Karshare Blog

Vicki and Ali live in an apartment complex in Manchester city centre, working in Tech and Science respectively. When they knew they'd be relocating to Manchester city centre, they “were debating whether to keep the car or not when looking at places to live.” Reluctant to say goodbye to their Toyota Yaris Hybrid, they signed up to Karshare and are now earning enough to cover the costs of keeping their carin the city and then some!

When you first think of peer-to-peer car sharing you might not think of it as a ticket out of your day job, but for Phil that’s exactly what he chose to do! Once the potential of car sharing from a financial aspect became clear, he began to invest in purchasing more cars in order to car share. After a while, Phil started to face issues with the car sharing provider he was using at the time. “Costs were rising for both renters and owners which was becoming commercially unviable as a host.” Read on to find out why he chose to switch to Karshare.

Like many others when Ant and Beth bought a new car for commuting to work, they were unaware of how their daily need for a car was about to be shaken up by lockdown. “We ideally wanted to get an electric car, but because we live in a terrace house we couldn’t get some form of electric charging point. So hybrid was the best option for us really! Beth was just starting a new job and needed the car to drive around the country, but then our jobs changed over lockdown and we weren’t really using the car an awful lot.” Read on to find out what they think of car sharing so far...

No stranger to the sharing economy, when Maimuna started working from home she saw an opportunity to rent out her car and share it with her local community. Have a read to see how she's found the experience since joining Karshare and how she became the first amongst friends to begin renting her car out.

Alan Cleaver and his wife are both Bristol residents who, like many others, are now both working from home. This shift in day-to-day life meant that their secondary car became slightly redundant as it was no longer needed for the daily commute. Sharing their car on Karshare enabled them to pay off the annual cost of their car within just two months. Read on to find out more.

Hilary is a Royal Mail postal worker living in St Pauls, Bristol. She has been renting out her Citroen Berlingo to members of her community with the help of Karshare. Hilary describes her vehicle as “neither a van nor a car” – a perfectly sized 5-seater that has been a handy mode of transport for her three children and her dog, Bruce. When she first got it, she envisioned herself “packing up the bikes and the family and going for weekends away” but since Covid, her plans have changed. “I don’t use my car for commuting", she told Karshare. "I cycle or walk instead, I get ASDA deliveries so I don’t need to go to the shops and I wouldn’t dream of using my car to drive into town. If I was faced with the choice today, I probably wouldn’t have bought a car – I would just rent one instead.”

Ian is a Software Tester living in Westbury Park who has been renting out his Ford C-Max with his partner Rachel as part of Karshare’s community car sharing scheme. He first used Karshare when it operated as Car and Away at Gatwick Airport. “It worked really well there and made me think about the fact that there’s always cars sitting around at airports – it makes way more sense to use those rather than a whole fleet of rental cars. Then I saw that Karshare had started operating in neighbourhoods during lockdown and got on board.”

Johnny de Mearns is an artist, yoga instructor and masseur from Bristol. Dad to 4 boys, he has recently swapped out his 23 year old Toyota Picnic for a brand new hybrid car and is now renting it out to his community via Karshare. “I first read about Karshare in an article and thought it was a totally brilliant idea, but I knew my 23 year old car, which was already on its way out, wouldn’t be eligible for sharing. After that car was hit by another vehicle and finally written off, there was an opportunity for change.”

Julian Burr is a 42 year old DJ from Hanham in Bristol. Married with four children, he owns a Vauxhall Vivaro van, which he has been renting out as part of Karshare’s community car sharing scheme. “I first heard about Karshare through a Facebook advert”, he told us. “In non-Covid times, I operate a DJ business and this has had to stop since the first lockdown in March. My van has been redundant since then and Karshare was a great opportunity to make some income from it, instead of it sitting idle.” Julian and his family have two other vehicles which they use to get around in Bristol, but the van “is not being used for anything right now.”

Lisa, 25 years old, lives with her boyfriend in Redland, Bristol and their sausage dog Florence. They moved in October 2019 from Oxford as they have family in the area and spent a lot of time here. With an Audi A1 on a finance plan and a walking commute to work Lisa decided to keep her car as she likes the independence it brings her, so they are a two-car household.