HOW IT WORKS: for sellers

To illustrate the process for a seller, we’ll feature someone who wants to rent their car out for the odd periods when they’re not using it. At the moment, that may seem unthinkable. There’s undoubtedly a demand for short-burst car hires, that’s what sustains car clubs. (WIKKITBC) But the hassle, uncertainty and insurance risk of letting out your own vehicle would be so great that few, if any, of us will do it.

How would NEMs be different? Obviously no-one is compelled to let out their automobile. But any user could:

• Look up patterns of demand, supply and pricing for specific types of vehicle in their locality over the last few weeks. If supply is weak, the return for motorists who are willing to enter the market could be compelling.
• Limit the potential hirers to whom their car is to be displayed. Deciding, for example, it is only to be shown to buyers with a minimum 100 complaint free bookings in the market.
• Choose to avoid the work of bookings by letting a local trader hold a duplicate set of keys and handle all the booking processes in return for a cut of each transaction.
• Opt for full insurance arranged instantly within NEMs for each booking.
• Make the car more attractive to buyers by indicating willingness to have a bonded, insured, deliverer collect it from outside his house and take it to purchaser.

A nervous car owner might put such demanding restrictions around hire of his car that he doesn’t find any purchasers. That’s not a problem: the costs of market entry are nil.

Let’s assume an owner is willing to dabble in the market. Perhaps he’s noted that there’s been strong demand locally on Monday evenings for cars booked for periods of four hours or less. He will only rent to a buyer with a strong track record, but they have an array of vehicles on offer for every booking so he’ll need to go in at a low price to get any transactions.

To put the car in the market he logs on to NEMs. After navigating to the Car Rental market and indicating he’s a seller, not buyer, he’s asked for details of the model, it’s features and the current condition. All this will become part of a contract with any buyer and – as NEMs might remind him – the system is allowed to feed disputed transactions that it can’t resolve directly into the courts. He would be foolish to tell untruths.

Now he needs to decide the terms on which he will trade the car if he ever puts it in the market. These can be changed at any time.

Once these details are entered, NEMs will look up the database of vehicles currently registered as stolen to ensure there’s no match. Then it will ask for the NEMs compatible code printed on the vehicle’s last roadworthiness certificate. (Issuing a NEMs code with every official permit is one of the system’s unique benefits.) It will then offer its standard contract for vehicle hire. Once that’s accepted, this car is now in NEMs inventory for the vehicle hire market. However, it won’t be traded until the owner indicates some hours when it is available for hire.

Because he has opted for a key holder to manage transactions, the owner doesn’t need to specify the times at which NEMs can contact him. It will ensure bookings are sorted by the holder and deliverers, he simply notices his car isn’t there when he doesn’t need it and a likely increase in his bank balance.

On the other side of the market, a qualifying buyer of car rental time-slots now has one more option competing on his screen. He simply inputs requirements such as location (which NEMs may read off his handheld computer of course) and the period for which they need a car. It knows the buyer’s track record and has previously demanded the verifiable code on his driving licence. It can instantly access its insurance markets, in which any insurer can sell. The funds will be disbursed automatically after a successful hire. Immediately it gives the buyer this screen.

These are not car club cars, or by-the-hour rentals from a big chain. Those vehicles are fixed assets at pre-planned positions. NEMs is a more dynamic market: the cars are sitting on private driveways, in office car parks or outside key holders’ premises. They come in and out of the market in response to owners’ needs and levels of demand in local markets. It’s just one example of the kind of ultra-fluid resources NEMs can mobilise for the benefit of both buyers and sellers.

If the buyer had stipulated that he wanted a car delivered to him, NEMs would also have searched its database of qualified, insured, individuals who were currently available in that locality and built their rate into the costs. It would also have calculated the delivery times of each car based on its knowledge of the current whereabouts of active deliverers.

•  How it works: other facilities