You woke up this morning with an Uber bug and decided you needed a Lyft me up, so you made a strong freshly ground coffee, took a bite out of a day-old Dunkin Donut and ran out the door to become an overnight driving sensation. Oh, you forgot to mention you don’t own a car and the last time you took a Uber, You had a Hawaii Uber accident.

Reality dictates. Otherwise, you live in the middle of Chicago, or another large US city, you are a student, a non-professional employee or even an insurance salesman with a great new sales pitch (yup, you guessed it, driving an Uber or Lyft or both).

If you don’t own a car, before you rush off an spend all your savings on a car for this gig, check out if you can drive for them. Go through the whole driver application process first. Check out site like Ridesharing Forum to get an idea on what you need. You don’t need a car to drive for Uber and Lyft, but you do need a valid driving license, pass a 7-year screening process and own insurance policy in your name.

Once you have passed the application and you are told you can drive for either or both companies, you will next need to register a vehicle that they will accept. This is simple too, just follow their rules. However, again, you don’t own a car any problem, you don’t need to, you can rent one if you want, and in fact, I would suggest that you rent one first before you go out and commit to buying a car with installments. You never know whether you will enjoy driving for a living, or whether driving for a living will pay off.  The best way to find out is to rent first, buy later.

Each rental service provider had different options, and there are essentially four such rental options available beside this lamborghini rental Miami:

 

Uber

Uber is partnered with Hertz, Fair, and Getaround in many cities. Renting a car comes with unlimited miles, insurance, and vehicle maintenance For Hertz you will need a $200 deposit which you reclaim after your return the car. For Fair, you will need to pay a onetime $500 fee but will pay a lower weekly fee of $130.

My suggestion is to start with Hertz, you might pay more per week, but you endanger less.

 

Lyft

Lyft has a rental service call Express Drive. It’s like Uber and gives you includes unlimited miles, insurance, and vehicle maintenance. Lyft also partners with Flex drive and Herts; prices are around $180 and above per week.

 

HyreCar

This is another option, HyreCar is a ridesharing company that only provides Uber and Lyft cars, you need to be an approved driver first. HyreCar is not a rental company; it is an app that connects Uber/Lyft drivers that have a car and want to rent them out while not driving, or as a business for more income. The process varies per location and vehicle and is a great short time option.

 

Maven Gig

Maven Gig is a focused ridesharing car rental service from GM. The packages start off at $199 per week but offers includes unlimited miles, insurance, and vehicle maintenance.

 

Craigslist

If you want to take a chance and rent from someone off Craigslist, that’s up to you; there are deals out there.