What is more profitable – carsharing or own car?
Look at the traffic in the capital – it may seem that half of Muscovites have abandoned personal transport in favor of carsharing. The painted cars of different operators catch the eye and create a visual sense of numerical superiority.
In reality, this is not the case. There are 16 carsharing operators in Moscow, who together provide access to about 15,000 cars. Compared to the 5.6 million cars registered in Moscow, this is nothing. But unlike personal vehicles, carshare cars are almost never idle, which is why they are so visible. Last year we asked driver Artyom Achkasov to calculate how much it costs to own a personal car in Moscow. Now he shares his experience of using carsharing with readers and checks whether it is really more profitable than owning a personal car. At the end of the article are the conditions of the contest.
Disclaimer: All situations and estimates in the text below are the author’s personal experience and opinion.
Cost of Ownership
In my last article for Tinkoff Bank’s blog I analyzed the cost of owning my own Skoda Rapid. It came out 17 rubles per kilometer with mileage of 7000 km per year. The mileage is small, because the Skoda is mainly driven by family members, and I myself – on test cars and carsharing.
Dug around in the logs of my carsharing apps and realized that I most often drove before traffic, in the morning. Usually it was 10 km for 15 minutes – about 100 rubles in cash equivalent. One of the most expensive was a ride in a brand new Mercedes-Benz E200 on Saturday afternoon. Then I covered 11 km for 20 minutes and paid 225 rubles.
All carsharing operators have the same principle of pricing: the basic rate is per minute, and as an option – per day. It is obvious that the main principle of economy in carsharing is to drive, not to stand.
Some operators initially offer dumping rates: less than four rubles per minute. If you take such a car and drive it somewhere at night, when there is no traffic jam, you will get the figures that would make any car owner weep. This is an extreme situation. 1 km for two minutes with a maximum tax rate of 8 rubles per minute is more than a realistic picture, provided you use carsharing properly. One kilometer in this case costs no more than 16 rubles, and it’s cheaper than owning my Rapid in Moscow. Let me remind you: in my model of operation there was practically no paid parking, and I made hull insurance only two years out of four.
If I parked my car at the many offices where I go to meetings, I would spend from 300 to 1000 rubles per day. If I spent only 300 rubles per day on parking and assumed I parked that way 100 days a year, that would be 90,000 rubles over three years! In my operating model, this would mean an increase in the cost of ownership over 3 years to 19.8 rubles per kilometer.
With carsharing you don’t have to pay for city parking, it’s very convenient. I came to the office, parked, completed the lease, and in a couple or three hours got into another car, of which there are always many near business centers. It turns out that the average employee of any company within the TTK (and often beyond) in terms of existence within walking distance of only paid parking more profitable to use the carsharing, rather than a personal car.
The fundamental principle of rational use of carsharing is strict compliance with the terms of the contract. Sometimes it can take a hundred pages, but most users do not even read it, just click “I agree, let’s go.
However, there are a lot of obligatory conditions in the contracts, as well as penalties for violations. And not only traffic rules!
Of course, in addition to fines for violations of the terms of the contract, you pay all other fines associated with using the car during your rental period – for parking violations, speeding, and so on. These fines can be higher than if you were to violate on your own car, and here are the reasons why:
– In some cases, you won’t be able to pay the fine with a 50% discount. Each operator has its own terms, read about it in the contract. – A fine for speeding 40-60 km/h is issued for a car. A discount is allowed only once, and with a carshare car the violation is likely to be repeated. – The car is registered to a legal entity and a fine of 300,000 roubles will be issued for parking on the lawn. It is a big question whether the operator will want to contest it, saying that a physical person was at the wheel, or it will be easier for him to take the money off you. – Many operators add an administrative fee to the fine – 10% of the amount of the fine for fiddling with papers.
The ground under the ice, which means that any passerby can write out a fine of 300 thousand through the “Moscow Assistant” app.
All fines are automatically deducted from the tenant’s card. If you reset your account immediately after the trip, the fine will be assessed a penalty, say, 5% per day. Sooner or later the bailiffs will come for this money.
Most companies install telematics equipment on their cars to keep track of your driving style and actual violations – this is how carsharing disciplines the driver. One relatively sharp brake during the entire trip is enough to make your driving style recognized by the operator as unsatisfactory. And if you also exceed the speed limit or press the gas pedal to the floor … There are no penalties for this, but for now. Already now, for example Yandex.Drive security service calls to the driver when he exceeds the speed limit +19 kilometers per hour and asks to be slower – I`m sure that with time real penalties will come.
The conclusion is that carsharing is not suitable for those who can not read the fine print, and for those who like to break traffic rules. Any violation will cost more than driving your own car.
Everything is clear with a personal car. You have the insurance product that you have chosen yourself – on terms that suit you. In the case of carsharing, it is important not to buy the beautiful checkboxes in applications such as “include the optional hull insurance”, but again, read the contract carefully. Most operators have a connected hull insurance option “Don’t worry, all your trips are now insured!” works with a deductible of 15,000 to 70,000 rubles. The renter pays this money in any accident, unless the report clearly identifies another culprit. The car is new, not so cheap, the damage is assessed based on special, maximum, so-called “insurance” rates of official dealers. A microscopic crack in the bumper or a tiny dent on the body panel is definitely a replacement.
At the same time, you should not disconnect the hull insurance option – without it, there is a risk to lose a few hundred thousand rubles plus commission for downtime and lost profits for the operator. Yes, or have you not read the contract? If you have, you must have noticed that the amount of this “lost profit” is not regulated by the contract.
Carefully read the contract and in case of an accident follow the regulations. In the case of the carsharing there are more relics than with your own car, although the general principle is the same – in any traffic accident the culprit must be clearly identified, and it is better that it was not you.
Attention .
Another aspect of using carsharing is so obvious that renters often overlook it. Any damage to the car that is not recorded in the operator’s internal system before your rental begins and noted by the next renter is automatically charged to your account. The operator allows normal wear and tear on parts. Small scratches and dents are the operational norm, but accidents are not. The operator can treat any damage any way they want.
Once my friend was simply charged 15,000 rubles from his card for damage to the front fender of his car, which the next tenant found on the car. My friend believes the fender was perfectly intact, but he didn’t take pictures and didn’t really look closely at the dirty car. To prove your right in this situation is possible, but to do this you need to form a manic approach to the use of carsharing.
How to be: before the start and after the lease is over you need to make a full photo shoot of the car from all angles. All body parts and glass, tires and wheel rims, mats, seats, spare tire and repair kit in the trunk should be included in the frame, as well as photos of the car with a reference to the area. It is important that the EXIF file also stores geodata – to do this, you need to turn on geolocation in your smartphone’s settings. It is also important to make sure that the system time corresponds to the real time. It is written in the EXIF.
Next, in the carshare app, you should fix all the scuffs, chips, dents and other damages. Only after that, you can press the button “sign the rental agreement. With your own car there is no need to be so meticulous. But if you want to save money on carsharing, you should clearly follow the spirit of the above instructions.
Condition of the cars
My car is my sweetheart. I will cherish it, pour the best oil, put quality parts, wash and polish. In the trunk I always have wipes, sponges, and the necessary auto-cosmetics.
The carshare car is alien to everyone: those who drive it, those who maintain it, and those who own it. The renters kill and dirty (including with bodily fluids), smoke, and treat them like animals. Those who maintain these miserable cars often do so at minimal cost – putting the cheapest parts in the cheapest repair shops. To be sure of this, it is enough to look closely at the markings on the windows.
Many carsharing fleet operators do not skimp on unnamed quality consumables. If it says Benson, XYG or KMK on the glass, you know they are cruelly saving on the repair of your car. I think I don’t need to say that nobody in his right mind would treat his car like that.
Once I came to St. Petersburg for a business meeting. Sapsan business class, tea in a beautiful cup holder. The majestic architecture, the smell of the sea and swamps. Walking to the car I rented in advance, I get into a story about “expectations and reality”. The car was covered in a dense shell of mud. The inside of this Kinder Surprise looked like it had never been washed. There was a disgusting stench. When I squeamishly sat down in a more or less clean seat and put my hands on the steering wheel, I realized I was screwed. My palms were literally stuck to the steering wheel. I was on my way to a business meeting: how could I shake hands with the person who was going to meet me? Risked not to reach – suspension rattled as if it was not, the car was pulled to the side, through wipers wiped windshield almost nothing was visible.
I took a cab from the meeting. The driver turned out to be an aggressive and inept idiot. On the way to the train station he risked causing a fatal accident twice. But at least I didn’t stick to anything.
These photos are nothing compared to a faulty vacuum brake booster and an engine that stalls every time I stop. I have encountered all of this personally, I have never been refunded for a ruined ride – simply because it is not provided for in the rental agreement.
If the tenant agreed to everything and drove the car, it means that he was satisfied with it. In this situation the conclusions are very simple: check the car more attentively, bring disposable gloves and wet wipes, and in case of any breakage stop the rental immediately and inform the operator about the problem. This point cannot be counted in money. Everyone is free to decide for himself – to ride in his own car and take care of it, or agree to surprises in the carsharing.
A trip to the airport.
In theory, one of the sweetest uses of carsharing is a trip to the airport. Early in the morning, it costs about 300 rubles instead of a thousand for a cab and 500 for the Aeroexpress. The main difference between a carsharing trip is this: in case of an accident the renter is obliged to stay with the car for an indefinitely long period of time. A minor accident, the driver is not to blame, just a couple of scratches – it does not matter, the delay is guaranteed. In the case of a cab you just change the car. In the case of your own car, you can draw up a euro-protocol, or agree on compensation on the spot, taking a receipt from the other party to the accident, that he has no claims and legally leave the scene of the accident, as if it was not at all.
When using carsharing on the way back from the airport to the city, the renter in the case of the same Sheremetyevo overcome two tasks unplanned quest: find a car in the parking lot and arrange to let the aunt out of the territory – the parking card found in the car is definitely out of date. The car is in the rental, you need to put your bags in the trunk, put the car on hold and go to the booth to clear the paperwork.
That’s why I try to take the aeroexpress to the airport. I take carsharing on my way home, but only if I’m flying light. Using your own car on this route is also not very profitable – if you fly for a few days you have to pay a lot of money for parking, and in case of an accident, which would cause a dispute about the guilt between the participants, you will just as well miss the flight.
Out-of-town trip
In terms of cost per kilometer of mileage, a suburban carsharing trip seems to be profitable. If there are no traffic jams, then when moving at a speed of 90 km / h the unit cost of using drops to an incredible 5 rubles 33 kopecks per kilometer. At the same time there is no need to pay for refueling. To be more precise, if it is still necessary to fill up, the carsharing will do a discount.
Then the subtleties begin. It is not possible to complete the lease at the dacha site. This means that the car will be in parking mode. Also, many operators set the limit of the maximum mileage per day of 70-100 kilometers. This may not be enough for a trip to the cottage.
Similar limits are in daily packages – when the renter pays not for the minutes, but at once for the day. Solaris in “Delimobil” for a day with a mileage limit of 70 km will cost you RUB 1999. The cost per kilometer will be Br28 and 56 kopecks. Limit daily mileage does not Yandex.Drive, but in general on the market mathematics is similar, as well as a trend to reduce the limit of daily mileage.
The minimum service rate is 5 rubles per minute. Suppose you took such a car in Yandex.Drive and driving on an empty highway at an average speed of 90 km/h. The kilometer will cost 3 rubles 33 kopecks. Further benefit depends on how long the car will spend in standby mode. Suppose it is 6 hours. At the standby rate of 2 rubles 50 kopecks per minute we will get 900 rubles. A standard round trip of 100 kilometers and the same distance back in ideal conditions would cost 1,566 roubles and its unit cost would be 7.83 roubles per kilometer. At least two times cheaper than driving your own car! If you spend 18 hours in standby mode, the unit cost will be 16 rubles 83 kopecks, which is comparable to a private car.
When traveling out of town, it is important to carefully read the contract and not to exceed the limit. If that happens, it may cost 5-10 rubles for each kilometer of overrun, or impose a fixed fine. The contracts of some operators spell out the responsibility for using the car off-road. Typically, the price of the fine starts at 50,000 rubles. Theoretically, it can be issued on the basis of telemetry and geopositioning data. Your dacha dirt track on the carsharing map can easily become off-road.
Traveling on a carshare map
Some carsharing – Rentmee, for example – allows you to travel far. For example, you can take it from Moscow to St. Petersburg. In the per-minute rent mode will ask for 6 rubles for a minute and 2 minutes in the parking mode, the daily limit is 100 kilometers. The maximum benefit can be obtained by traveling 50 km one way, or 100, but without the return trip.
The daily rate of 1200 rubles per day is more profitable, because it already has a limit of 200 kilometers. The surcharge for excess – 5 rubles per kilometer. Imaginary 700 km from Moscow to St. Petersburg without taking into account toll roads (let’s assume that the time we do not care – we pay for a day) will cost 1200 rubles tariff + 2500 rubles on the overrun, or 3700 rubles one way. But that’s not all. The peculiarity of Rentmee daily rate is the price of fuel not included in the price. At an average consumption of 8 liters per hundred, we will spend a minimum of 56 liters of gasoline at 45 rubles per liter, the total to St. Petersburg – 6,220 rubles. The average cost per kilometer will be 8.88 rubles, which is quite profitable.
For a really long trips, carsharing is not suitable – the zone of use is limited by the rules of the service.
So, can carsharing be cheaper than your own car? Of course it can!
In four years of using this service with different operators, I have not paid a single fine. But in order to avoid turning into a “hitch”, you need to carefully read the agreement, strictly comply with its terms and conditions, follow all the requirements of traffic regulations, and be a true “auditor” when accepting the car. That’s what I do – I always set aside 10 minutes to inspect and photograph the car and never do it in a hurry. This helps me see carsharing as a real alternative to a personal car.
The word “alternative” is key here: all the benefits of carsharing become less obvious if you still have your own car. While you are enjoying the benefits of carsharing, it is sitting idle, rusting, losing value, and you are paying taxes and insurance.
So that’s the arithmetic.
And now for the promised contest.
Tinkoff has launched a contest for drivers. To be guaranteed to win a prize, you need to subscribe to the Bank’s blog yourself, encourage readers of your blog on Drive2 to do so and share your tips on saving money on cars. For this you will receive 399 Drive2 credits and qualify for super prizes, including 15,000 points on your Tinkoff Drive card. Read more here .
“Yandex” has calculated the border of benefits between own car, carsharing and cab
In Moscow it is more profitable to own a car worth up to a million rubles than to use the cab or carsharing. This conclusion was made by the analysts of “Yandex”, who calculated the cost of owning a new car for three years after the purchase and compared these costs with the cost of a cab and carsharing with comparable mileage. RBC got acquainted with the results of the study.
“Yandex” owns major services in these markets – “Yandex.Taxi” and carsharing “Yandex.Drive”.
“Owning a car worth two to three million is already more expensive than carsharing if you use economy cars, but cheaper than using a cab on the “Comfort” fare. This is based on the average annual mileage for Russia,” say the authors of the study.
However, they noted that the less the total length of travel, the more favorable alternatives to buying a car become cabs and carsharing.
On the page of the study is a calculator to compare the cost of owning a car in different regions of the country for different mileage and the cost of carsharing and cabs of different classes.
How much does it cost to own a personal car
Most of the cost of maintaining and operating a new car is depreciation – a reduction in its price. Its share reaches 53% of monthly expenses. Motor hull insurance is in second place at 22% of costs, and only third place is fuel costs at 13% of the average Russian annual mileage. The costs also include the cost of maintenance, car wash, seasonal tire change and vehicle tax. At the same time, the cost of repairs, parking and possible fines, as well as interest on the loan to buy the car, were not included in the cost of ownership.
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The most expensive model in the review was the Mercedes-Benz G-Class AMG, which cost 17.4 million rubles. Such a car costs 357 thousand rubles a month, of which 272 thousand rubles is depreciation. Owners of LADA Granta spend the least money – in average it costs the owner 13 thousand rubles a month.
The structure of expenses for owning a car varies depending on its price. The more expensive the car, the lower the share of costs for maintenance, MTPL, and especially for fuel. In premium class cars, 60-70% of monthly expenses are depreciation. In second place is the cost of changing tires.
For budget cars, depreciation and fuel are the main expense items, in about equal proportions, and hull insurance is in third place. So owners of the ten cheapest cars spend on average 5,400 rubles a month on fuel, and that’s about one third of total expenses. And those who drive the ten most expensive cars spend on average 5,800 rubles per month, but for them it’s only 4% of all costs.
Moscow authorities are developing an application, through which car owners will be able to rent their cars for short-term rent. Application “People’s carsharing” will be the property of the city government, it will also “carefully look at users’ profiles for driving experience and length of service of the vehicle,” the head of the transport complex of the capital, Maxim Liksutov said.
The owner of the car, according to him, will be able to determine who is allowed to rent his car (age, experience, etc.) and where to return it. With the help of the service under development the car will help the owner to earn, and the city – to unload the roads, according to Liksutov. He cited statistics, according to which more than 90% of the time a personal car is not used.
One of the main inconveniences for the experts called a significant increase in the cost of obligatory car insurance policy, because it will have to be issued for an unlimited number of people. According to Evgeny Ufimtsev, the Executive Director of the Russian Insurance Association, the frequency of accidents with carsharing cars is higher than with cabs, and if the “People’s carsharing” system is launched then the cost of MTPL policy will be higher than with standard cars.
