WHO actually enjoys parking? Well, me – now that I’ve found a bargain way to stick my car in busy locations for rock-bottom prices.
It’s not just a money-saver for savvy drivers either. Even Brits without cars can use the app as a side-hustle to pay for a quick summer holiday or a new iPhone.
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I’m talking about JustPark, which I probably installed years ago in some long-forgotten car park. Sure enough, the app faded from memory too.
JustPark is one of those apps where you plug a code in and pay online for parking
It means you don’t have to faff around with stuffing coins into an inevitably broken meter out in the rain with a queue of grumpy, tutting and increasingly sodden motorists behind you.
But it turns out that you can use the app to rent out your parking spots – even your driveway. Then people will pay money – yes, proper money – to drop their car there.
Those people are me.
LONDON CALLING
I managed to bag £6 parking for a full working day in London, on a weekday – just outside of the congestion zone, no less.
I don’t know how many of you ever travel to London by car but it’s a famously awful place to park.
Street parking without a permit basically doesn’t exist. Multi-storeys are a bank-raiding hellscape. I was stumped – stuck between forking out an enormous train fare to get down from the Midlands or driving into a wildly expensive car park.
So a £6 bill to park right near work (at The Sun’s London Bridge HQ) beggared belief.
Normally you’d be likely to pay three to four times that in our brutally costly capital. That’s if you can even find a space after forking out £15 just to drive into the congestion charge zone.
I was so shocked at my £6 that I thought it must be a wind-up. Some bored coder was having me on. Maybe it was a typo? I’d check my bank and find that I’d actually been billed for £60, surely.
Naturally, I was worried I’d turn up and the spot would either be full, located right beneath a load of pigeons, or worse, not exist at all.
But I got there and sure enough it was empty, exactly as described, and seemingly faeces-free.
So I left my car there, and found it in the same place at the end of the day. No fines, clamps, or key scratches. It was a miracle. The wheels were still on, and my windows weren’t smashed.
I booked it again. It was like finding a cheat code in a video game – but far better for my bank account.
What made this all the more shocking is that I was booking for the next day. If I’d had the foresight to book in advance, who knows what deals would’ve awaited me?
What I particularly like about JustPark is that you can see all the prices hovering on a map – and then dive into the details.
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You can see recent reviews (“don’t park here, it’s tiny”), photos of the space, and even whether you have the option to book it up for an entire month.
There’s the option to add a small percentage fee on top for an insurance that covers the excess you’d pay if your car was damaged.
And you can check, amend, and even cancel your driveway parking all from the app. So if you’re stuck at work late, you can easily top it up with your phone.
Footie fans can scoop up top spots minutes from stadiums, and you can grab a premium location right next to an arena gig.
HOW TO RENT YOUR DRIVEWAY FOR CASH
Here’s how the process works on JustPark…
First, you go to JustPark and go through the Get A Quote process.
That involves handing over your name, postcode, and an email address.
Then you add the details for your actual space, choose the days and hours that you prefer, and set a price.
You’ll need to be the legal owner of the space, or have permission from the landlord.
JustPark will let you know when you get a booking from one of the 13 million drivers on the app.
As long as you’ve given clear parking instructions, you shouldn’t need to do much else.
You don’t need to make your space available constantly.
For instance, you could set it so that it’s only available while you’re out at work – or while you’re away on holiday.
You can take down your space from JustPark if you get tired of it – or if you decide it’s just too much hassle.
For short-term bookings, money is added to your JustPark account 48 hours after the it begins. And longer-term bookings will see payments added after the first month.
You can do manual withdrawals, or set up automatic withdrawals every month or quarter.
And it’ll take up to 10 working days for the money to come into your bank account.
DRIVE-WAY TO GO!
Of course, there is a sadness to my discovery: I can’t use the best bit of the app, which is flogging parking.
If I had a driveway without a car, I’d be right on there, renting it out to the highest bidder.
I checked the in-app calculator and if I was able to rent my own driveway (which sadly, I can’t) then I could be getting about £75 a month. That’s £900 annually, and I’m not living near anything particularly exciting.
You can bag up to £1,000 a year from a side-hustle (so in addition to your regular employment) without having to declare it for tax purposes – and letting wallet-savvy motorists park on your driveway isn’t exactly hard work.
JustPark recently estimated that nearly £2 million is being lost each year by Brits failing to rent out their driveways in the most active 15 cities.
In fact, the app says some hosts are turning over more than £4,000 a year. That’s a holiday, an iPhone, and then some.
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If you’ve got space for multiple cars, you might even have a small business on your hands. A concrete goldmine right outside your door.
That’s especially true if you’ve got a prime spot near to a train station, stadium, or beach.
And I hope you do, because people like me want to pay to park on your driveway.
Squeezing through the narrow lanes of a multi-storey or sitting in car park gridlock at a tourist hotspot aren’t exactly fun.
I’d much rather plonk it on your driveway for a couple of quid, topping up your Friday night takeaway fund.
And with the money I’m saving on parking, maybe I’ll get myself a curry too.
