The average Zimbabwean believes in saving their value of the money they own in assets: land, buildings, and cars for those who can’t afford the first two. Also, we are a country that loves to drive, everyone who can drive to work, then park their car or 8 hours and go home. Others just have cars parked in their yards. There’s a notion in the rich dad, poor dad series about cars. It identifies a car as a liability and not an asset and there is a sort of guidance towards not buying one in the hope that it is an asset. This is mostly because you spend money fueling it, servicing it and other costs. I want to introduce you to a way your car can make you money for close to zero investment.
This also, of course, would refer to a car that is not part of your core business, much unlike a person who buys a delivery truck; that’s an asset. Although I have never really been a fan of that notion because I think having a car opens certain doors for you; accessibility, mobility to meetings and in Africa, respect. Of course, this could be a largely African scenario because most of our transport network systems are terrible.
To dive straight into it, most people are missing out on a way to make money using their cars (legally). Luckily this does not involve being a getaway car or anything like that. The past decade has brought about the shared economy concept to the world and to Zimbabwe. Shared Economy (or Gig Economy/ on-demand economy) refers to business where the resources are of a crowdsourced nature and the actual platform owner does not own any assets or productive resources. Since 2016 several of these platforms exist that can help you make money.
Make money with a small Passenger car
Zimbabwe (mostly Harare to be fair) is now home to several ride-hailing platforms. These are mobile applications that allow users to hire a car through their app and pay at the end of the ride. Much like Uber, Taxify (Bolt) and Lyft. The opportunity for you dear vehicle owner is to register your car and drive it on such platforms. On average when you drive for such platforms you can get between 60–80% of the total fares you drive for and this usually compares reasonably to fuel and marginally to maintenance costs.
In Zimbabwe, there are three popular such services:
I have purposefully left out GTaxi for two reasons: Their app doesn’t seem to be working anymore and they largely used their own vehicles and didn’t take outsiders.
How much Money Can I make?
Most of the local ride-hailing platforms have never really publicized how much their partners or drivers can make per day or per month. When VAYA launched they did promise that drivers would be able to make $1,000 per month. Considering this was before the Zim economy started spiraling downwards, that amount was pretty close to an equivalent of $750-$1,000 US dollars. I would like to think it has pretty much gone on the same trajectory over the years. Actually, it could possibly be less as there are more and more drivers.
I don’t know about you but if I could find a way to make an additional income of up to 500 USD right now I will jump on it.
Which one should I drive For
A smart person will register for all three. The requirements are generally the same so once you collect for one might as well duplicate and visit all three. The biggest benefit is that this is app-based so it makes it easy to be on all three. Of course, the biggest issue is possibly battery drain when you have three apps using location on your phone.
The good thing is that if you start with all three you can see which one is worth giving the most time. My guess will be you will likely end up on VAYA on Toda as these are the most advertised and obviously most known by customers. A quick visit to the Google Play Store reveals that VAYA and Hwindi have lot more app installs [Vaya +50,000| Hwindi +10,000 | Toda +1,000]. This may not be the most accurate way to model as a lot of Zimbabweans don’t install through the app stores: case-in-point the WhatsApp installation touts on the streets of Harare.
VAYA Play Store Installs at over 50K
Toda Rider Play Store installs at over 1K
Hwindi Play Store installs at over 10K
Who can register?
Anyone can register to drive for these platforms as long as you have a clean driver’s license and a clean criminal record. The joy is that because you register doesn’t mean you have to drive full time. I’ve met drivers who only work on weekends or only in the evening or between their breaks at work. It’s really one of the best ways to make money on your terms. Earn what you drive I guess.
How much will it cost me to Register?
The honest answer is it will cost you close to nothing. Outside of the cost of photocopying your documents and possibly a police clearance report, it’s free! At some point, VAYA was helping partners with police clearance reports through a partnership with a couple of police stations.
If I was asked I would say it costs nothing. None of the service providers charge a registration fee.
What do I need to do?
Have a smartphone first of all. That is the first and major thing!
Each one of the services is slightly unique but I have noticed the requirements are pretty generic:
Conclusion
Don’t let your car waste away parked at home, getting started once a week to make sure the battery doesn’t die. Consider the money your car could make you while you are at work. You could easily get someone to drive it as we said above and they can take you to and from work.
The vehicles can benefit us so much more they can make us money and help us continuously improve ourselves. This can become a passive income stream where you are no longer driving but are sitting while your cars make you money.
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