VANCOUVER -- When Turo, a peer-to-peer car share company, tried to get a foot in the door in British Columbia a few years ago, it was held up by insurance issues. But last year, ICBC cleared the way and now vehicle owners can put their idle cars to work and potentially make hundreds of dollars a month.
Daniel Barozzini loves his Tesla so much, he's named it Artemis.
"I have a great passion for cars," he says. And now he's going to share Artemis on Turo, which launched on June 16.
"We already have 65,000 users signed up to our app in British Columbia," says Cedric Mathieu, Turo's Canadian director.
An Angus Reid study recently found that Canadians spend thousands of dollars on their cars every year, but typically only drive them four per cent of the time, something that motivated Barozzini to join Turo.
"I have two cars, one of them usually sitting in the parking lot," he says. Now they're both listed on the site – the Tesla 3, which you can borrow for about $167 a day, and a Chrysler 200 for $37 a day.
Turo supplies the insurance - a percentage of the daily rate, depending on the kind of coverage you want. That's something that took ICBC a while to approve.
"We're happy that this product has finally been made available and that protects every car listed on the platform," Mathieu says.
Or, B.C. residents can buy rental car insurance for $10 a day, but only on vehicles that rent for less than $125 a day.
The company screens every guest and host that joins the platform and they review one another too, something Barozzini, as a host, likes.
"It creates an environment of trust and transparency," he says. "And so far, since it's launched it's been great for me and I'm definitely going to continue it."
