Your car can make you passive income. With the explosion of peer-to-peer platforms and the “side gig economy,” there are now many ways to quickly and easily make money using your car, and some are more passive than others.
How can you make passive income from your car? Ways to make passive income from a car include renting a parking spot, advertising with your car, renting your car, offering ride sharing lifts, or delivering goods such as groceries and parcels. If you are passionate about cars and want to start a business, you can also flip them.
Here are some of the best ways beginners can make passive income from their car. We have listed each method in order of most passive to least passive (side hustles). No matter what, setting up a passive income stream takes time, but if the idea is more passive, than it will require less time to maintain. Feel free to read the guides on our blog for more info!
Passive Income
Passive income (learn more on our site here) is a steady stream of revenue that requires little active maintenance. The following are easy ways beginners can make passive income from their car.
1. Renting Your Parking Spot
Renting your empty parking spot is an awesome way to make passive income. If you have an extra space in your garage, or in your driveway, you may have the potential to convert it into passive income if you are willing to rent it out.
How can you make passive income renting your parking spot? Simply upload a photo and description of your parking space to an appropriate peer-to-peer platform (there is a list in our guide). According to Parkeasier.com, a space in Boston can be rented between 100$/month (Somerville) to 400$/month (Downtown).
How much passive income you will make does depend on your location. For example, in Canada, the National public parking cost in 2012 averaged $241.72 according to Colliers International. Most peer-to-peer parking space rental platforms list around 35% of the local parking space cost. And the cost of public parking is on the rise, which is excellent news for you if you would like to use peer-to-peer parking apps to rent your space.
2. Advertising with Your Car
This is also one of the most passive ways to make money from a car: simply by placing advertising on it. If you like to drive but do not want to invest any time or money into a sharing gig, than this deal may be for you. No need to socialise with passengers, just drive your ad-covered car like you usually would and enjoy the passive income.
How can you make passive income from advertising on your car? By letting ads be placed on your car, you are “renting” the advertising space on your car to provide advertisers a place to display their ads. This allows advertisers to get their ads seen, while you benefit from monthly revenue or a commission without having to spend any money.
It’s a win-win situation for advertising companies and anyone wanting to make passive income from their car. Thanks to your offering, ad companies get to have their ads seen, and you get to enjoy easy passive income. Think it’s easy? Indeed it is. If you are interested and are wondering what it takes to get started, the guide below is for you.
3. Renting Your Car
If your car is sitting around collecting dust, you could rent it out to make excellent passive income on apps like Turo. Some car owners are making well over $500 a month renting their cars using peer-to-peer platforms that put car owners in touch with car renters.
How can you make passive income from renting your car? You can make passive income from renting your car on popular car rental apps like Turo that put car owners in touch with car renters. Cars are a necessity and generally renting a car is less expensive than hiring a taxi for long distance travel. This makes these platforms very attractive to temporary renters and car owners.
Many YouTubers boast about making well over $1,000/month on Turo renting their car. This is an excellent passive income source since the actual time required to setup a listing and maintain it are low compared to the return on investment. Renting a car is made easy on apps like Turo, notably for beginners. Learn more in our guide below.
4. Ride Sharing
Offering ride shares on Uber is an excellent way to make money and this guide specifically addresses how you can make money from Uber passively. Many people are doing it all around the globe.
Is it possible to make passive income through ridesharing ? You can make passive income through ride sharing. If you regularly drive between different cities alone, or with one other passenger in a car that can comfortably seat more than two people, you are missing out on an easy passive income opportunity.
You may be thinking that driving strangers around is not for you. But consider that some drivers are able to make up to $2,000 a month through ride sharing (source). Additionally, many people with regular jobs are able to make hundreds of extra dollars each week offering rideshares for just a couple of hours every while commuting their regular route to work.
Side Hustles
Here are ways you can use your car to make money with a side hustle. Side hustles entail active income (learn more here) so they require more ongoing time than passive income.
5. Delivering Groceries
This passive income method demands you go a bit out of your way but with Instacart, you can be a grocery shopper and deliver groceries. Since you have a car, you can sign up to be a full-service shopper to purchase and deliver groceries on demand. This job requires you to accept orders, shop and then deliver the goods. The hours are flexible but it is a very active endeavour.
Is it possible to make passive income delivering groceries? Delivering groceries is a side gig. In order to make delivering groceries into a passive income stream, this could be done during your regular shopping time. For example, accept orders only when you are going to do your own groceries. You can then deliver the order on your way home.
6. Delivering Takeout
Ordering takeout and having it delivered through a peer-to-peer platform is extremely popular, especially in Europe and the USA. If you don’t mind delivering food, you could easily join Postmates, UberEATS or DoorDash.
Is it possible to make passive income delivering food? Delivering food is more of a side-hustle than a passive income stream as it requires you to actively deliver food. It is hard to outsource as anyone you work with would probably be tempted to have their own account on the food-delivery platform.
7. Delivering Amazon Packages
AmazonFlex is Amazon’s flexible work program that allows you to deliver packages. You may have ordered a Same Day Delivery parcel from Amazon. If the carrier was “Carrier: AMZL US,” than it was an Amazon Flex driver who delivered your parcel. If you live in one of the operating cities, you could make $18-$25 an hour, be your own boss and set your own schedule.
Is it possible to make passive income delivering Amazon packages? Delivering packages for Amazon under AmazonFlex is more of a side-hustle than a passive income stream as it requires you to actively deliver packages. The work requires you pickup packages and then deliver them using Amazon’s Android app. When you drop off the package, scan the barcode and move onto the next address.
8. Hauling Things
TaskRabbit is a peer-to-peer app that allows you to get in touch with people who need someone to help them move things. Tasks can include moving things from one city to another, or just hauling a few items down to the dump for them.
Is it possible to make passive income delivering Amazon packages? Moving things on TaskRabbit is more of a side-hustle than a passive income stream as it requires you to actively move items for people. There are many categories on TaskRabbit, however moving or hauling is one of the most popular. The best part about participating in this platform is that you get to choose your own rates and set your own schedule.
Businesses
If you are passionate about cars, you may be interested in setting up a passive income business related to this industry. Here are some ways you can make cars into a full time job, and then make your income passive.
9. Flipping Cars
If the car-related gigs and passive income ideas you have come across so far hold no appeal for you, but you are passionate about cars, maybe flipping cars might be what you have been looking for.
How do you make passive income flipping cars? You can make passive income flipping cars by building a business buying cars at a low cost ($500 each for example), and reselling them at a higher cost for profit ($2,000 each). In this example, you would make $1,500 per car.
10. Automatic Car Wash
If you are interested in cars but don’t want to drive them or buy them, than an automatic car wash business is another passive income opportunity you can consider. Self service car washes do not require you to show up with a bucket of soapy water to clean cars every day. The whole process is automated so that the client easily gets their car washed, and drives away.
How can you create passive income from an automatic car wash? If located in the right spot and maintained correctly, an automatic car wash can be an excellent passive income business. Location and maintenance are key in this business.
Chuck King stated “I used to own a self serve car wash that would net around $50,000 where I owned the land and the business” (source). That means he was making passive income $4,000/month. You can imagine what owning a couple of these business operations can earn you. What is especially interesting is that the process is fairly automated, and therefore does not require you to spend a day in your life actually washing your clients’ cars or presiding over the business’ operations.
Note Keep in mind that some of these passive income streams will increase the mileage on your car that will eventually require repairs. When calculating your earnings, remember to take usage into consideration. However, if you decide to start a business, you can deduct these expenses.
Related Questions
How can I make passive income with no money? Some ways you can make passive income with no money by renting things you already own. For example, you can rent your car, a space in your home, your things such as cameras, sporting equipment and bicycles. You can also make passive income with no money by building passive income streams such as a YouTube channel or blog.
What are passive income ideas? Here is a list of 50+ passive income ideas Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Chatbots, Copywriting, Data Entry, eCommerce, Flipping Domain Names, Flipping Items on Craigslist, Gaming, Gaming Apps That Pay, Influencer Marketing, Niche Membership Sites, Niche Site Focused on Education…
