Riders Share, a peer-to-peer motorcycle rental company, is looking to build partnerships with dealers and has implemented a new insurance policy, in part, to help attract dealers, co-founder Guillermo Cornejo told Powersports Finance.
The rental company has partnered with Prime Insurance, a specialty insurer that focuses on high-risk insurance. The company wrote a policy for Riders Share that insures motorcycles for the duration of the rental period for consumers and dealers. Cornejo believes that this policy allows for dealers to better make use of their inventory.
“There are hundreds of thousands of motorcycles just sitting there doing nothing that could be put to good use,” Cornejo said. “There are customers that would love to be able to test drive those motorcycles for hours. … What we offer enables dealers to give rentals that are basically a prolonged test drive with no risk to them and with no investment.”
Typically, when a dealer rents a bike to a consumer, it is considered as commercial use, Cornejo explained. Commercial policies are “super expensive” because the underwriter expects the motorcycle to be driven frequently. Riders Share’s new insurance policy only covers the duration of the rental.
Riders Share has been working on securing dealer and lender partnerships, and plans to resume discussions with these potential partners in the coming months. The rental company works with three Southern California-based dealerships as of February 2017.
The rental company, which launched August 2016, has over 450 motorcycles available for rent on the site and made $20,000 in total transactions for 2017. The motorcycle owner sets the daily rental price for their listing, and Riders Share takes a 30% cut, and charges a $20 transaction fee.
