TREVO, a subsidiary of SOCAR Mobility Malaysia, is the latest app-based people-to-people car sharing marketplace. The mobility startup kicked off Phase 1 of its Proof of Concept (POC) exercise today with an MYR2 million investment, providing financial aid to new car-sharing hosts. It aims to encourage more people to participate in its year-long POC study by sharing their vehicles, in line with the Government’s effort to mitigate the people’s financial challenges through the PENJANA (Short Term Economic Recovery) plan.
The POC runs from August 2020 through to August 2021, to demonstrate the sustainability of P2P car sharing in the country and reinforce its role in the overall mobility ecosystem. It’s the first such POC under the overview of the transport ministry.
Phase 1 of the POC exercise will see TREVO providing MYR2 million Financial Aid to news hosts, translating to MYR200 per host. The Financial Aid will be channelled to the first 10,000 new hosts in the Klang Valley, Penang, and Kota Kinabalu who sign up with TREVO and offer their cars up for booking. Hosts must make their cars available for at least 14 days each month. Registration is open to all Malaysians who own cars that are no older than 12 years as of 31 December 2020.
The announcement of the Financial Aid coincides with the launch of the TREVO Lighthouse Activation Centre, officiated by the minister of transport Ir Dr Wee Ka Siong, accompanied by Leon Foong, CEO of SOCAR Mobility Malaysia and Susan Teoh, general manager of TREVO.
“2020 has present us with its many challenges and we see people struggling with income uncertainty while still having to shoulder the burden of paying off their monthly expenses such as car maintenance bills, insurance renewals, and loan repayments. We want to present TREVO as an opportunity for Malaysians to take control of their financial situation and start making their under-utilised vehicles generate supplementary income for them,” said Leon Foong, CEO of SOCAR Mobility Malaysia.
In his speech, Ir Dr Wee Ka Siong remarked, “From car sharing to gig jobs, we can all optimise our assets to earn extra income or create new income streams that fit into our flexi lifestyle. With a current estimated smartphone penetration rate of almost 94 per cent and over 40 million mobile broadband subscriptions for a population of 32.7 million, we can expect future advancements to be app-based.”
“The MYR2 million Financial Aid to reward Malaysians who list their cars on TREVO is another smart strategy to achieve a car sharing community of sufficient volume. If we can leverage this private-public partnership to scale up the car-sharing economy in Malaysia, this MYR2 million investment could potentially generate more than MYR90 million worth of annual income creation for the 10,000 Malaysians who participate in this programme.”
“This is very timely as we see that the unemployment rate in July 2020 stood at 4.7 per cent with 745,100 people out of work compared to 3.2 per cent unemployment in January 2020 with 511,700 people out of work.”
“…TREVO’s effort is in line with the National Transport Policy (NTP) 2019-2030, especially with respect to inclusivity and accessibility. A developed nation should provide accessible and affordable transport services that will make a real difference to people’s lives.”
The minister also said that the National Automotive Plan 2020 (NAP) acknowledged the impact of new business models such as P2P car sharing on vehicle sales.
Susan Teoh, GM of TREVO added, “Our ultimate aim is to empower a safe and efficient car sharing marketplace, so our POC exercise will closely examine factors such as insurance coverage and claims needs, onboarding screening efficiency, regulatory licensing frameworks, post reservation customer support and other opportunities.”
“What we hope to achieve is to have P2P regulations that are pro-host, pro-guest and most importantly also pro-community.
TREVO Lighthouse Activation Centre
Based in Bangsar, the new TREVO Lighthouse Activation Centre will be the support and expansion hub for the TREVO community. The support centre will open from 9.00am to 5.30pm daily, offering 30-minute onboarding sessions for new Hosts. Additionally, there will be regular community activities for TREVO members.
What is TREVO?
In a nutshell, TREVO is the “airbnb of mobility”—a platform that connects users (Guests) and car owners (Hosts). Guests can book any car that fits their mobility needs while Hosts can earn extra income to offset the cost of car ownership.
Car owners can supplement up to 85 per cent of their car loans just by sharing their car on TREVO for a minimum of 10 days monthly.
Hosts can choose their own pricing as long as it falls within the pricing band provided by the TREVO algorithm.
Currently, TREVO has more than 70,000 member and more than 1,500 car listings, with a selection of more than 150 models from 30 automakers. Cars range from Perodua Axia and MyVI to Porsche, BMW, and more.
To sign up as a Host or Guest, simply download the TREVO app for iOS or Android or head over to https://trevo.my.
Hosts can also sign up with the referral code MOTxTREVO to earn the MYR200 Financial Aid. For more information about the Financial Aid, head over to trevo.my/trevo-financial-aid.
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