Dealers who want to get involved with individuals looking to participate in the ride-sharing economy have another opportunity by leveraging their idle inventory.

On Wednesday, DriveItAway announced it is partnering with MyDealerOnline to give ride-share drivers what the companies called “unprecedented choice” in selecting a temporary vehicle to drive, giving them access to hundreds of vehicles in current inventory as well as wholesale auction vehicles in many locations available through participating dealers.

With the goal of being the most dealer and driver friendly national car-sharing service for current and prospective Lyft and Uber drivers, DriveItAway said in a news release that it now has more than 1,000 vehicles available and offered on its driver app in each of two pilot regions — Philadelphia and Miami. Combined with its free credit repair and remediation program, DriveItAway insisted it is the only platform of its kind to offer a clear “path to ownership” to all of its ride-share drivers.

DriveItAway is piloting this new service with MyDealerOnline in the Philadelphia area with Empire Motors Auto Sales, and in the Miami area with AutoTrust USA.

Potential ride-share drivers looking for a vehicle that they might want to drive or rent-to-own simply has to download the app where both immediately available vehicles and those units that would be available “upon request” are displayed.

For many dealers, all or part of the car-sharing rental payments can be used toward the down payment for the purchase of the ride-share drivers chosen “dream car.”

“In the past, the ‘on demand’ employment that Lyft and Uber provide was only available to those who have an appropriate vehicle with which to drive,” DriveItAway chief executive officer John Possumato said. “Our mission at DriveItAway is to provide temporary vehicles to those who want to drive but don’t have a vehicle, by tapping into a car dealer’s inventory, but uniquely, offering a ‘path to ownership,’ as there is no getting around the fact that, longer term, it is much more economical for a ride-share driver to own their own vehicle.

“A few weeks ago, we made the industry first move of offering free credit repair for all drivers on our platform, and now we have gone one step further and have broadened vehicle selection beyond any competitive offerings as now dealers can add both sitting inventory to a driver’s selection on the app,” he continued.

“The vast inventory currently available at wholesale ‘dealer only’ auctions in the area, through cooperating dealers, so that DriveItAway alone offers our drivers true transparency to hundreds, even thousands of vehicles to choose from, available for a rent to own type purchase.” Possumato went on to say

MyDealerOnline creator Yury Kaganov also described what the partnership with DriveItAway means for his firm.

“I originally created MyDealerOnline to create an easy, transparent way car dealers could display to the public vehicles that were listed at wholesale remarketing channels, as means by which they could offer this ‘virtual’ inventory for sale and attract more buyers,” Kaganov said. “Now I think integrating it into the DriveItAway dealer focused car sharing app, for dealers who want to attract even more customers and to offer these vehicles to ride-share drivers on a rent to own basis is a perfect new age additional feature, giving ride-share driver’s maximum choice in selecting their temporary, then purchased vehicle. 

“Combining the ‘virtual’ dealer supplied vehicles with ride-share, on-demand employment and credit repair through DriveItAway give unprecedented choice and opportunity to this new market,” Kaganov went on to say.

For more information, visit www.driveitaway.com/rto/.