Maven Gig – Uber, Lyft, Postmates And Doordash Rental Cars
Maven gig is a car rental option for rideshare or delivery drivers. It make the most sense for those who are looking to decrease out of pocket maintenance and fuel costs.
If you’re a Lyft or Uber driver (or both), or you deliver goods for Instacart, Postmates, or Doordash, you’re probably concerned about the wear and tear on your vehicle.
After all, when you drive rideshare or delivery, you do need to replace things like brakes, tires, and oil, more often than if you were just using your car for personal use.
Thankfully, these days you have a few car rental options that let you continue to earn money through services like Uber or Doordash, but without having to worry about a check engine light coming on, or how much tread is left on the tires.
Previously, we’ve looked at rideshare rental options like Fair.com and Lyft Express Drive, but today we’re looking at Maven Gig.
(Disclosure – We independently research our content to provide free advice for you. We may get compensation if you sign up with services, or purchase products through our affiliate links.)
What is Maven Gig?
Maven Gig lets you rent a car to use for all of your side gigs, whether it’s delivering for Postmates, driving Uber, or working for Handy. You get a vehicle that lets you earn money on your terms, with unlimited miles, maintenance and insurance included.
The service is offered by Maven, a subsidiary of General Motors. Some of you may remember the early Lyft and Uber competitor Sidecar. After Sidecar shut down in late 2015, GM hired some former Sidecar employees, and bought some of Sidecar’s assets, to form Maven.
Since then, Maven rideshare vehicles have covered over 250 million miles while delivering goods and people to the places they need to be.
“Maven remains committed to a mobility model that takes critical steps toward developing sustainable and livable cities, including launching peer-to-peer car sharing and deploying electric vehicles in high-mileage, shared-use applications.” – Alex Keros, Smart Cities Chief at GM Urban Mobility / Maven
In addition to Gig, Maven also offers two other car rental services.
- Maven Car Sharing For Members – Offers hourly, daily, or monthly rental cars with gas and insurance, and dedicated Maven parking spots. (Sign up now to get 20% off your first rental.)
- Maven Car Sharing For Owners – Lets vehicle owners rent out their cars. Owners get 60% of trip revenue and their vehicle is insured by Maven during the rental period
How does the Maven Gig program work?
Once you’ve signed up for Maven (see the sign up process further down this page), it’s actually pretty simple.
1. Select your vehicle.
2. Reserve it. (Currently, you can only reserve for the same day, or the next business day)
3. At the time of your reservation, go to the pickup address, unlock the car using the Maven app, and drive away. Be sure to upload your Maven vehicle and insurance information to Lyft, Uber, or whichever service you’ll be working for, before you pick up your vehicle. It often takes a few hours for gig economy services to approve a new vehicle.
How do I pay for Maven?
When you make your reservation, Maven will put a $250 authorization hold on your credit card. Within 24 hours of picking up your car, the exact reservation amount will be taken from those held funds.
If your reservation is less than $250, Maven will release the outstanding amount back to you. If it ends up being more than $250, you will see an additional charge for the remaining funds.
Maven bills weekly, so your billing date will be the day of the week you started your reservation. So, if you start your reservation on a Tuesday, you will be charged every week on Tuesday.
How Do I Link Maven to Lyft, Uber, Doordash etc…?
After you reserve your vehicle, Maven will provide you with a Certificate of Insurance with your name, and vehicle VIN details, so you can upload it to various ridesharing driver or delivery platforms.
Where do I find my Maven certificate of insurance?
Open your Maven App and click “More” in the bottom right corner. You’ll see the Certificate of Insurance link where you can view the COI.
How To Get Approved For Maven Gig?
The Maven sign up and application process is pretty simple. Download the Maven Car Sharing app from the App Store, Google Play, or from the Maven website, and follow these instructions.
1. Select your driving country.
2. Click on “Drive to earn with ride sharing and delivery services”.
3. Select your Maven Rideshare market.
4. Accept Maven’s terms and conditions.
5. Enter your name, phone, address, and driver’s license information.
6. Wait for approval. Maven says this can take up to two days, but generally it takes less than an hour.
How old do you need to be to rent from Maven?
To rent from Maven Gig, you must be 21 years or older. However, if you’re in NYC, you only need to be 19 years or older, but you will also need to have a valid TLC license.
Besides that, you’ll just need a Valid credit or debit card.
How Much Are Maven Rentals?
Maven rideshare rentals rates start at $199 for compacts, sedans, and crossover suvs, and at $229 for the Chevy EV Bolt. However, certain markets may be slightly more expensive. You can select from a variety of GM vehicles including the Chevy Cruze and Colorado.
The Chevy Equinox, which qualifies for Lyft XL and Uber XL, is also available.
The minimum rental time is 6 days and the maximum time is 28 days (35 in California). Standard rental vehicle terms are for 28 or 35 days, but you can return the car after the first week without penalty.
If you are renting a Maven vehicle to drive rideshare or delivery, your full rental cost is a tax-deductible business expense.
What states and cities are Maven Gig rideshare rentals available in?
You can rent a Maven vehicle for gig work in:
- Austin
- Baltimore
- Boston
- Detroit
- Los Angeles
- Phoenix
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Washington, D.C.
How does Maven compare to services like HyreCar, Fair, and Lyft Express Drive?
Overall, the rental rates are comparable. Similar to renting with HyreCar and Fair, renting with Maven doesn’t lock you into driving for one particular service (on Lyft Express Drive, you can only Drive With Lyft).
However, with Maven you get access to GM’s OnStar network, and to the Chevy EV Bolt.
Driving with a Chevy Bolt on Maven also gives you access to the EVgo charging network for free vehicle charging. In 2018, Maven contracted with EVgo to build a dedicated network of fast charging stations exclusively for Maven Chevy Bolt drivers.
With this arrangement, not only do Chevy Bolt EV drivers on Maven not have to pay for gas, they don’t even have to pay for the electricity to charge the vehicle.
Click here to find your nearest EVgo charging location. Maven also has existing partnerships with Deliv, Grubhub, HopSkipJump, and Roadie.
What is Maven’s phone number?
Maven doesn’t force you to use email or a chat app. To reach Maven customer service, simply call 1-844-HIMAVEN (1-844-446-2836).
Is Maven a good rental option for Uber, Lyft or Postmates drivers?
It depends. If you’re a Lyft driver, but you only drive 10 to 15 hours a week, it probably doesn’t make sense to rent a car from Maven. On the other hand, if you drive 30 hours a week or more total (for Lyft, or for a bunch of services together), Maven is a great option.
So, if you drive full time for your side hustles and you’re in one of the cities where Maven is available, then it’s certainly an option you should consider strongly.
Maven’s Big Advantage Over Hyrecar, Fair, and Express Drive
While Maven’s rates are comparable to other rideshare rental services like Hyrecar or Fair, renting with Maven can give you access to an electric vehicle and free charging. This alone is worth picking Maven over some of the alternatives, as it amounts to free gas.
Another advantage of Maven versus Fair or Hyrecar is the keyless pickup. With Hyrecar, you’re picking up from an individual, which means setting a pickup time, and going to meet the person. If you rent from Fair.com, you usually have to go to a dealer, speak to someone there, and then pick up your car.
With Maven, you show up, unlock the car with the Maven app, and hit the road.
So, if you’re already driving full time for Lyft, Doordash or a combination of services, a Maven rental could be a great option.
Don’t take our word for it, check out the Maven app, where you can browse available vehicles, reserve a tax-deductible rental, or even rent out your own vehicle when you’re not using it.
Click the button below to get started renting from Maven Gig today!