership’.
- Problems -
When hiring vehicles consumers are price sensitive and traditional car hire companies can be expensive to use. Traditional car hire companies do not always supply the exact desired model for hire and are often located far away from the hirer. Typical rental stock is often boring and does not create an experience that many people are looking for. Cars are unused for the majority of each day and are often a financial burden.
- The Solution - HiyaCar Community -
HiyaCar plans to solve the current problems by providing an online platform that will facilitate peer to peer car hire, matching car owners with members looking to hire a vehicle. We anticipate that this will result in market driven pricing, flexibility and variety.
For car owners: their vehicle becomes an income generating asset as HiyaCar will offer owners a chance to make money by hiring out their car when it's not being used and on average cars are only used for 1 hour a day. For example if a £25,000 second hand Range Rover was hired out 6 times a month at £130.00 a day, the owner could make an extra £5,616 a year.
For hirers: a superior driving experience at real value and a variety of cars to choose from which are located nearby. HiyaCar aims to save people money when hiring, save them time when collecting their hired car and allow more choice to hire the exact model for the exact time period required. This will only be achieved because of the insurance policy that has been specifically created for HiyaCar by Aon/Axa.
Substantial accomplishments to date
Working closely with Aon and Axa, HiyaCar has overcome the previously insurmountable barrier of insuring high value aspirational vehicles, underwritten by a household name, in a bespoke agreement, enabling an early-mover advantage and we believe making it difficult for any new entrants.
HiyaCar has a host of strategic partnerships for installing trust, for marketing and potential sales. Trust is a huge part of the sharing economy and peer to peer platforms and HiyaCar has spent a lot of time ensuring every angle is covered and is already working with some big names:
Verification: GB Group / Veridu
Roadside Recovery: AA
Telematics: TrakM8
Ecommerce Profiling: eRated
Vehicle Repairs: IGC
Vehicle Maintenance: SMART Insurance
Vehicle Inspections: Pointsoftware
Launch Partner: Milton Keynes Council
Launch Support: Transport Catapult
In September the Government issued a Press release titled "Move to make UK global centre for sharing economy." HiyaCar took part in this review.
Monetisation strategy
HiyaCar is a peer to peer car hire platform, facilitating the hires of their virtual fleet of vehicles to members of their community. Control over the pricing is given to the car owners, though the company will suggest pricing for each vehicle based on research, seasonality and the market. As the HiyaCar virtual fleet will consist of executive and performance vehicles which create driving experiences, the daily hire rate will be substantial, yet still able to show real value versus traditional car hire.
HiyaCar intends to take 40% commission per car hire transaction, leaving the remaining 60% to the car owner. The insurance, verification and roadside recovery fees will all be paid out of HiyaCar's 40%, giving an expected operating profit of between 25-28% per hire. Average daily hire rate of £90-£110 with the top end vehicles commanding £240+.
HiyaCar will not own the fleet so overheads will be minimal and hugely scalable due to a ‘virtual fleet’ of cars and exclusive peer to peer insurance policy.
Our Mission is to create a global community for peer to peer vehicle hire, providing outstanding quality of service and drive experiences at real value with the vision to be the world's largest vehicle hire chain by reducing overheads and creating a superior driving experiences.
Use of proceeds
Seed investment is required to finance start-up costs which include working capital and marketing. HiyaCar plans to soft launch their product, with a focus on getting ‘100 people to love them’ to help generate early growth and an increase in members.
Start-up costs include:
• Technology including purchase and implementation of the exclusive platform specifically built for peer to peer car hire. We believe that the purchase will not only save the company a lot of money but also dramatically reduce the time to market from 1+ years to as little as 4 months. A mobile phone application will also be developed to facilitate car hires on mobile devices, as well as:
• Sales and marketing
• Fundraising fees
• Office equipment
The main purpose of the technology is to be a showroom for the virtual fleet, allowing for interaction between car owners and hirers. Further funds will be spent on facilitating the transaction, integrating all the 3rd party plugins and including a review mechanism.
Market
Target market
Primary target audience of 25-35 year olds who are early adopters of the Sharing Economy who either don’t own a car or aspire to use a different vehicle for different occasions.
Secondary target audience will be the tourism market by creating partnerships with airports and other peer to peer travel platforms.
The platform has been designed to give members an alternative to the standard car hire stock, more flexibility, value and a sense of community. HiyaCar has identified the below reasons for why the above target audience will hire a vehicle via the platform.
1. Drivers can access a car without the hassle of owning a vehicle.
2. Travellers can hire cars appropriate to location while travelling - the right car for the right terrain.
3. Join a community and get to know your car owner. Contribute to a person rather than a corporate brand.
4. Drivers get a luxury driving experience not previously affordable.
5. Customers access cars fit for the occasion - the first date, the wedding, the birthday weekend.
6. City dwellers can drive cars who don’t normally have the space for parking.
Members will also join the HiyaCar community to list their vehicles and be part of our virtual fleet. The below reasons highlight a small selection of why we think people will hire out their own vehicle.
1. They have purchased a car they cannot quite afford so require the additional income.
2. Lets owners hire out their car and not just sit on the driveway costing money.
3. The dream car just became affordable with the help of HiyaCar income.
4. Lets you give something to the community and join the sharing economy.
5. Owners meet drivers and make friends, form new relationships.
6. Lets owners achieve a lifestyle not previously possible through additional income.
7. Members who appreciate the cost of ownership.*
*From research carried out, cost of ownership (per hour), based on a £20,000 Audi A5 or BMW 3 series, 2 years old and driven 10,000 miles a year = £26.62 per hour driven!
Characteristics of target market
There are currently 37.7 million UK residents with full Driving Licences and 29.1 million cars licensed in the UK. This effectively means there are 8.7 million UK residents with a licence but don't own a car. PwC has calculated that on a global basis the Sharing Economy is currently worth £9bn with this set to rise to a massive £230bn by 2025. In the UK, transport and tourism are amongst the largest categories within this sector. In addition there is also currently approximately $10bn of value tied up in idle car capacity.
Presently there are 32.4 million ‘sharers’ in the UK and 28% of mainstream consumers are users of sharing services. Many amongst this smart, savvy, social, on-demand generation prefer to access rather than own goods and pay as they use them. 51% of Millennials already choose to share rather than own, with 73% saying the Sharing Economy is important to them.
Last year there were 10 million car rental transactions in the UK which is part of a £14 billion industry.
Marketing strategy
In the pre-launch stage, all areas / territories will be locked and will only become active once there is a satisfactory supply of vehicles / virtual fleet that will give members the full experience they expect and deserve.
An on-site map will show all the territories with a percentage that will indicate how close the area is to getting unlocked based on criteria that HiyaCar will determine (number of vehicles). Members that really want to use the platform will encourage their friends and family to sign up, thus creating brand ambassadors, urgency and excitement.
Brand ambassadors will feature highly in the marketing proposition. The target is to acquire 1-2 brand ambassadors in each location and reward them for actively promoting HiyaCar to their peer group, networks and work colleagues. People trust recommendations from friends so brand ambassadors are perfect for generating word of mouth.
HiyaCar will launch 1 territory at a time to ensure a smooth experience and also to drive demand & interest. The first launch location will be Milton Keynes and this area was chosen due to the support from their Council. A major part of their strategy is for ‘intelligent and shared mobility’ so the peer-to-peer car hire model is a perfect fit. With their support and backing, HiyaCar will be able to launch in a highly populated town that is actively looking at ways to change how the community uses transport and promote ‘access over ownership’. Once the soft launch has proven successful HiyaCar will take the same model and apply it to other highly populated towns and cities across the UK, scaling at an intelligent speed.
The above will be achieved via working closely with a marketing agency to provide relevant and consumable content, positive and encouraged engagement that will make a deeper connection to loyal fans, paid media / SEM campaigns plus audience and community building.
Competition strategy
We believe that HiyaCar will succeed primarily because our proposition is very different to anything else currently on the market. There are currently two other peer-to-peer car hire platforms trading in the UK to our knowledge, but HiyaCar has differentiated itself by:
Obtaining a ground breaking insurance policy in the UK, which we are currently in final negotiation on, that could facilitate the hires of cars worth up to £50,000 and across all insurance groups. We believe that the car value and groupings are far superior to the competition and underwritten by Axa Insurance, such a big name will offer additional peace of mind to vehicle owners.
The HiyaCar branding is premium, as is the user experience and there will be a focus on only selecting cars that offer a great driving experience.
Marketing will be important as HiyaCar will need to target car owners and potential hirers to explain the proposition and instil trust. Creating Brand Ambassadors will play a vital role, giving HiyaCar people in each territory who will create network effects and assist new members. These brand ambassadors will share our core values, vision and passion.
The HiyaCar Community will be an area where members can converse with each other or read content that has been created by us or user-generated. Building a thriving community and not just a car hire platform will set us apart from all other forms of transportation.
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