Estimating the Earnings from Peer-to-Peer Carsharing for Vehicle Owners on the Turo Platform using Anonymized Data

Abstract

Peer-to-peer carsharing, in which “hosts” (i.e., vehicle owners) make their vehicles available for a fee, has grown markedly in recent years. Little is known about how activity in this sector is distributed across communities with different socioeconomic or demographic profiles, or about the income it provides to hosts. To offer insights into these issues, this study evaluates anonymized data of trips made on Turo, one of the country's largest peer-to-peer carsharing platforms, in Illinois. It shows that usage is heaviest in higher-density neighborhoods with above-average unemployment and rental housing rates, with a particularly large concentration on Chicago's near north, south, and west sides, as well as zip codes with sizable minority populations. Most transactions are financially remunerative to hosts who would own their vehicle regardless of their decision to share. When maintenance and other expenses are taken into account (while nonmonetary costs such as the host's time are excluded), 94.9% of trips cover their marginal cost to the host. The returns from sharing sports utility vehicles (SUVs) tend to be higher than those for sedans and minivans. A low-income family making $40,000 annually will increase household income by 6% by sharing a vehicle 90 days annually.