Drover is in talks with automakers and captives to list off-lease vehicles on its car rental marketplace platform for rideshare drivers, Auto Finance News has learned.While Drover has not secured an official commercial contract with BMW Financial Services U.K. yet, the company does have BMW vehicles listed on its platform as part of a pilot project, Leuschner said.
“We still have several conversations ongoing, to see how we could scale this pilot up and do more things together [with BMW],” he said. “BMW essentially works like any other provider under our terms and conditions, but there is no specific commercial agreement yet.”
Drover, founded in 2016, offers consumers a new kind of car rental experience targeted at rideshare drivers who typically only need the vehicle for a year or less. The startup’s business model sits in between a classic three-year lease and a regular rental car company whose average rental rate is a few days, Leuschner said. Drover aims to bridge that gap; its average rental is for six months, he added.
“Basically the idea is that we provide an alternative to car ownership through flexible access,” he said. “So you can get a car for a week, for six months, or for a year — whatever time period you want.”
