HyreCar closing in on warehouse facility to meet increased driver demand

HyreCar is working to secure a warehouse facility as the rental car platform looks to expand and meet growing demand. “The anticipated warehousing line of credit will be leveraged for our larger partners to operate in additional markets,” Chief Executive Joe Furnari said Monday during the company’s first-quarter earnings call. HyreCar continued to expand in California, Georgia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas in Q1, according to the company’s May 16 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission . Furnari first announced HyreCar was “very close” to securing a warehousing line in the fourth quarter of 2021. “HyreCar is a third-party gainer on that financing,” he said on the Q4 earnings call. “That main line is being written to our large fleet operators, and they're going to go out and buy cars.” The warehouse facility will allow HyreCar to source cars in the short term while inventory is tight, Serge De Bock, chief financial officer, said on the earnings call, noting the move helps the company “be able to bridge the gap and conditions in the market that are unprecedented with the car shortage.” HyreCar as of Q1 has solidified some details of the warehouse deal and is “jumping through the last few hurdles to be able to get there,” Furnari said, noting the company expects the deal to close in a matter of weeks. He did not provide any further details. Increased rideshare demand Meanwhile, the number of new drivers on HyreCar’s platform in Q1 increased 10% from the previous quarter as demand for gig services ramped up, Furnari said, though HyreCar did not provide how many drivers signed on to the platform during Q1 2022 or Q4 2021. HyreCar provides short-term rentals for people who drive for delivery or ride-hailing gigs through apps such as Lyft and Uber . Lyft recorded a 31.9% year over year increase in the number of active riders in Q1 to 17,804, while Uber’s number of monthly active platform users increased 17% YoY in Q1 to 98 million, according to the company’s separate earnings releases. “We are now the only platform crowd sourcing vehicles for gig drivers in the United States and as a dedicated provider of drivers for rideshare and delivery platforms, HyreCar is uniquely positioned to help these platforms cover anticipated driver shortages as demand returns to pre-pandemic levels,” Furnari said on the call. Rideshare is regaining traction as people resume travel and entertainment activities following a slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Delivery had been propping up Uber and Lyft rentals for much of the past year as demand for ride-hailing tapered off. HyreCar saw a 5% decrease in the percentage of rental days tied to delivery services in Q1 along with a 5% increase in rental days attributed to rideshare during the quarter, in line with demand changes at Uber, Furnari said on the call. Total rental days in Q1 increased 4.7% YoY to about 314,000 days, according to the 10-Q. The average rental period on HyreCar’s platform was two to three weeks in the first quarter, President Brian Allan said on the call. To meet increased demand, HyreCar in Q1 decreased the time it takes to approve vehicles to be rented on the platform by 75% YoY and is leveraging technology to decrease processing time by 18% YoY to approve drivers to rent on the platform, Allan told Auto Finance News . “We're using some proprietary technology to get information much quicker than traditional methods we've used in the past to validate that a driver is qualified to be in one of our cars,” he said. HyreCar also sourced fewer new cars in the quarter as used-vehicle prices stabilized, Furnari said on the call. HyreCar had $11 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash as of March 31, according to the release. “We continue to reduce operating expenditures for the third quarter in a row leading to a cash burn in line with expectations,” De Bock said. Turning to EVs HyreCar also continues to increase its supply of electric (EV) and hybrid vehicles to meet driver demand, Allan said on the call, noting the number of EVs on HyreCar’s platform increased 62% sequentially in Q1. Spring Free EV , for one, lists its rental cars on HyreCar’s platform. “The number of orders through [the Spring Free EV] program was 48% higher in April than all orders combined during the first quarter,” Allan noted. Editor's note: This story contains corrected information on HyreCar's amount of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash as of March 31. The 23rd annual Big Wheels Auto Finance Data 2022 report is now available, providing exclusive statistics on the auto lending and leasing industry and a ranking of the top 200 auto financiers in the nation. Order your report .

HyreCar closing in on warehouse facility to meet increased driver demand

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