After introducing South Africa to the private vehicle renting platform, RentMyRide is launching a professional fleet owner service division to meet what it calls the growing demand for private vehicle rental in the country.

RentMyRide offers low-cost, long-term vehicle rental and hire solutions to South African motorists, allowing motorists to register their vehicles on a system for long-term leasing and hire.

A statement from the company said the new division utilises the peer-to-peer rental platform that has facilitated over 15 000 vehicle rentals since its founding in 2014 to help companies and entrepreneurs rent out any of their fleet vehicles to prospective customers.

Co-founder and CEO of RentMyRide Sebastian Brokmann said since 2014, the company had seen more South Africans enter the sharing economy by listing their cars and making money from it when they were not using their cars themselves.

"Over time, we have seen some users build businesses on our platform by adding more than one car to start their own small rental fleet," said Brokmann.

Brokmann said the main challenge for RentMyRide was providing enough vehicles for interested customers, including tourists from abroad used to services such as Turo in the US or SnappCar in Europe and are looking for something equally convenient and affordable in South Africa.

Now your car can earn its keep

Grenville Salmon, managing director of Pace Car Rental, with whom RentMyRide is piloting the new service, said Pace and RentMyRide were on the cusp of developing a game changer in vehicle hire.

"Platforms such as RentMyRide are the future of vehicle rental. The system is powerful and efficient, and we believe it will help us grow our business in volume and in reach," said Salmon.

RentMyRide says the company offers the benefit of daily usage rates that are 40% lower than those of fleet companies, which have to absorb the holding costs of their large rental fleets.

The service is available in Bloemfontein, East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg. Using the service, motorists register their vehicles on the system.