Hiyacar

What is it?

Peer-to-peer car sharing allows vehicle owners to share their car with local drivers, thus offsetting the cost of ownership, and drivers to hire cars locally, which is often cheaper, more flexible and more convenient than traditional car rental.

Car owners: How it works

Hiyacar is a technology company first and foremost - we provide the insurance, in-car hardware and booking platform to make your vehicle shareable.

Car owners: Why join

Sharing cars reduces the number of cars on the road - fewer cars on the road means less congestion, less CO2 emissions and less air pollution. The emissions created during the process of manufacturing a car can match or even exceed exhaust emissions over a car’s lifetime. By sharing existing cars (which spend more than 95% of their lifetime idle), we can reduce the number of cars that need to be manufactured. Car owners can use the rental income from sharing their vehicle to offset the costs of insurance and maintenance.

Drivers: How it works

We provide the insurance cover, so simply download the Hiyacar app, sign-up within minutes and you’ll have access to book and unlock the car straight from your phone.

Drivers: Why join

Joining a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform gives you a unique opportunity to try different cars and have access to a variety of car sizes and types. For people who do not accumulate high annual mileages, Hiyacar could provide an opportunity to sell their privately-owned vehicle and make significant savings. The average car in the UK is used just 4% of the time, yet the cost of ownership remains constant - car finance, insurance, tax and maintenance costs usually run to thousands of pounds per year.

FAQs

How do Hiyacar verify drivers?

We put prospective drivers through a 7-layer verification process to verify their identity, licence validity, minimum age (21), and many other factors that indicate drivers who are more likely to be respectful of our car owners and their vehicles.

What if I receive a parking ticket or Penalty Charge Notice that was incurred during a rental?

Drivers are liable for any PCNs incurred during their booking. We ask that the owner submits an image of any PCN they receive to us via the claims link on the Hiyacar platform. We will then charge the the driver the outstanding balance (and any applicable admins fees) and transfer the cost of the PCN to the car owner so that this can be paid.

How does the insurance work?

For car owners, each booking will include our insurance cover so that your personal policy would not be affected, enabling you to make money from renting your car safely. Your car must be personally insured whilst it is listed on our platform as our policy is only active for live bookings.

For drivers hiring a car, insurance is added to every booking and displayed clearly at the checkout. The cost of the insurance varies depending on your age, driving history and the type of car you are booking.

What share of the rental cost do car owners receive?

Hiyacar charge a standard commission of 40%, with the car owner receiving the remaining 60% of the rental cost.

For car owners who purchase their own breakdown cover which covers the vehicle and any driver who drives it, we will reduce our commission to 30%. We offer a heavily discounted policy via the AA, which includes Home Start as well as recovery to any UK destination. The discounted cost is £40.18 per vehicle per year, reduced from £207.50.

For any further questions, please visit the Hiyacar help centre at https://help.hiyacar.co.uk/en/, or contact the Hiyacar team via live chat through the Hiyacar website or app.