Summary
- What's Drivy?
- How does it work?
- - Become a tenant on Drivy with Drivy Open
- - Become an owner on Drivy, with Drivy Open
- Drivy: advantages and disadvantages
- - For the owner
- - For the tenant
- Drivy: Editor's note
Drivy - car rental between individuals
At a time when the collaborative economy is taking on an incredible scale, the concept of this decade is car sharing or car rental between individuals! His model? To amortize the use of a vehicle by allowing it to be used by different drivers in turn. Just like Airbnb for housing, it is now simple and easy to rent a car for a short time, and this in all cities in France.
The Drivy site, European leader on this market, is surfing perfectly on this wave. This model has a double efficiency: it allows renters to rent a car easily and at much lower rates than at a professional car rental company, and it allows owners to obtain additional income or simply to finance a vehicle they don't use all the time.
But how does Drivy work? What are the pros and cons? The editors of Génération Voyage have looked into all these questions: opinions and tests, here's our Drivy magazine!
What's Drivy?
In 2010, Paulin Dementhon - a young French entrepreneur - decided to launch his start-up to facilitate car rental between individuals on the Internet. Initially named Voiturelib, it became Drivy in 2013. The concept is simple and the speech well put together: "renting a car that you only use occasionally is the possibility of obtaining additional income that allows the owner to recoup his expenses".
With Drivy, from an application or the website, owners can share their vehicles and drivers can access self-service vehicles around their homes. Since 2016, Drivy has grown even more and has a more varied fleet of vehicles, now combining professional and private owners, but without increasing its rates. Building on its success, Drivy is available in 6 European countries: France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Today, Drivy has 130 employees, offers more than 50,000 cars in Europe and connects more than 2 million users! With a view to even greater growth, Drivy was acquired in April 2019 by Getaround, an American car-sharing platform. For the time being, Drivy is not changing its name, but it should not be long before it does...
How does it work?
Drivy is quite simply an online service, which allows you to rent or put a car for rent anywhere in France.
You choose your vehicle according to 3 criteria: location, price and user comments.
Since 2015, Drivy has been implementing the " Drivy Open" technology. This option allows owners to rent their vehicle remotely, without having to be present to give out the keys.
Drivy benefits from a partnership with Allianz to insure all cars at all risks with a contract adapted to the rental, and offers 24/7 assistance.
On Drivy, there are 2 typical user profiles: the owner and the renter.
Become a tenant on Drivy, with Drivy Open
- Choose the vehicle among those available around you (possibility to filter by type of vehicle, price, and other features)
- Create your profile by uploading photos of your driver's license and ID
- Access the vehicle with your smartphone
- Make an inventory with the application and open the car in one click, then retrieve the keys inside.
- You are entitled to 200 km per day and additional drivers.
- On the return journey, you return the vehicle to the point of departure, leave the keys in the car and lock it with your phone.
- The rental price will be automatically adjusted if you have driven more than expected or if you have not put in enough gas.
If you book a vehicle without the Drivy Open application, the only difference is that you will meet with the owner to hand over the keys and documents (license, ID).
Become an owner on Drivy, with Drivy Open
- Register your car on the site, then you will receive a call from Drivy to schedule the installation of the Drivy Open box.
- Enter the availability ranges of your vehicle
- Receive reservations (if the vehicle is available at the time of booking, it will be automatically accepted)
- Renters locate, unlock and lock your car with the Drivy application.
- You will receive a transfer 5 working days after the end of each rental (including any extra fuel or mileage).
If you do not choose to have the Drivy Open technology installed in your vehicle, you will need to go to the parking lot of your vehicle at the time of key exchange. Together you will make an inventory of the car.
Drivy: advantages and disadvantages
For the owner
Advantages
- Income supplement (70% of the rental price)
- Remote rental with Drivy Open technology
- Flexible rates
- All-risk insurance by Allianz
- Non-affected insurance bonus in case of tenant's accident
- Automatic verification of the tenant's identity
- Dedicated rental tracking team available to answer questions from Monday to Saturday.
- Simple management from the application or website
- Available in 6 European countries
- Possibility of renting vehicles registered in several EU countries
Disadvantages
- It is not possible to rent cars with more than 13hp.
- Uninstalling the Drivy Open system for vehicles reaching 200 000 km
For the tenant
Benefits
- Attractive price
- All-risk insurance by Allianz (with deductible)
- Possibility to subscribe to the "deductible reduction" option)
- Assistance included 24/7
- Dedicated rental tracking team available to answer questions from Monday to Saturday.
- Self-service vehicles accessible 24/7 from the app
- Numerous rental points throughout the city
Disadvantages
- Less supply in small towns
Drivy: Editor's note
Clear, simple, useful and effective. Here are the 4 words that define this site of car rental between individuals, according to our opinion and test! Drivy is the leader in the car rental market between individuals and it's not for nothing. At Génération Voyage, we like this principle of car sharing and collaborative economy.
Just like Airbnb, this concept is becoming an integral part of our lives and not just our holidays! The cost of owning a vehicle can be significant and it is therefore a practical way to finance its maintenance. All the more so when you don't use it every day!
Obviously, it is preferable to live in the city or in a tourist area to take advantage of a rich supply and demand. If you are located in the deepest part of Creuse, maybe you won't have to rely on that to finance your next holiday.
On holiday or simply on a last minute outing, in just a few clicks you can rent a car near you. That's what we like: simplicity leading to freedom!
