The Genius Car – Real life adventures in the share economy

Well the situation is still incredibly fluid.  I even bought a new car to list on Relay Rides.  I might have the only AWD Luxury minivan to rent in the state of Colorado.  I bought this van because it was literally a diamond in the Relay Rides world.  They don’t make AWD minivans anymore except for the Toyota Sienna.  My MDX is potentially for sale or it might be turned into an uber black car.  Using it on Relay Rides at these rates is not a win win scenario.  The potential problem is the two future rentals in the month of July.  The second person has been much more proactive.  Now that I understand her situation I have a win win scenario I believe.

First off Relay Rides shouldn’t penalize me or the renter.  My plan even makes more money for Relay Rides.  As I said to my lovely wife Rebecca yesterday, “My nickname is Mr. Genius nor Mr. Prettygoodlooking.”  Now that I know what the renter is looking for I really understand their situation the King of Empathy is on the case.

She does not necessarily want the MDX for it’s awesome handling, fun to drive, and stylish good looks.  She needs a car that can hold a husband and wife, bunch of kids, luggage, and pick up and dropoff at DIA.  Once the customer read my blog and became aware of the situation we both started working on backup plans.  She found another minivan that she liked and was going to talk to her husband about.  She sent me a link.  I was kind of sad it wasn’t my minivan.  I sent her a link to mine and she thought it looked really nice as well.  Thank You!

I don’t think that minivan was even listed when she made her original booking with my MDX.  I’m not even sure how many kids she has or the ages, but here is what I am thinking.  This is as new parent who only has one baby who is 19 months old.  If you have 2 or fewer kids I’d go with the MDX.  Three kids would be the MDX or the Toyota Sienna.  Four i’d go for the Toyota for sure.  If we just had the universe of those three vehicles I’m trying to think which on the customer would want.

My first choice for them ironically isin’t either of my two vehicles.  I’d go with the other Toyota Sienna minivan.  Now if it was between October and April that other minivan is the last choice.  Both of my cars are better choices.  This is simply because my cars both have all wheel drive.  Do you want to be the parents who make there kids get out of the car and push on vacation?  This time of year the AWD is not a factor.  What else is a big factor for this decision?  The pick up and drop off.  I have all sorts of complications and and issues.  Although if the MDX or the Sienna rental goes through.  I will do my best to make the experience go smooth.

The other car is where he blows me away.  He is offering curb side pick up and drop off with his vehicle.  That is worth something.  I have done that in the past and will do it sometimes in the future, but it’s extra hard for me.  I have a fleet of cars on Relay Rides to manage, drive for Lyft and Uber, and I’m a stay at home dad with a baby during normal business hours.  I had two pickups in a row where the flight was delayed over two hours.  That wrecked my day.  The customer should want the other minivan just for the drop off and pick up.  That option cost the most, but it’s certainly the newest and nicest vehicle with the best pickup and dropoff.

So Relay Rides can offer to let the customer cancel for free, or if they are automatically charged an $18 cancelation fee credit their account.  The customer is super happy.  Relay Rides makes more money because a more expensive vehicle is renter,  the owner of the other car is excited because he has only taken 2 or 3 trips.  (wonder how long that curbside dropoff keeps up?), the renter gets exactly what they want with no uncertainty,  the owner me gets to keep my rating intact, create a happier customer, the business Relay Rides makes more money.  How about it people?

This also lets me rent my minivan.  I have 5 requests floating out there.  Three of which will interfere with the potential MDX screwed up trip.  I’m trying to make it right people.  Throw me a freaking bone here someone.

The Offical Genius Car, the Acura MDX has potentially come on the market.  It’s sad and I hate to sell it and I may not sell it, but I will likely have to.  This sucks so bad and I really, really don’t want too.  Life and circumstances change and I’m just not rich enough to have an extra $20,000 laying around the house.  By Wednesday July 7th I will likely have either

1) Brokered a 2013 black leather/black exterior MDX to somebody.  It is potentially to good of a deal to pass up.  This car qualifies for Uber black and it is potentially a great deal.  It is already a good deal.

2) Buy this MDX for myself for my own Uber black car.  I’m 90% sure that this is the direction my life is going.  I’ve got 95% of the plan worked out and it is at the operational stages of planning. I still really need to talk to Seth and Joshua  I’m at the point of looking for potential drivers and figuring out the commission splits.

3)  If I don’t buy this MDX for myself, auction closes Tuesday 10:00 a.m MST then I have to figure out if I need to look for another one or get this car “dipped”.  For the non auto informed and count myself among you until about a month or two ago.  Thank you Mark Justice and Breck for pointed me out to the idea of dipping and directing me in the right direction.  The MDX won’t be back from it’s back to back rentals (BOO YAH Jim Cramer) until Wednesday morning.  I’ve already got two people lined up to look at it on Wednesday.  If somebody offers me full price of what I am looking for do I need to sell it anyway?  I am an autobroker and an entrepreneur in the automobile and “share economy”, why should I have a schools love and infatuation with a car?  If I don’t sell it Wednesday can I get it dipped and dry by Saturday morning when it’s next Relay Rides car rental in Denver for a luxury SUV?

What is either really good or really bad depending on how things turn out is this car has future rentals booked.  Since just June 25th and July 7th at 8:00 am this car will have generated $667.50 with three different rentals.  The problem is it has two future rentals it will be out July 11th through the 18th and later on in the month from the 23rd through the 27th.  If the MDX is able to complete these rentals it will earn another $427.25 for me or it’s new owner.

This might be the first sale in history of automobiles where it comes with a revenue stream.  Call Wikipedia!  Now a few things would need to happen:

1)  The person who buys the car would have to agree to sign up for Relay Rides and agree to rent the car at this price.

2)  The currently scheduled renters would have to agree to keep the same terms and the pick-up and drop-off points need to work for both parties.

3)  Relay Rides would need to cooperate which I’m sure they would.

This post has a wide variety of target audiences.  The most important are the future renters and Relay Rides.

Nothing has happened yet, but I want to give as much notice as possible to all parties.

I sent the message through the Relay Rides system Monday evening to the renter.  If I was more organized or worked harder I probably wouldn’t of waited this long.  I’m freaking busy raising a baby in addition to all of this other crap.  If I really, really wanted to get a hold of him I could send a text directly to his cell phone.  I could even call, but hey I haven’t reached out this whole time to him.

Tuesday night rolls around and Rebecca comes downstairs.  I’m trapped like a rat in the cage.  There is no exit except the stairs and even if I could run away I don’t have a car to run off too.  So I tell her the story at least how I remember it happening.

I explained that during the course of talking about these things about wanting to get the car back earlier made it easier for me to say yes.  We had a gentleman’s agreement to get it back earlier.  I know I was playing with my pricing structure and he potentially if he would of rebooked the trip it would of cost him more.  Well I don’t think he’s an idiot so I kept the reservation.  It was going to be record length trip and the highest paying trip.  I’m also excited about the idea of not having to do any of these damn deliveries.  I also have a super secret plan that I’m not telling Rebecca about.  I said I can go back and look but right now it really doesn’t matter because we have a legally binding agreement that says he has the car until Thursday 2:00 theoretically he can show up at DIA at 2:00 on Thursday.  Rebecca is super big on legal contracts and I am as well. (another blog post)

I told her I think he is actually in or flying to California and driving one of his cars back here.  This dude is racking up frequent flyer miles.  I think he’s gone from Hawaii to NCY, NYC to Denver, Denver to who the hell knows in Cali to driving back here.  I’ve driven that stretch of I-70 and I-15 seven out of the last ten years on my World Series of Poker adventures.  It is beautiful country, but a hellish drive.  Cell phone coverage sucks in a lot of spots.  I also think it has the longest stretch of Interstate highway without a gas station.  Marc Brown has a hellish hotel story from some town in Utah.  I told her if he is driving there is nothing I can do plus hell maybe it was Wednesday.

Since I am the King of Empathy I told Rebecca that I know exactly what you are feeling and thinking.  Here is what you are thinking and probably in order

1)  So you’re thinking that the car could come back Thursday afternoon.  That means that you have to take an Uber Wednesday morning you are stuck at work all day and don’t get to see Hope at lunch.  Then you have to take an uber back home Wednesday and this process happens again on Thursday.  However you can have either the car back or likely me and Hope bringing you back home Thursday night.  So that will be fun.

2)  Your think so you get the car on Thursday afternoon … WTF.  Why do I even bother to get it back now.  The workweek is almost over.  My husband is an idiot.  Exactly what you didn’t want to happen just happened.  Yes Rebecca you are also correct that you have no car Monday or Tuesday next week.

3)  You are also super pissed off and think that I’m an idiot and that this is also costing us money.  It is costing us money.  It is $15 each way to work.  That costs $30.  Almost 95% of our rentals have been $25 per day or less.  This doesn’t even include the Relay Rides cut.  I know Rebecca is thinking that I’m almost deliberately trying to piss her off and be a financial moron at the same time.  I need to write a blog about game theory and my pricing model.

Rebecca is amazed at how well I can read her mind, “Like I said I am the King of Empathy.”  This has all been worth it.  WE CLOSED OUT THE MONTH ON A COMMA.

Tomorrow – I find the car and the king of empathy figures out the retrieval.

So it’s June 30th the last night of the quarter and I’m not sure if this is my wife asking me or if it is me asking myself.  In our experience with Relay Rides I’ve been pretty good to great at managing it.  The one rule for the household is don’t let both cars leave at the same time.  As long as I don’t violate this rule the homefront remains fairly tranquil.  I rarely violate this rule, but I decided to this time because things looked so sweet.

After countless experimentation and game theory testing I felt I found the perfect price points for Relay Rides for both of the cars.  I’m mostly concerned with the Hyundai Azera because it is the one rented most often.  I also use the Acura MDX for Lyft, Lyft Plus, Uber XL, and Uber Select.  That car makes money when it’s not doing Relay Rides.  It actually makes a lot more with me doing other things.

The Acura MDX got a request at the new full price and the correct pricing model.  The extra bonus was the fact that I can pick up and deliver at DIA when Rebecca is not working.  This is a super awesome rental and of course it’s accepted.

The potential problem came in, and I knew about it in advance that was there was a request for the Hyundai Azera that went from June 16th all the way to July 2nd.  That was going to be an amazing amount of time gone.  The longest trip so far.  It would be a big time earner for the Azera.  The problem was the overlap at the end.  We are going to be without any vehicles for a four day overlap.  The only other time we’ve had two cars gone at the same time Donna Henderson was out here with her smoking hot Hyundai.  This was going to be a challenge.

We are going to be without wheels for the weekend, which just means we are stuck together all weekend and really won’t be leaving the house.  The worst part though is Rebecca is having to take Uber’s into work.  Note with the recent price drop in Lyft in Denver, Colorado those would be Lyft’s if taken today.  Rebecca is one of the most easy going people in the world, after all she married me.  A few things that she doesn’t like though are; strangers, talking, paying for anything, and I’m not sure how excited she is about going to work in the first place.  Taking Uber’s to work combines all of these horrible things for her.  Since I am the king of empathy I understand her pain.

What I know about the renter though are a few things that intrigue me.  It is a wife and husband with two kids.  What is so exciting is that they are relocating to Boulder, CO from Hawaii.  This triggers a few big things for me.  The first is that I’m a licensed Property and Casualty agent in the state of Colorado.  When people move out of state that means new insurance and a host of other services.  Since they are coming from Hawaii this means they might be needing a new car.  Mike Henderson, auto broker to the rescue.

During our negotiations with both trying to get the car back sooner and finding other business opportunities that he’s actually going to be purchasing a car very soon and I think I can get the car back Tuesday night.  I accept the rental.  The drop off is a little challenging as they have a delayed flight.  Traveling cross country with two small children and the flight is delayed means don’t try to sell anything and these people won’t be real happy.  Plus Relay Rides is kind of a wierd thing anyway.

I’m not being proactive or trying to get a hold of Steve when he is out here.  I’m busy with a bunch of stupid stuff and have a lot on my plate.  I’m not being proactive and eventually I send him a message through the Relay Ride system.  I’m waiting to hear back to find out when/where to pick up the car.  It’s also my chance for a five minute pitch.

I just hope we get it all worked out before I hear Rebecca, “Where the hell is the car at?”

To be continued …

These are two of my most recent requests and why I need/want/would like to treat these two requests differently.

The very first request was the customer deliberately asked me about what if they go over the mileage allotment.  It is fairly generous, but still they thought they would exceed the limit.  I don’t want to have another trip with the Azera where the car was gone for 6 days.  I earned $146.25 the renter put on 1,065 miles.  This seems like a bad deal to me.  Since I had that rental I’ve tightened up my prescreening process.

I didn’t even have a chance to do the game theory or the math, but surely there is a deal for me that makes sense.  I was potentially thinking that for each 100 miles that he goes over charge a $25 fee.  Get this agreed and paid in advance.  I don’t believe Relay Rides is set up to handle requests like this.  Here is what I believe I have to do.  In this situation if I’m going to get that $25 fee over a four day rental then I would need to raise my daily rate by $6.25 and change the mileage to 25 miles per day higher.  Once I get this set up then the prospective renter must book the trip right then and there.  I have no ability to just set up items for a one time rental.  This is now my new price for everyone.  I need to have them verify and book the trip, then I have to go back in and manually reset my prices again.  This seems very inefficient for me and the customer.

This next request was a ride that I accepted but I had some reservations about doing it.  You lucked out Tamara  This request was for the Acura MDX.  It was the next request though that was for the MDX at these new rates.  I finally feel I have the car priced right.  The Hyundai Azera is gone and Rebecca Henderson hates taking Uber’s to work and home.  I understand her point especially when we own two cars paid in full.  The cost ranges from $13.50 to $14.50 for her to take an uber each way.  This adds an extra cost for us that we have to pay.  I almost said no, I almost asked the renter about ability if they wanted to pay this.  Yes I will rent you the car, but since you want it Monday and Tuesday and the other car is gone then you need to pay and extra $60.  I understand this may change the deal and the economics push it over where they say no.  That’s fine and that’s how the free market works.

I said yes to the request for a few reasons.  It was one of those beautifully timed ones where the car is returned and Tamara’s request was for a mere five hours later.  Both of these requests are also at fair market value so I said yes out of excitement.  It also happens when Rebecca only needs to take ubers into work on two days.  I’m not sure if Rebecca Henderson reads these blogs, but I’m not sure that she realizes that she is going out to DIA at 8:00 in the morning to pick up the Acura.

It should be easy to implement from Relay Rides perspective.  It just needs to be a blank field and an amount.  It could also be set up as a credit.  I charge people $70 to pick up and drop off my car at DIA.  If these people can give me a ride back and 50% of the time I have a baby in the car shouldn’t I give them a little credit?  It’s a two way street and it would be good for both parties.

I’ve currently completed 18 Relay Rides trips.  I’m grateful for the renters and the income it has provided our family.  Sixteen of those rides has gone on financially as agreed.  Some totally kicked ass.  I’ve had two trips recently though were I feel I was shorted money I should of been paid.  The response of Relay Rides was prompt as usual, but it did not address the issues.  What is a challenge is whether to do anything about it?

The most annoying Relay Ride actually has one of the issues.  It is only $5.08, but it is money.  He didn’t have time to fill up beforehand and he was already late.  He agreed to pay cash.  My original estimate was $25.  He thought it was $20.  I was already a little pissed because they were late.  Lot’s of times it’s not a big deal.  This time it was noon in the hot sun,  Hope was with us and not real happy about going down to DIA.  Sitting in the car at noon with a baby is not exactly fun.  She wasn’t too bad, but hey it’s lunch time why am I not eating is all she thinks.  I didn’t feel like arguing and hell it could of been $20.  It was within my margin of error.  I didn’t want to argue so I let it go, and took the twenty cash.  I also don’t want to have my ratings jacked up. I filled up the tank after driving to the first cheap gas station at Tower Road.  The total was $25.08.

The other time was a super cool couple with two small children.  They took the E-470 the toll road down to Parker.  They paid the toll in cash, but I didn’t know how much it was.  The brother they were staying with said it was $13.  That is correct if you have the transponder.  I didn’t, it’s now on order for both Relay Rides vehicles.  If you don’t have the transponder for the E-470 authority and all Express Lanes in Colorado.  I got the bill and it was $17.55.  Between these two incidents I’m now 9.63 in the whole.

The Relay Rides response was about they now have a system where I can now submit a trip reimbursement directly to the renter.  This allows me to communicate directly with them and get my money directly from them.  This is also what Relay Rides customer support told me.  The problem is that these requests disappear within 48 hours after the rental I believe.  By the time this information was received by me that functionality was disabled.  What am I going to do now Relay Rides?  The first incident is my fault I could of submitted the request sooner and the problem is solved.  The other incident though was a bill in the mail that happened over a month later.  Nothing structurally in the system can prevent this.

The real tough part is trying to figure out what to do and this is the struggle with all things and companies in the rideshare economy.  Even if it all works out great and appropriately what am I gettting.  Freaking not even ten bucks.  How much of my time am I going to waste chasing down this money?  I have other things I can and should be doing with my time.  Even writing this blog to talk and share about the incident takes a lot of time.  I also believe that chasing down both of these customers will result in a negative experience with Relay Rides.  This reflects poorly on the company that I am representing and that pays me.  It can also result in potential bad word of mouth as opposed to positive word of mouth for all of my fellow Relay Rides owners.  Should I have to fade this $9.63 outrage or should Relay Rides reimburse me directly?  They are a big giant corporation (well damn well bigger than me), they can afford it.  If they had to pay me the money and did it for everybody else that figure than jumps to the hundreds of thousands nationally and maybe even millions.

By the time a put in the time and energy to get this money shouldn’t I be doing something else to just go out and make another ten bucks or am I just letting people take advantage of me.  I’m kinda torn and conflicted and not 100% sure what to do.

We have a Facebook group for Relay Rides owners.

This one was a real close call.  The renters seemed like nice people.  They flew into DIA and they had two little kids and two carseats flying into DIA.  The bottom line is what did I make from Relay Rides.  Take home is a little over a hundred bucks and I’m without a car for potentially 5 days.  What this means for my practical life is that Hope and I can’t go to McDonald’s for breakfast five days in row, at least potentially.  One thing I didn’t notice was that this was the last of my super cheap fares.  I rented the car out for $20 a day.  That price was way to low, but I wanted to get the success stories and reviews out there.  The Azera has already taken 8 trips and the Acura a total of four.

The fare on this now would be $20 gross higher and I would of got to keep an extra $15.  That’s nothing to sneeze at, it’s almost 15% more profit.  It was also a bad deal that I wasn’t able to get a ride from these people in either direction.  Normally I like to have the renter take me back home after picking them up at Denver International Airport (DIA).  I also like them to pick me up when they go back out to the airport.  This was an impossibility because they had two adults,  two kids with two carseats and luggage for everybody.  The Azera can hold this comfortably.  When you add me as a full sized adult and a baby with a carseat no freaking way.  The times worked out so Rebecca and Hope got dragged in to this debacle.  This involves her time and mileage on the other vehicle.

Well this trip was about the most marginal one ever.  The people were nice.  Rebecca and I learned that airlines don’t count carseats as checked luggage so that was a plus.  If this trip happened again it would be another fifteen bucks.  Time to raise that delivery fee as well.  Ended up analyzing the delivery fee as well.  This one worked out horribly.  Even though it was great and smooth for the customer and myself both ways.  It really isn’t worth it so I raised it to $70.  Hey that is partly why the car is so cheap.  It is by far the nicest and cheapest car you can rent in Denver.  The new fees would be $170 for the customer.  For a full size sedan with the mileage restrictions that are much better than a rental car.

Once you figure in renting at the airport with the high taxes and fees Relay Rides does provide a far superior value.

If you haven’t yet please check out the site to rent a car or even rent your car.

Check out Relay Rides

This has been my new favorite program.  I honestly like Relay Rides better than driving for Lyft or Uber.  I simply rent out my car, make money, and it doesn’t take any of my time.

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