Aussies are making huge money with an item they already have

Australians are criminally neglecting a common household item that could be making them rich.

A catastrophically under-utilised household item is turning everyday Australians into wealthy entrepreneurs and earning them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Cars are sitting in most Aussies’ garage, costing them – on average – about $430 a week and sitting completely idle for 95 per cent of the time.

Those on car sharing platform Turo however, don’t just have the capacity to offset the costs, but make a crazy profit too.

“Since we launched, average earnings per car are about $1000 per month per vehicle, and we’ve got thousands of vehicles across the country available for Australians to book,” Tim Rossanis, vice president of Turo Australia, told news.com.au.

“It’s definitely an important time, given the cost of living challenges a lot of us are facing to find other ways to monetise things around the house or other skills that you might have, and use that to support your lifestyle and livelihood.”

The opportunity benefited guests as well, Mr Rossanis said, given many recognised they would only be using their own car 5 per cent of the time.

“So what’s the point of owning something if they can just use a car sharing platform to book a car every once in a while when they need one?”

Everyday Australians are getting rich by sharing their cars when they’re not using them. Picture: Instagram

A handful of Turo’s Aussie hosts have fully embraced the platform as a business opportunity, and they’re raking in major coin.

“We’ve got people who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month just by building out a significant Turo business with 60 or 70 vehicles across the country,” Mr Rossanis said.

“We’ve got one guy who’s got more than 100 vehicles available across the country, he’s really building out an empire. He’s really ambitious, and he wants to build a significant business.”

Turo takes care of the bulk of the admin like insurance, verification, and customer safety, allowing hosts to focus on building their profits.

Mr Rossanis said there had been multiple cases of Australians replacing their full-time incomes by sharing their cars on Turo, giving them genuine access to entrepreneurship in a scalable way.

“Car sharing is very different to food delivery or ride sharing, because with car sharing, you’re monetising an asset but with those other things, you’re monetising your time,” Mr Rossanis said.

Turo has luxury vehicles like this Mercedes Benz C-Class. Picture: Supplied

“So there’s a natural constraint and how many hours a week you can deliver food or drive people to the airport. There’s not really as much of a constraint in things like car sharing or home sharing.”

Cars, Mr Rossanis pointed out, had a lower cost barrier to entry than a house, making them an easier and more attractive money-making opportunity for Aussies.

In the US, where the company launched in 2010, there are hosts with more than 1000 cars on the platform, stationed in different states with up to 40 staff supporting them.

“It’s a really, really interesting business model, and it’s great to see it growing significantly,” he said.

“We’ve had a really fantastic second year in Australia and have grown from strength to strength.”

There’s about 170,000 hosts using the platform globally, and 360,000 vehicles being shared.

Originally published as Aussies are making huge money with an item they already have