HyreCar sees surge in delivery drivers amid pandemic-spurred shift

Carsharing marketplace HyreCar continues to benefit from a pandemic-spurred shift to food and package delivery services, contributing to an increase in car ownership for delivery drivers. The company allows gig drivers to rent cars in the short-term for delivery services, or to participate in ride-hailing through apps such as Uber and Lyft , while working toward car ownership. As the COVID-19 pandemic hampered rideshare services, HyreCar saw the number of drivers who use the platform for delivery increase from 8% pre-pandemic to 60% in 2020, a number that still stands today, HyreCar President Brian Allan told Auto Finance News . The shift to delivery contributed to 15,100 new drivers to HyreCar’s platform in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 29% year-over-year increase, according to the company’s full year earnings report. Two-thirds of HyreCar drivers are predominantly focused on delivery as rideshare remains below pre-COVID levels, Chief Executive Joe Furnari said last week on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “Delivery drivers started making a lot more money than they did pre-COVID because people were tipping them well,” Allan said. “So, we had a couple of positive things that we leveraged. We were able to quickly recover to our pre-COVID levels of rentals and income. In fact, we ended up growing.” Rental days on HyreCar’s platform increased 41% quarter-over-quarter to 277,000 days, largely due to a shortage of new- and used-vehicle inventory in the marketplace, Allan said. As fleet owners faced tight supply and kept cars for longer, HyreCar gained more vehicles on its platform at a lower cost, he noted. About 75% of cars on the platform as of the fourth quarter came from commercial suppliers like fleet owners and dealers. HyreCar’s number of average daily rentals increased from 3,000 in the fourth quarter to 3,500 in March, and is expected to exceed 4,000 in April, Furnari said. Gig drivers often struggle to secure an auto loan through traditional financiers, but HyreCar’s earn-to-own partnerships with lenders such as ACC Consumer Finance and Westlake Financial pave a way for them to buy a car, Allan said. In December 2020, HyreCar partnered with TrueCar to connect gig drivers with auto dealers. “We are now in a position where we are partnering with larger companies who see the opportunity for the hundreds of thousands of our customers to buy, insure, or finance cars,” Allan told AFN . “We're growing our business to be more of an ecosystem, versus just renting to gig economy drivers — and we’re monetizing it.” Meanwhile, HyreCar is planning to incorporate more electric vehicles on its platform by the second half of 2021 as Uber, Lyft and fleet companies turn to zero-emission cars, Allan said. HyreCar’s stock (NYSE: HYRE) was trading at $11.40 per share at 3:38 p.m. ET Thursday, up 3.69% since market open. The company has a market capitalization of $231.7 million. Auto Finance Risk Summit, the premier event for risk and compliance in auto finance, returns May 11-12, 2021 as a virtual experience. The virtual experience will offer the quality networking and education of past events, all through an online platform. To learn more about the 2021 event and register, visit www.AutoFinanceRiskSummit.com .

HyreCar sees surge in delivery drivers amid pandemic-spurred shift

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