Getting Paid To Drive
by: Jeffrey Strain
There seems to be a never ending fascination to the
notion that some people get paid to drive their cars.
While it is true that a few lucky people are able to do
this, the entire field of paid to drive opportunities
has changed dramatically over the last few years.
The get paid to drive
concept was at the height of its popularity during the
Internet bubble of the late 1990s. Roadside advertising
was near capacity leaving the many companies that wanted
to advertise their service or product to those driving
in their cars without a place to do so. At this time,
billboard and other traditional advertising space along
busy roads and highways was severely limited and prices
for such space was rising fast.
One solution to this
advertising shortage was addressed with car wraps.
Basically, the advertiser would wrap their advertisement
around a car (instead of on a billboard) for everyone to
see. This way companies could advertise their products
or services to reach people driving along the roads in
areas where they couldn't get advertising space on
billboards.
The car wrap gained
popularity through the 1990s when traditional billboard
advertising remained tight, but when billboard
advertising softened in the late 1990s, this took a
heavy toll on the car wrap advertising companies. Today,
only a fraction of those that were once in business
remain so.
Most car wrap companies
that remain have had to reinvent themselves as niche
advertisers for specialty campaigns and that is where
they remain at this point. For certain advertising
campaigns, the auto wrap still has an appeal of being
different than typical advertising campaign.
From time to time there
will be a company that is looking for a unique
advertising campaign, and the auto wrap can offer a cost
effective way of getting their brand name out there. In
this case, a company would "rent" space on individual
private citizen's cars. In return for letting the
company "wrap" the car with their advertisement, they'll
compensate the car owner with a monthly payment. The
payment can be as high as $400 a month for a full car
wrap and lesser amounts for a partial car wrap or a
window wrap.
The catch is that there
are far more drivers wanting to be paid to drive than
advertising campaigns available. If you don't drive a
lot of miles (typically over 800 miles a month) or live
in a highly populated area where the advertisement will
be seen by a lot of people, your chances of being chosen
are slim.
While the chances of
getting paid to drive today are not very good, they are
still better than playing the lottery. If you believe
your car and location would be desirable to advertisers,
it could be worth contacting auto wrap companies
directly to see if you can get on their list. If you are
lucky and do get picked, you will significantly reduce
your driving expenses with little effort on your part.
