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Two new ride-sharing services - WhipCar, which was launched in London last week, and RelayRides, which will start up in Boston early this summer - aim to get car owners to rent their vehicles to strangers when not using them themselves.


So says an article in The Economist. At heart, both offerings are online exchanges. Car owners and drivers register, contact one another through the site and agree to a rental contract.


To ensure that both parties are trustworthy, WhipCar asks, among other things, for details of both the rented car's registration and the renter's license, and checks them against official data.


It also provides insurance for the duration of the rental and a replacement car if there is an accident.


In addition to these measures, RelayRides only accepts cars that have gone through a safety check and installs a device that allows them to be unlocked with a special card. This way, owners and renters do not have to meet, as they do with WhipCar.


Both firms allow owners to set the price, taking a 15 percent cut. Even with the insurance premium and other fees added in, the firms expect the rental price to be lower than using a conventional car-rental firm or an urban car-sharing club.


WhipCar provides suggestions for the prices different cars might fetch in various neighborhoods. Shortly after the site went live an Audi A4 in central London cost $15 an hour or $62 a day.


Will the idea take off? The main hurdle will be car-owners' reluctance to share so personal a possession (and the requirement to keep it clean). The firms must also overcome a problem all exchanges face: attracting enough members to make the service useful.

Tags: Emissions, Fuel Economy, Emissions, Fuel Economy, RelayRides, Ride Sharing, WhipCar

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Two Services Aim to Get Car Owners to Share Their Automobiles With Strangers was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.