Let’s start the discussion with some quick introductions 
Just reply to this thread with:
Your name -
What car you own -
Why you joined hiyacar as a car owner-
What you would like to get out of the community forum -
What’s your favourite place in Streatham 
I’m John and have 3 Ford Fusions on here…
I started with DriveJoy / RideLink about 4 years ago and then also joined easyCar Club,
My first rental was scary, As i handed over the keys to to my car to a stranger… how would i explain this to the insurance if i never see the car again…
but the car came back, it was washed and hooverd, and i made money out of it.
Every weekend that car went out, so after a few months got a second car…
Then a 3rd, 4th & 5th…
A little sideline to help cover the cost of owning a car, became a little business of sharing my cars.
Having 5 cars on two clubs kept me busy enough, that i didn’t need to join Hiyacar when they started.
but as competition i followed with great interest.
late night twitter chats with the CEO suggested it was a small car club, But it was a different sort of car club.
Ridelink going under, 3 months after a large cash injection was a big hit to the business and a big wake up call to how volatile business can be.
regardless of how great my business might have been, with without a car club i never had one.
I think i was a little hostile towards Graeme to start with, why should i join a club that won;t accept all my cars (Due to age) or won’t accept my non UK licence holder customers from RideLink…
A friendship evolved, and a respect and understanding for each others business established.
I listed the 3 cars young enough to join and never looked back…
I should probably leave it here before this turns in to an autobiography… (still working on doing my first blog)
What you would like to get out of the community forum - I’m always meeting new and regular customers, so i like meeting other owners. We’re all different We have different cars and different customers
I’ve always been on the economy end of the market, so would love to hear from the owners in the mid /high end.
And My favourite place in Streatham… It’s Home, It where i start and finish each day, and wouldn’t change it unless i get 6 numbers on the lotto…
But if i’m out then it’s the Railway Public house… It’s open late and i can crawl home from there… x
John Robertson
Peugeot 108 automatic 3 cylinder which gets zero road tax
I joined after a few years of trying every possible P2P lending opportunity. There were a lot after the banking crisis and I’d try to put £100 into each one on P2Pmoney if the returns looked high. Then my mum finally gave-up driving after a period of very low mileage, and asked me to sell her runabout. It was the first car I had ever looked-after and it was young enough to go on hire sites while I tried to sell it, then before long I gave up trying to sell it and kept it as an investment.
I treated the first few customers like B&B guests, asking how their journey went and smiling or grimacing (look at my photo and try to imagine a smile!), while hiring-out on Hiyacar and Easycar, but it turned-out that they preferred the Easycar key safe system when it worked, so now I hardly meet my customers and they give me 5 star reviews. I use a manual key safe in a plastic box on the wall and can give details if anybody asks.
What I’d like to get out of the P2P forum is referrals and just possibly a chance to meet but I am very pompous and a liar- I live in SW14 which is not quite Streatham but that was the nearest thread on the forum.
Obvious business ideas are always welcome, even if they seem a bit obvious. Maybe a Wiki would be good. I did a lot of thinking about how to hire-out cars and have probably come to the same conclusions as other people, but obvious ideas are good.
Odd ideas are welcome too. I test the social acceptability of fly-posting laminated signs on fences near level crossings and foot bridges. I have jumped-in on a council planning notice about a car club bay to suggest a different system to Richmond Council (Richmond organised some car club bays for Zipcar and Enterprise who tendered in some way - it all seems complicated … Wandsworth shares staff with Richmond and chose Zipcar and CoWheels I think). So I suggest promoting P2P car clubs now and then, whenever an opportunity to be consulted comes my way.
Shared publicity is always good. I tried flyposting for the SW14 url on the Hiyacar website with pictures of the cars on that page. It seemed a good idea because nobody could prove which SW14 car owner flyposted, and because searchers would have more choice. Then the pictures faded, and I chose a simpler third A4 flyer. They go next to posts from local community groups about reducing emissions near level crossings or various community meetups, so I guess that the kinds of people who get grumpy about flyposing are also the kinds of people who flypost, so my posts don’t get taken down too often.
If anyone is interested in sharing a mailout of business cards, just as minicab firms pay for distribution through County Leaflet Distribution, I might share the sponsorship. I have not thought whether there is any need to share, and I would fund it by giving a referral link on each card and hoping to break-even, but shared ideas are welcome even if nobody wants to share the risk of a minimum order for distributing cards.
Favourite place in Streatham? I think I did housing support jobs near Streatham a decade or two ago. Streatham common night-time walks are something I remember from my youth, along with some kind of bar above Streatham Ice Rink which I visited once so long ago that archaeologists might dig-up evidence.
John - Welcome
A wiki could be a good idea, we’ll bear that in mind