Let’s face it: owning a car is nice, but it comes with a whole heap of responsibilities.

Then there are the petrol price hikes, servicing and repairs, parking fees and insurance that leave a huge dent in your wallet.

These days, and especially in the last few months as petrol has continued to skyrocket, I’m hearing more and more people have that chat.

Yup – the one about whether or not they should flog their wheels and just Uber everywhere.

So, is using Uber every day really cheaper than owning a car?

My Treasury conducted a research study back in December 2016, using a car that retails at R300 000 as a starting point.

That study assumes that a motorist replaces their vehicle every five years or so, and thus the car’s depreciation in value and financing costs are calculated at around R60 000 per year.

These are the results, reported by Women On Wheels:

• Insurance – comprehensive cover worked out to R1 500 per month, or R18 000 per year.
• Parking Fees – you spend an estimated R1 560 per year for parking within major cities, assuming that parking at home and work are both free.
• Cleaning – a car wash once a month works out to at least R150, or R 1 800 annually.
• Licenses, tolls and fines – if you must pay your debts to society, that’ll cost you R2 000 per year.
• Petrol – this depends on your driving patterns, but it worked to a whopping average of R27 000 per year.

Bear in mind the petrol figure is based on what petrol cost back in 2016, which was around R12,80 per litre – you know, before the extreme price hikes came along.

All in all, the average cost of car ownership works out to a total of R111 000 per year.

Crunch the numbers:

Based on the numbers provided by the Road Traffic Management Corporation, the average South African drives around 40 km per day. If you fall into that bracket, switching to Uber could save you as much as R14 000 per year.

R14 000 – that’s a decent amount to have left in the pocket at the end of the year, and might just buy a round of drinks at a Cape Town CBD bar during the World Cup.

Plus, using an Uber has some other sweet perks:

• You’ve got your hands free to do other things like using your phone, pow-wowing with your friends or generally unwinding.
• If one were to assign a numerical value to time, My Treasury took the hourly rate of a R320 000 annual salary. This worked out to R150 per hour. Being conservative, one could assume that only half the commute time is productive.
• The average SA motorist would save around 485 hours a year – or 40 hours a month.

You can’t put a price on arriving at the office having knocked that build-up of emails on the head. Almost makes the coffee station’s small talk bearable.

Here’s the crux of the study:

The results determined that if you drive less than 50 km per day, in total, or less than 1,500 km per month, using Uber every day will save you money.

Facts are facts, people: in the grand scheme of things, it might be better to ditch your car and opt for the cheaper, fuss-free Uber experience.

Arrive alive, and be productive on the drive in without being that doos glued to their screen whilst driving.

Win win.

[source:womenonwheels]