Each of us, at least sometimes, had to use the services of a car rental and no matter under what circumstances everything looks quite trivial. Starting from the search for a decent car on the company’s website to the application process itself. However, such a familiar approach to facilitate movement around the city is displaced by another unusual and interesting service – car sharing. Today, in this article, we will dispel once and for all misunderstandings and myths about both types of services and tell you finally what is the difference between car sharing and our usual rent a car. Read below to learn more.
DEFINITION
Let us first outline the concept of renting a car. It is a type of service, implemented most often by private companies and involves the use of cars of different classes, including budget rent a car to travel with family, friends or personally to where you need. Services for cheap car rentals are usually offered by local car companies.
Car sharing, or as it is also called sharing, involves the possibility of ordering a car for short trips, and mostly such cars are provided by their owners themselves on special websites. However, it is possible that the cost of this service may be somewhat excessive.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CAR SHARING AND RENTING A CAR
The main differences between these two concepts have already been mentioned above, but let’s talk in more detail.
Firstly, car rental is provided by certified companies. All licenses and certificates for vehicles, have been verified by public authorities and have an official web portal. Car sharing, in contrast, provides the possibility of ordering a car on the side of the company from private owners of vehicles using their interface (payment forms, forms for registration and order).
Secondly, the car maintenance work lies with the rental company (scheduled or unscheduled inspections, diagnostics, repairs). Sharing implies that it is the owner of the vehicle who has to do all the maintenance work.
Third, most rental companies have a wide geography of operation, from small misses and towns to metropolitan areas, states or the entire world. Shared or peer-to-peer use is usually only possible in the area where you make the order.
Fourth, the delivery of enterprise rent-a-car vehicles is possible by pickup or drop-off at a specific location at the expense of the private provider. With shared use, this responsibility rests with the owner of the vehicle himself and can also be delivered by self-delivery to the destination. After you have solved all your cases, the car is returned to the hands of its owner or remains intact in a predetermined location, where it is picked up by a company with car sharing services.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN CASE…?
What about accidents? When you drive your own car, all accidents (accidents, accidents with serious injuries, damage to vehicles so bad that they cannot be repaired, etc.) are covered by insurance companies with which you have signed a contract (insurance policy).
However, when you rent a car, your insurance company only covers some of these insurance or warranty events, but most of the reimbursements will still have to be paid by the renter, unless, of course, you have found the best deals rent a car and taken out a policy that provides for such accidents on the road, too.
But what about common use? Here things are more complicated. Proponents of such an alternative as a sharing car rides can have significant problems in the event that some emergency occurs on the road, because this new service in many regions does not provide the possibility of insurance in this order style as a shared use, but if you managed to find better deals rent a car USA cheaper in the field of equal use, then you are a lucky man.
CONCLUDING OPINIONS
Consequently, faced with the choice between ordering a rental car and car sharing, you should still rely on the classic and familiar to all who rent a car. Why should that be? There are no guarantees that the car ordered for the joint use will not break down during your trip, and you will have to reimburse the losses for repairs, because for such cases the rental agreement is not covered by the vast majority of insurance agencies. In addition, the owner of the car is unlikely to hold a technical inspection before providing it to you, so it is safer to travel only by ordering a variant, rather than an alternative. And you should rely on car sharing only when you really can not find a decent offer. We wish you a pleasant and comfortable ride!
