As a frequent road tripper, I am pretty sure I enjoy driving across country more than your average traveller. No other form of travel puts you in control as much as a road trip, with the ability to cover lots of ground or take it slow by stopping, changing plans and embracing surprises.
With ample free time on my hands, I decided to do something last year that I had heard of for some time – be a driver of cars for Canadian snowbirds. The company I hooked up with is Hit the Road, and while the actual road tripping parts were great, a few bumps in the road (pardon the pun!), in particular the actions/inactions and disorganization of Hit the Road left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Ok, let’s get on to the hit the road review.
What is Hit the Road?
First, some background on what car delivery is all about, to help you decide if it’s something you’d be interested in. These services exist because retired and wealthy Canadians head down to Florida, Texas and Arizona each winter – and they don’t want to drive.
So, while they fly back and forth to their sunny destinations, somebody has to drive their car. One such company that arranges car delivery for Canadians is called Canada Driveaway, or Hit the Road. They also provide this service for people who may be moving across Canada, say from Toronto to Vancouver.
To car owners they advertise providing a safe, quick and reliable service for a fee. Then hittheroad.ca / canadadriveaway.com locates a willing driver to spend a few days on what they liken to a ‘free road trip’, providing compensation to cover gas and possibly some expenses.
Sounds pretty sweet doesn’t it? It could be, but for a fair review, let’s see how things stack up when it comes to using hittheroad.ca vs. a rental vehicle.
Benefits of using hittheroad.ca instead of renting a car
- you get a free car to drive for a specified number of days
- you get to personally meet the person / people who own the vehicle
- there is the potential that you may drive a vehicle that is nicer than anything you would rent
- compensation paid to you upon successful delivery is made in cash
- overall, it should save you money
Risks of using hittheroad.ca instead of renting a car
- the pickup and drop off locations will not be as convenient as the nearest rental car company
- you are limited to the provided insurance coverage, there is no all-inclusive ‘loss damage waiver’ or other coverage option
- a deposit of $500 is required before you can drive any vehicles for Hit the Road
- you do not get paid anything until you have delivered the vehicle
- your support system is a small organization that may not always be reachable
- roadside assistance is not provided if the car breaks down
- you are given a limited number of days
- you are given limited kilometres / miles, which may restrict the route you wish to drive
- you are limited to the dates and destinations offered by hittheroad.ca
- confirmations tend to be done last-minute, within a couple of weeks of departure, meaning the cost of your one-way airfare (if needed) may be high
- you have no control over the quality of the vehicle being driven, it may be an old, beat-up car
- there is no eating or smoking allowed in the vehicles and you can not bring pets
- you are told not to drive at night
- there is limited space in the vehicle as the owner will have their personal items in the trunk and possibly the back seats as well
There you have it, what it really means to deliver a car using a service like Hit the Road. If you’re just in it for a drive to get from A to B as quickly and directly as possible, while taking the risk that nothing will go wrong, then it can be a great option. If you are used to having flexibility on your road trips, want to book things ahead of time, enjoy having no-worry insurance coverage or need lots of vehicle space then you may want to reconsider.
How much do you get paid for car delivery?
This is the most common question people have asked me. From the two experiences I had driving for hittheroad.ca it seems to be around $100 per day. You can negotiate more depending on the route and car requirements, or if you’re backpacking across country already, you might only be paid enough for gas money.
With that information you should be able to make an educated decision yourself whether driving a car for hittheroad.ca is something you may be interested in.
Warning: I suggest stopping here and spending your time reading something else, unless you prefer controversy.
Disorganized Business Practices
At the start of this review of Canada Driveaway / Hit the Road I mentioned they seemed surprisingly disorganized. So let’s have a little recap of the issues I encountered from the time I agreed to work with them, up to the time I dropped off the last car.
Disorganized Issue 1: Wrong Information. Where is the car?
The first car I picked up for hittheroad.ca in April 2011 was located in the Fort Lauderdale area. Before agreeing on the assignment, I had numerous emails and phone calls with the owner of hittheroad.ca, Mr. David Smaller. Our first chats said he had a car in Miami. After more questions it became either Miami or Fort Lauderdale or Hallandale.
The dilemma this created was – do I fly into Miami or Fort Lauderdale to get the car? Prices for flights varied greatly. I decided to fly into Miami, it was cheaper.
Pick up day arrives, so I head out early to the address listed on the official ‘vehicle delivery agreement’ provided by Canada DriveAway. Should be easy. After an hour of searching, the car owner and I realize the wrong city was listed on the agreement. Turns out the car was 15 miles away, in Hollywood, a city never even mentioned once by hittheroad.ca.
Alright, no big deal. Everyone makes mistakes…there is a fun road trip ahead. I mentioned this issue to hittheroad.ca when I picked up the car but didn’t receive any apology or acknowledgement of error.
Disorganized Issue 2: Last-Minute Planning without Enough Information
Before signing up to deliver a car, you need to go through a process of providing a drivers abstract and references. Once accepted, you can begin talking about delivering a car. It’s generally a quick process, if there is a car available to go somewhere you are interested in, hittheroad.ca will be happy to sign you up asap.
However, it becomes difficult to make those arrangements as you will not be told any specifics until after confirming your agreement. Building on Issue #1 above, the process for confirming my Florida delivery went something like this:
Hit the Road: I have a car to pickup any time these three days.
Me: (Reply next day) – Ok, I can do that and book a flight down to Miami.
Hit the Road: (Next day) – Have a car the next week now, in a different city.
Me: Alright. Done. Deposit sent. (I had already booked a flight for the week before)
Hit the Road: *Silence for a week*
Me: Umm, are we confirmed?
Hit the Road: Silence for a few more days.
Hit the Road: (Three days before pickup) – Oops, my bad. Sending delivery details today. (They didn’t.)
I had actually started to expect a message saying “sorry, I don’t have a car for you.” and began planning my own way back home, until I received documents the day before pickup.
This is an example of how hittheroad.ca could improve their business. By locking in a date with their car owners further ahead of time, they’ll allow themselves more time to find a driver, who in turn will have more time to make plans and find the best travel deals en-route to picking up the car. Less stress and less hassle for everyone.
Disorganized Issue 3: Changing details after Accepting a Delivery
If you think the last-minute stress of agreeing on a car delivery is enough, it potentially doesn’t end once you’ve accepted a delivery.
On my second car delivery for hittheroad.ca I had a number of phone calls and emails with David Smaller. As I was now a successful driver, having delivered my first car, we agreed on a delivery of a new Jaguar from Phoenix to Toronto.
After being a tourist for a couple of days in Arizona, I printed out the delivery agreement papers that had come in by email the day before pickup.
However, three things had changed since confirming details with hittheroad.ca by email earlier in the week. First – it was a different car, but still a Jaguar. Second – I was given an extra day of driving to deliver the car. Cool, but that meant last-minute accommodation changes. Third – the trip expense reimbursement fee had been increased by $200, presumably to cover the expenses of the additional day, yay!
Disorganized Issue 4: Security Deposits and References
Hit the Road requires a $500 security deposit before you drive any cars. They also need references, both of which are reasonable, except they forgot that I sent them my references and later seemed to have no record keeping of when I paid my deposit.
They advised that the deposit is returned upon a successful delivery and the delivery agreements stated that the $500 deposit was to reimburse the vehicle owner any costs associated with insurance if the vehicle were damaged. Ok, all good, that seemed legit.
On more than one occasion when checking the hittheroad.ca PayPal link I got the notice that the account was frozen. Fun! They didn’t have any alternative to PayPal at the time, which seemed a bit Mickey Mouse, but thankfully I can say this is one issue they’ve since addressed.
Disorganized Issue 5: No Support if Something Goes Wrong
Chances are nothing will go wrong when you deliver a car and, for the most part, Hit the Road was fairly responsive to any questions posed to them from the time of signup to the time of picking up a car. Even while driving a car and providing a progress check-in Mr. Smaller would normally reply within a few hours.
Guess what? Something went wrong on my second delivery.
After parking the car in a secure parking lot, I returned to see the left corner of the rear bumper sticking out. Looking closer, there were very, very faint scrapes and it seemed that someone had bumped the corner of the bumper in my absence. There was next to no damage, save for a hairline crack in the corner and some surface scratches – the bumper simply ‘popped’ back into place with a gentle push.
Still, I reported the incident that day. After no response, I contacted Hit the Road again by email and asked if they wanted to advise the car owners and forward the photos. No response.
The next day I take photos of the slight scrapes and sent to Hit the Road, asking what they want me to do.
Again, no reply.
Finally, two days after the incident, I get a response to the tune of ‘talk to the owners tomorrow when you drop off the car.’ I was shocked that Hit the Road didn’t even want to advise the car owner in advance of the minor issue, to avoid a surprise.
Upon delivery, the owner was surprised, but also understood it was something out of my control. They paid the full delivery expense agreed that the car had been dropped off in good condition.
Considering this was a ‘top client’ I would have expected Hit the Road to have advised their client ahead of time, but that’s just my opinion on proper customer service.
Unprofessional and Unaccountable Management
Now on to the last two issues. A month after my second car delivery, I began the process to have hiththeroad.ca return my security deposit or advise me that it was used for repairs to the Jaguar. Little did I know that this would turn into a massive, drawn out ordeal.
The following issues stem from more than 100 emails exchanged between myself and David Smaller, the owner of hittheroad.ca and canadadriveaway.com
Unprofessional Issue 1: The hittheroad.ca Scam of Not Returning Deposits
Car delivery number two was completed on May 12th. As part of the process, hittheroad.ca requires each delivery agreement to be signed upon pickup and dropoff. Three copies must be signed, with one being mailed back to their headquarters in Toronto.
So I waited until June 13th to send Hit the Road an email and inquire about the status of my deposit. The response was not what I expected. I got a response, but had to remind them of the date I paid my deposit and under what name, email I used. Not the most attentive over there at hittheroad.ca
Fast forward to August 11th. Two months later and not a single word from Hit the Road. So I send a follow up asking about the status. The response I get a few days later is ‘let’s meet for coffee’. Sure, I agreed let’s meet that week, just say when.
No response.
I follow up again the next week, asking if the refund is on the way or if my deposit was used for repairs, only to get a delayed response advising that Hit the Road hasn’t heard from the car owner yet (3 months after I dropped it off).
So, I chase Mr. Smaller again the next week. Now he advises they repaired the car on their own and has asked them if they want to put my deposit money towards the cost.
Silence again, until I email Hit the Road in September, finally expressing some frustration in this lengthy process, suggesting they return the deposit or send proof it was used for repairs.
Now things get interesting. Mr. Smaller replies saying he wants to offer them a $100 goodwill gesture. He proposes to meet again and suggests that the $100 be taken from my deposit. I respond the next day, make him a counter proposal and agree to meet, just tell me when and where.
Silence for two weeks.
I chase him again, saying I’m free to meet.
Silence again, until October 4th, Hit the Road sends a newsletter to their mailing list. I respond saying we’re overdue for our meeting about the deposit.
Guess what? Silence from Hit the Road.
Finally, on November 28th (5.5 months after I dropped off the car) I send hittheroad.ca a lengthy email outlining three options. Get the deposit sent over asap, show me proof it’s been used for repairs or ignore the issue and I’ll be happy to report these ongoing issues.
The next day he advises he drove their car recently and gave them $100 off. Did I want to spot him that money? Umm, no.
I advise him that he owes me $400 still, as we agreed by email that I previously received $100 of my deposit from my first car delivery. He claims that the extra $200 I received for delivery two was from my deposit and not from the extended day for that delivery (so I was given no extra pay for an extra day of expenses?). There is no record of that and the agreement clearly states the entire payment is for expenses, not deposit.
He wants to pay me $200, I say $400. He offers a middle-way solution. As it is November I agree to accept $300 just to get it over with.
On December 6th I receive an email payment notice for $100.
I ignore the notice, thinking it must be a mistake and he’ll send a corrected amount shortly. The reply I get is ‘what did we agree on?’.
So, with that we progress on to the last issue.
Unprofessional Issue 2: Aggressive and Innapropriate Attitude
When first wanting to drive for Hit the Road, there were a number of aggressive comments said that made me wonder how legit Hit the Road was. Nothing crazy, just your usual pushy sales lines like ‘if you confirm today, I can pay you extra’.
But, let’s get back to the escalating deposit money issue.
The communication continued on from December 13th to 15th and deteriorated quite rapidly as I point out his personal contradictions and inability to meet from our previous agreements. Accusations get thrown back and forth.
He claims my reasoning is flawed and lacks merit. Yet, his calculations include $100 of ‘withheld’ deposit, for no valid reason, along with saying that $200 is to be taken from the second delivery, yet there is no record of this being agreed upon or mentioned and contradicts what our signed agreement says.
Mr. Smaller ends his communications with a ‘lets agree to disagree’ attitude, saying he can’t offer me any more of my money back.
My last response is that I consider the issue unresolved and that – agreeing to disagree – is not a solution.
As it stands, I have received $200 of my deposit and Hit the Road has retained $300.
Other Reviews of hittheroad.ca
The last part of this post may seem one-sided, so please get in touch with Hit the Road and check them out yourself, or tell me about your experiences. I do know of other people who have driven for them – once – without incident, including other travel writers and bloggers.
It isn’t the type of company that has tons of online reviews either, but I did manage to find the two websites below. I share them only because they echo my concerns about deposit returns and an aggressive attitude from hittheroad.ca
Planes, brains and no automobiles from David Cheesman – who experienced the aggressiveness of Hit the Road, but managed to avoid being a driver.
Yelp reviews of HitTheRoad – one negative review, which echoes my deposit issues, quickly followed by a number of perfect reviews (Tripadvisor syndrome, perhaps?)
Final Comments
It took me a long time to decide if I should write this review as I took pride in delivering my Hit the Road cars on-time in accordance with their delivery agreement guidelines. I hope that the information posted here will help others decide if car delivery is a sensible option during their travels. I’m sure I will hear from Mr. Smaller shortly after this review and will be happy to post any response or comments he wishes to share.
If you’re considering Hit the Road, my suggestion is to just pay for a worry-free rental car. Or, consider these alternatives to hittheroad.ca (I can’t personally vouch for any of these services):
torontodriveaway.com
automoves.ca
carstoflorida.com
snowbirdcarservice.com
professionaldrivers.com
proway1.com
Did you get the money? Were wanting to go to Vancouver from Ottawa but its too expensive for a rental.
Hey Amanda!
No they still owe me money…I don’t expect to get anything more back either, considering the way they dealt with things. Just remember sometimes it is better to pay more for a rental and have peace of mind during your travels.
Take him to small claims. Try to hit em up for the maximum for yanking your chain, interest, and your time to process the claim. You might get 5000.00 if you have al documentation and correspondence.
I just looked it up. In Ontario you can get as much as $25,000 in small claims court. Maybe you can nail him for punitive damages.
Hey Fred!
I had thought about that…been too long now, statute of limitations and all that jazz.
There is actually a travel company I worked for that owes me $2000, which is when I looked into such options…
Not to be confused with autodriveaway.com. I have delivered two cars for them with no issues at all. Very professional and an excellent way to get to where you want to go for little to no extra cost.
It seems to me that hittheroad.ca spent your deposit and couldn’t give it back.
Thanks so much much for putting this information out there. I thought your account was extremely fair and balanced considering the difficulties you had. Just in the way of full disclosure, I’m the one who posted the negative review about HitTheRoad at Yelp. I’d probably be a lot less generous toward HitTheRoad, but that’s just due to my own experience with them (I’m still waiting to get my $500 deposit back after a year).
One thing I though to add is that, in appealing to readers that it’s not a scam, HitTheRoad makes reference to its membership in the Better Business Bureau. Here’s the thing: if you drive for HitTheRoad, you don’t have any recourse to the BBB or any other consumer association. The reason is that, as a driver, you’re not considered a consumer/customer per se. So when you get ripped off (like me) and complain to the BBB, you’re told that your complaint is “beyond the purview” of the BBB. For that reason, HitTheRoad (or rather the registered company, CanadaDriveAway) has a great rating with the BBB – that rating only reflecting commercial transactions between CanadaDriveAway and vehicle owners. Incidentally, HitTheRoad.ca is not registered as a company in Ontario (unlike CanadaDriveAway).
Of course since drivers aren’t employees either, there’s no recourse to labour relations agencies either. Worse still, the only contract you sign as a driver is between you and the vehicle owner (and not HitTheRoad.ca). So at the end of the day, you’ve got no paper that says HitTheRoad.ca has taken your deposit much less when they’re obligated to return it. You’re high and dry, in other words – and I’d guess that that’s no accident, either.
If any of you reading this choose to drive for HitTheRoad, I wish you the best of luck but at the same time I suggest getting a separate contract between you & HitTheRoad’s owner that says exactly when and under what circumstances you get your money back. Failing that, I’d say go into it assuming you won’t get your money back.
Thanks again, Red, for putting this online. I’m sure there are more people like me out there, and this site will hopefully enable them to tell their stories.
All the best & happy trails,
Thomas
Hey Thomas, thanks for the lengthy comment, your point about the BBB is an interesting one, as I’m sure it gives people a false sense of security about Hit the Road. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thomas, I went to http://www.yelp.ca/biz/hittheroad-toronto but only see one review: a 4-star review. Where’s your review. Has Yelp removed it?
All this information has been extremely helpful. My question is. Is ” Toronto Driveaway” affiliated with “Hit the Road?”
Are they the same company? Im worried I might have the same trouble with Driveaway. Ive just sent in my information to them.
Hi Belinda! Hit the Road is affiliated with Canada Driveaway, not Toronto Driveaway. From my understanding, Toronto Driveaway is an entirely different company that has been in operation for much longer than Hit the Road.
I have driven for Toronto Driveway Service for over 36 years.
Ron Coady started this business back in 1959 and it is the first original
Driveway Service in Ontario.
They are organized, deal professionally with the border and have always
treated everyone with honor and respect. They have many years of
experience. I recommend them profoundly.
Paul Jordan
That is great to hear Paul…perhaps a better option than Hit The Road!
Thanks Paul for the info. I am considering getting into this next year when I retire and I sure don’t want to go through what Red did!
Red and Thomas both might have had a shot if they had acted earlier and tried to take HitTheRoad to Small Claims Court, unfortunately the issue may be too old by now, I’m not sure.
Wow–that’s terrible. I had always been hoping to try them out.. but I certainly won’t be doing that now. I hope you win some money now to make up for this :p
Seattle Dredge recently posted..Experiencing Sami Culture in Finnish Lapland
Thanks Seattle…winning money is on my to-do list! I hope that HTR gets their act together, as it is such a tempting service to use. Sadly, I doubt that will happen as it’s pretty much a one-man show over there.
Hi Red,
This is mental! Since moving to North America I’ve often thought about doing something like this because it seemed like such a great deal, and have never heard of anyone doing this in Europe. After reading this I have second thoughts, at least about this company/way of doing it anyway!
Karin recently posted..Things to Look For When Traveling: Photo Tours
Hey Karin!
If you guys are flexible be sure to monitor the car rental companies. During off-seasons they have great deals too, like ‘drive a car out of Florida for $1’. I’m a fan of using the flyertalk.com website for checking for good rental deals and coupons too.
If only all customers could present their complaints/feedback like you! Well done Red. I appreciate you weighing the pro’s and con’s and speaking from experience. I’ll be following this story closely. As someone who deals with CS issues through Social Media for work on a daily basis, I do hope that HTR will provide a public response to this one and rectify your situation.
True customer service shines through in how a company deals with a situation like this. The floor is yours Mr. Smaller.
I’m rooting for you to use this feedback and make your company bigger and better.
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Thanks Alicia, I really wish things had gone smoother and I could have had a positive experience, but that just wasn’t the case. The door is wide open for Hit the Road to respond and I’ll update this post if they do.
I’ve been guiding and driving travellers around parts of Canada and we often see Hit the Road posters in hostels. Sometimes people me if I know about them. “Indeed I do…let me tell you a story…” I’ve ‘saved’ at least one tourist from using them so far.
Thanks for taking the time to share the story, I’d thought about doing a trip with them as well. I was turned off by the aggressive time and distance, if the driver isn’t being paid, at least I’d like the option of a few days of time to really enjoy the road trip.
I’m looking forward to someone stepping in and creating a RelayRides/AirBnB/Couchsurfing drive-my-car site where there are more automations in the system, particularly around payments, and also the verification systems that are easily done now with social media connections.
Lauren, Ephemerratic recently posted..Soroche suffering: How to prevent altitude sickness in Peru
Hey Lauren,
Great comments. There really is a void in this market isn’t there? On one side I do realize that these people don’t want to be ‘without’ their cars for long, especially if they’ve packed important things in their vehicle. But on the other side, there is a huge opportunity to align drivers and owners ahead of time so that rushed trips and routes can be avoided.
Which brings me to the big allure of rental cars – unlimited mileage…! Hit the open road and go whever you want, day or night…
YIKES! It sounds like it would be such a good idea, but after this thourough review I’d rather hitch hike and train hop!!!!!
Kae Lani | A Travel Broad recently posted..The Sweetest Tour in Town
Ha Kae….train hopping! Now there is a fun way to get around. In Canada anyways, the Via trains are constantly offered at 50-75% off if you get their emails and check theri specials, so no need to hop around illegally if you have some coin 😉
FYI – Red Hunt your article ‘A Word of Warning about HittheRoad.ca’ has garnered much interest in the following thread, which you might like to read.
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/hittheroad-ca-anyone-1180626/
Mr. Smaller is (appears to be) a participant in this discussion.
Hi MJB,
Thanks for sharing that link, interesting discussion indeed. I don’t want to get into a chat on RFD as I’d just be re-hashing a lot of what I wrote here already. Feel free to advise people of my comments posted below.
A few comments on Mr. Smaller’s last post on that thread (posted on Jul 24th, 2012 12:34 AM):
If by me looking into renting a car to get home and being told the delivery vhicle was in the wrong city = no problems, I guess so. Had I charged HTR an hourly rate for my time lost, they’d owe me more than my deposit back! I returned for a second trip thinking it was a fluke – give them the benefit of the doubt that the issues were an anomaly (not so).
After back and forth discussions, this ‘charge’ was not agreed upon. It was a loyalty offer he made with the client himself. Nor did ‘I’ create the damage to the vehicle.
HTR originally advised me to ‘talk to the client’ directly to resolve the issue. I did and they accepted it as no fault of mine. They signed the delivery agreement indicating that all was good. Deposit to be returned. End of story.
Despite that, Hit the Road feels otherwise for unknown reasons.
Thanks for taking the time to post this article, Red – I’ve been discussing taking a car from Halifax to Calgary (originally posted as Edmonton) with Mr. Smaller for the past two weeks and have had a sense of flaky-ness from his phone calls and emails
Any company pointing to the Better Business Bureau as a source of endorsement is a cause for concern. Further, as you point out, since drivers are not consumers and therefore beyond the reach of the toothless BBB, Mr. Smaller is offering nothing.
CanadaDriveAway’s charge-back of 3% for the credit card fee comes across as Mickey Mouse, particularly since they hold back a “portion” of the deposit for a “minimum” of four weeks – there seems to be a consistent surfacing of vagueness about this operation that causes me, as a first timer, concern. More of that “something flaky about this guy” feeling.
Though I’ve received an offer for a vehicle I’m not feeling all that sure about the deal – the $350 will cover about half the fuel cost for this particular vehicle and, with hotel and food costs, the overall cost is close enough to costs for a flight, train or bus that I’m not sure if the uncertainty surrounding Smaller’s approach and CanadaDriveAway is worth the benefit of a road-trip which, otherwise, ought to be a pretty cool drive.
Hey Larry!
You’re a brave man if you go ahead and take the offer after all of your own concerns and those voiced by myself and others here. Let me know if you do take the ride…between the helpless BBB, chargeback fee and flaky management, I wish you luck.
Thanks very much for sharing your experience!
I was considering applying to drive with them, but will definitely avoid them!
Hi Rachel,
This is almost turning into a kind of public service to help inform people of the risks they might not otherwise realize. Car-sharing and car rentals are great alternatives, especially if you factor in that you could lose $500 by choosing car delivery.
Thanks everyone for all the info!!! Especially the author!!
I have absolutely changed my mind and will not sign up for their service!!!
Happy you found my post helpful Chris. I’ve received a lot of communications from people about hittheroad.ca and there is a possibility of suing them for monies owed, we’ll see what develops!
Red Hunt,
In the section titled Disorganized Issue 3, you wrote
I was given an extra day of driving to deliver the car. Cool, but that meant last-minute accommodation changes.
Why would being given an extra day to deliver the car mean accommodation changes? Did you mean to say that you had no choice but to deliver the car a day later?
Dear Red Hunt,
I appreciate your post. I’ve tweeted it back to @HitTheRoad.ca, along with other tweets.
I learned about HTR within this hour, when they advertised on Craigslist RideShare. I posted a message of my own on the Rideshare section warning my Craigslist community about HTR, with a link to this post of yours.
Thanks Platt,
Considering that Hit The Road has to continuously advertise their services on Craigslist, Kijiji and similar online ad boards, I think that speaks volumes in terms of them not having enough returning, happy drivers.
Regarding the extra day. I could have kept to the shorter schedule of course. But, like anyone who enjoyed road trips, I wanted to maximize my roadside attractions and time in new cities, so the surprise extra day meant a quick re-work to enjoy more time on the road.
I haven’t used any of the other services I link to in the article, but hopefully someone else can chime in.
Thanks for spreading the word about the poor experiences myself and others have had.
Red Hunt (or any other reader),
Have you used some other Vehicle Delivery Service? Would love to read of a competitor who treats their drivers right.
Earlier this year I wrote to Hit The Road with questions about driveaway details .. and something in the tone or language of response caused me to say no to this outfit.
Well said Mary. That ‘vibe’ has been echoed by others, glad you went with you gut feeling and found other travel options.
Thanks so much for the info. Think I will rent a car instead!
Cheers Mike…you’ll have better piece of mind, even if you have to pay a bit for it.
Interesting read! I had never heard of this service before, but I’m glad I found out about it through your review (which seems very balanced to me, by the way).
It seems Mr Smaller suffers from the same thing I’ve noticed about a good number of other small business owners; great at coming up with cool ideas… not so great at executing them well (there is a reason so many small business fail, after all).
Thanks for sharing!
Dan
Dan Thompson recently posted..POTW: Cable Mill Wheel
Thanks for commenting Dan. You’re right too, a simple Management 101 course could do wonders in this case.
Hi!
I really appreciate your article as I was thinking about contacting HTR. Thank you!
Do you know of any other similar companies in Canada? Or a similar way to travel across Canada? I have plans of doing a trip from east (Montreal/Ottawa) to the west (Calgary/Edmonton) in early June.
Mina
Hi Mina, check the links at the end of the article for companies like torontodriveaway.com and professionaldrivers.com There are quite a few car pooling websites out there too, so check them out – http://www.erideshare.com is a popular one. Otherwise you can train it with VIA or take a bus with Greyhound…lots of options!
hi there … and thanks for your thorough article here … so helpful and well-done …
First, I want everyone to know about the wonderful people at “Toronto DriveAway”! They are pioneers in this business, established 57 years ago, and are the dearest people you could hope to meet. I’ve done business with them on 12-15 occasions over many years, and they’ve been consistently kind, generous and thoughtful every time. The good folks at Toronto DriveAway pay well, and are upfront and reliable about details. On a few occasions, I did not have much money to spare, and when I delivered the car (far away from home), they went to my bank and deposited my payment there so that i would have immediate access to it!
On another occasion, they had a last minute emergency because the driver they had booked to do a job cancelled 4 days before because his back ‘went out’. I happen to check in with them that day, and they said that if I would jump in and do this last minute delivery, they would pay me double, and forfeit their own profit in order to protect their client’s interest, and compensate me for responding to such a last minute set of plans.
I did check into Hit-the-Road once, when Toronto DriveAway didn’t happen to have a vehicle available for me, and my experience with this guy, David Smaller, was horrible. My opening email exchange was so aggressive and condescending on his part, that I told him I would not do business with him. In those few exchanges, he also lied about Toronto DriveAway’s business approach (he didn’t know I had years of experience with them, and tried to tell me they don’t pay for this and that, when I knew from years of doing business with them that do, etc).
I’m going to be calling BBB tomorrow, because I can’t be content with him getting away with having those letters “BBB” at the end of his business name – and I don’t imagine the BBB appreciates people cheapening the reputation and meaning of those letters, and need to follow up on complaints. Also, it makes me angry that he changed his name to “Canada DriveAway” to try to piggy back the good business that has been established by “Toronto DriveAway” as though he might capitalize on the DriveAway name and reputation, but appear to be bigger than them.
anyway … thanks again … and I would encourage people to feel free to do this car driving adventure with Toronto DriveAway – it’s a wonderful way to go!
Nancy,
Thanks so much for your insights. I really enjoyed the concept of these kind of road trips and it is great to hear you’ve had positive experiences with Toronto Driveaway. You’re the first person to respond with experience from one of the other companies, so great to hear that they’re not all poorly operated.
I wish you luck with your BBB report. Did you get anywhere with it? Sadly I doubt they’ll accept it. Another commenter (Thomas) complained to them, and I filed an official complaint as well, but they won’t take up the case. Getting the BBB logo off the hit the road website is a start at least!
Thanks again for commenting.
Might be a bit out of date, but I can also vouch for Toronto Driveaway. They are very professional, kind, and helpful. They actually seem as interested in helping their drivers as they do in satisfying their clients. They’ve been around long enough that one car I recently drove was owned by a man whose father had also been a client of the company. I’ve driven for Toronto Driveaway 8-10 times and have only ever had problems with somewhat crotchety clients, never the company itself.
Was very concerned about our car delivery time being met and the high cost ON to BC. Luckily found Canada Driveaway and appreciated the price comparably much lower than the competition. The second but most important concern was the negative online commentary…I was very direct with David and he responded to our satisfaction. I am pleased to highly recommend him based on his candor, pricing and the delivery..we couldn’t ask for anything better
Hi there J!
It’s understandable for you, the car owner, to be weary of who is driving their car. I’m not surprised that you had a positive experience though. As a business Hit the Road / Canada Driveaway makes money from you, the car owner. So they have an incentive to treat you with respect and professionalism. This model of business can have high levels of repeat customers and referrals.
However, this article is focused on being a driver for Hit the Road / Canada Driveaway. Unfortunately as a driver, you are a cost, a liability and – it seems – a commodity.
Drivers are disposable, but car owners are paying clients. A big difference between these two sides of this business practice.
CanadaDriveAway find these customers Uship and attracted on its sites. (For not having bad feedback) then he charges the customer for the transport his car. He turned aside and lends the customer’s car to an unknown traveler, who gives a deposit of $ 500 to CanadaDriveAway. It’s not very fair as business. In any case, I would not move my car by them.
Could you clarify the money paid by HitTheRoad for expenses if they don’t agree to return your $500 deposit? Do you not get any expense money as well? Nobody seems to talk about this. If they don’t pay the $500 (when there is no damage and the car is delivered on time) why would they pay anything else? A few days on the road could cost you $700 or more, couldn’t it?
The owner sounds like a real slimeball; he’ll say anything to get a deal without a thought to ethics or even the future. Ironically, he’s the loser here as well as the drivers because his implementation of an admittedly good idea is being executed without consideration to those involved except to those who are paying him. Well he needs good drivers too and if he was honest with them he could pay them less for expenses increasing his profit. Many people would happily pay for part of the gas if they knew that deposit was almost assured as long as they respected the conditions previously agreed upon. Another idea is to allow the driver more time to deliver the car. I would hazard a guess that most drivers want to make a vacation/adventure out of that long haul of a drive which is impossible if you’re dashing across the country with a clock ticking. Give them 5-10 days to arrive and many would pay all of the gas. They’d bring camping equipment, have no hotel expenses, and would be free to explore vast areas of this wonderfully diverse continent spending very little. Most car owners probably couldn’t care less if there car is there on Monday or Friday. Some would if that’s their only car but many would not. And you could offer the service for less for those ones to say thank you for their flexibility.
Hey Rob!
Hit the Road makes it very clear off the top they are not “employing” you, so they do not pay you anything. You get $0 for expenses. As I mentioned you get about $100/day to cover everything and anything. If the car needs an oil change or fixed flat tire you are “allowed” to spend somewhere between $150-200 to do such maintenance. But I suspect getting that money paid to you would be next to impossible.
The way you receive money as a driver is from the people who own the cars. Let’s say you agree to drive a car from Toronto to Miami. The “deal” will be something like: Once the car is delivered to the oner in Miami, they will pay you $600. You have 4 days to drive the car there and can not drive more than 4500km.
So HTR never gives you money….you only get cash from the car owners. Sometimes it is enough to cover the gas, food, campsites along the way. Usually not. If you stay in hotels, not a chance. The owner encourages you to use AirBNB and couchsurfing type services.
Camping is a great option – but often the cars are full of belongings for the owner. So you have the front seat only – no space for camping gear.
Having “extra days” is rare as well, it is generally a rushed road trip. Don’t expect a lot of free time. If you’re efficient you may be able to schedule in a day of fun but not much more.
I understand the need to keep distance driven in check and have a schedule but agree an extra day or two for deliveries would attract many more drivers.
In the end if you want freedom – rent a car.
Do u have ant experience with Canada Driveaway? do u think I can ask for prepayment for me driving? With no deposit? They should be happy to have a good reliable driver hopefully.
Hi Ann!
Yes I drove twice for Canada Driveaway, which is the same company as Hit the Road Canada. They will not give you any payment at all until you deliver the car. This makes sense as you could just trash the car or drive anywhere if you already had the money! No deposit? I highly doubt they allow any new drivers to start without paying the full deposit, no matter how reliable or great a driver you are. Good luck if you end up driving with them!
I drove for HitTheRoad once and, while my experiences were not as bad as yours, they weren’t great either. I wanted to drive for them another time but communication with David Smaller was so ridiculous that i gave up. He’d forget who i was and that we’d had plans in the making and just leave my hanging repeatedly.
On the drive i did take, I was given just enough money to cover the cost of gas, nothing more. When i gave the car to its owner, he was surprised that i was only being compensated for gas, which was about $400, as he’d paid $1000 to have his car delivered. So HTR is making $600 just to arrange a driver? Good for them i guess.
I would not recommend HTR.
Hey Andy!
Another victim of HTR it seems. At least it doesn’t sound like you had any issues getting your deposit money back?
You’re right about the high variance in terms of how much monkey they charge and how much money drivers receive. It’s a business, so they have to make money – but treating drivers better / compensating them more could be beneficial to everyone.
This is also one reason why Hit the Road sometimes tries to get the car owners to “pay” you part of your deposit return money. Maybe your deal was to get $400, the car owners gives you $600. The owners think they are paying you $600 of earned money, without realizing it’s only $400 as $200 was already yours! I would highly encourage any drivers to advise owners of this when dropping off a car if any portion of payment is their “deposit”, as car owners are likely being misled.
Thanks a whole lot for posting your comments. I am a recently retired very experienced driver, and was under what is obviously now a complete delusion that driving for a driveaway company was an actual part-time occupation. Now it seems that it is really for someone who is looking for a cheap way to travel and see the country but without coming out of it with any money. Some of it is still a little unclear after all the posts, but it seems like you actually end up paying for the privilege rather than making a few dollars.
So let me see if I have this correct.. You pay a deposit. You drive, spend out for gas. You spend out for meals, accommodations and miscellaneous for yourself. You deliver the car on time and in good shape and the owner pays you…. so is that the money that is supposed to pay for all your trouble and from which you pay your personal expenses and hope you come out ahead? and the gas is a separate account to be reimbursed?? And this followed by paying for a flight home?? And then someday hoping to get the deposit back….? Wow was I ever wrong about thinking I might make money doing this!!
You pretty much have it Fred, although there is not separation for “gas” money.
Basically Hit the Road never pays you anything. The only people who give you $$$ are the car owners. They give you cash when you deliver their car. That money is for everything from meals, gas, accommodation, flights, toll roads, sight-seeing, or anything else!
Now, if you’re a reliable and flexible driver, I know some of the other companies mentioned at the end of my article do (rarely) hire drivers for more regular work, with the possibility of making a bit of money.
The only real way to make money in this business is to start your own company offering driveaways and delivery. Get yourself a handful of clients 5-6 people, who use you every year.
But it’s not like a decent gig such as driving a car dealer shuttlebus or similar driving options.
Just saw an interesting post on Globe and Mail (30th March 2014)about driving accross Canada (travelling) and getting paid.Made me really curious to know more. I looked for their website n got redirected to another website. I checked their FAQs and I was shocked to see how they answered to the questions in an unprofessional and rude manner. Wanted to dig more into it and found this blog post!! Haha!! It’s just what I thought…they’re nothing better than a scam…lol…I hope Globe and Mail does more research on companies before pushing out some **amazing** posts to their readers…
Thanks a lot, everyone, for sharing your experiences with us… 🙂
Sounds like you didn’t have a good first impression of Canada Driveaway and Hit the Road either Zaki. You were smart to want more information!
Shame on Mr. S. and all of his companies. I am not going to use his services after I have seen how he is treating his drivers whose professional care of the cars in fact keeps him in business. I need to transport my car from Ottawa to Edmonton in July, but will not give him my business. If any readers are interested let me know.
About the dispute, what a scam… In cases like this I would perhaps consider a small court claim, regardless that there is not a direct written contract between the driver and transportation company (there is a verbal agreement at least), when the judge asks him he can’t deny that it is their common practice to take deposits, and also they are not likely to be able to prove how the deposit has been used and why it hasn’t been paid to the driver, and a judge will decide at the end what makes sense… I don’t think a small claim would cost much money, and at the end, it seems to me that this question has become about the principle and not so much about the money… this dishonest “businessman” should be sued and stopped from doing business in Canada.
Hey Eugene!
Small Claims court is the only viable option to get unreturned funds back, but it is such a hassle for a small amount of money and Mr. Smaller knows that. Eventually he will have to change, as the bigger his company gets, the more negative experiences seem to pop up.
I just completed a transaction with Hit The Road .ca
The original pickup date was to be June 5. That day came and went without any contact from Hit The Road until I inquired the following Monday. I received apologies for that and was assured he was working on a driver. I finally got confirmation of a pickup on June 19th but that date didn’t work for me. I arranged for a Sat. June 21st pickup and forwarded all contact information to Hit The Road. I didn’t receive confirmation of the pickup and at the appropriate time my pickup contact was waiting for the driver. I finally received a call from David Smaller saying the driver would be there at 1pm (not the 12noon agreed upon). He finally phoned my pickup contact and asked her if she could pickup the driver that he was having bused in. He also said the driver didn’t have the paperwork and could she take the driver to have the paperwork printed off! She was able to do this because of her home office and was kind enough to go and pick up the driver. Unwanted stress but in the end it worked out. The car arrived out West on the correct date with no issues. When I was given the paperwork to sign off it stated I was to pay the driver $500 in cash! I was told what the fee was and that half would be charged to my card upon pickup and half upon delivery. I was under the impression that Hit The Road reimbursed the drivers so there was no hassles about them getting the money once they showed up with the car. The driver was of course stressed about this as she was to leave first thing the next morning. We tried contacting Mr. Smaller but could not get through. He did get hold of me the next morning and explained that half was charged to my card and I was indeed to pay the driver the $500 cash and that would total what I was quoted. As it turned out the driver had forgotten something in the car and didn’t leave so I was able to give back her item and hand over the cash.
I car showed up with no problems. It is just the pickup and delivery details that were sorely lacking. The pickup and delivery details is what this business is all about!
Not the best attention to detail but the car did get delivered so I ended up happy but could have done without the added stress.
Hey Troy!
Thanks for commenting….I’ve always been under the impression that HTR treated their paying customers better than their drivers, but sounds like you got shuffled around and were fed some false information too.
If this was such a great way to get road trips, they would have many regular drivers wanting to take cars across the country / to the US all the time. But they are always scrambling to find drivers…because people aren’t paid enough or treated well enough to want to do this on a regular basis.
Glad it worked out in the end…but what if your friend could not meet the driver and you were out of the town? Your car could have been stuck at your house!
The $500 you gave the driver is how the driver gets paid….they never get money from HTR, only the car owner. There is NO direct compensation from HTR to the drivers except in extremely rare situations.
I’m glad to find so much information here! After reading your report I checked out the other companies’ websites but Hit The Road.ca seems to be the only one that also takes unprofessional drivers and that’s my big problem:
I plan together with my best friend a road trip from Canada to the US next summer when we will have finished Highschool, so we will both be 18 and have our driving licence for 1 year. Normally the age for a car rental is 21 everywhere in the US and Canada as far as I know, but once I read in some forum (that I can’t find again unfortunately!) that in Canada it would be also possible at the age of 18 sometimes. That’s how I discovered Hit The Road.ca but I can’t find any age limit on their website. Do you know anything about that maybe? You seemed really well informed.
Hi Sophia,
As long as you have an unrestricted license, you should be ok. Although I don’t know if Hit The Road would take drivers under 25. Insurance rates are often higher for people under 25, so some people may not have coverage for you to drive their car. In the end, I can not suggest trying to drive for Hit the Road anyways, hopefully you find a better solution.
A little more on my excellent experiences with Toronto Driveaway Service. Starting back in 1978, I drove my first Toronto Driveaway Service car down to Florida. Being young, and loving to fly, I so enjoyed it that I kept at it. I would pick up a car the day before I was to leave, work Friday at GM, leave on Saturday morning, drive to Columbia SC, get a motel and then up early on Sunday, drive to the drop-off point (usually Fort Lauderdale FLA) and hop on a pre-arranged flight (usually Wardrair, Canada 3000 or) Peoples’ Express fly home Sunday night and be at work for Monday morning at GM. I used to do this dozens of times. I got to know the airline crews! Of course, in the spring the drive would be in reverse, again done on the weekends and working throughout the week. Fortunately, very rarely did anything screw up. Once time a bad storm cancelled the cheap flights from Florida and I had to pay a huge sum ($500.00) to Air Canada to get back to GM and keep my employment. I enjoyed it so that I didn’t mind. Over the years, Ron Coady gained trust in me and, when he was ‘stuck’ for a driver, I would go down/back on expenses (I loved that). I drove everything and had many, many experiences. I don’t regret a moment. Now at 64, driving is not so enjoyable and, because I did much overtime at GM, I own some pretty cool cars, have retired and spend time on the porch with my wife and two ‘Doodle Dogs’. I write for Old Autos and have a couple of articles in Hemmings Motor news. I will never forget my enjoyable road trips with Toronto Driveaway Service. It’s a highway song…rollin’ on and on…its a highway songggg…..
Great story Paul…so good to hear you’ve had a positive experience with a competitor to HTR…all the best!
Hi Red,
Excellent review! Very thorough and I appreciate you outlining both the pros and cons of your experience with HTR.
I am currently on a working holiday in Canada and my contract ends in April, so I was planning to take a road trip to the East coast (I am currently near Calgary) and found HTR’s website. I was keen, but decided to google reviews for the company and boy, am I glad I did!
Your review hasn’t turned me off the drive away concept, I just need to do more research. After all the positive reviews about Toronto Driveaway I thought I’d look at their website, but as it turns out you need to be at least 30, and I am 22. I feel I will struggle to find a professional, reputable company that is willing to take a potential driver as young as me. I’ll keep looking, but any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for yor detailed description of your experience. I had sent all my information in anticipation of getting a car to drive but I never received any confirmation or communication that it was received or needed more action on my part.
I had extensive experience moving trucks throughout North america so I cannot understand why hit the road never contacted me. I see now that I was very fortunate.
Check out Cars To Florida. The minimum age is 25, they are very easy to work with and friendly and they will definitely get back to you and they pay immediately and on time.
Thanks for the tip Mark!
I just came across this now. I too wanted to drive for hitheroad.ca. But he left me hanging on a trip. Just stopped returning emails. I posted on redflagdeals my experience with him. You see the thread http://forums.redflagdeals.com/hittheroad-ca-anyone-1180626/
Wow, crazy…cheers pumpi!
Glad I read this. I just signed up with them, but then something in the back of my head said ‘do a bit more research’. I think I’ll just skip the car delivery and go at my own pace. Thanks for this post.
Hey Al. With such a “fun” service it’s weird how many people get a strange vibe from Hit the Road, isn’t it? If you are flexible in your times…pay attention to the Arizona and Florida “drive-in” and “drive-out” deals. They happen in the fall/spring and usually for just $10/day you can drive cars to/from any other US state to/from those ones. (In the reverse of snowbirds…so when the spring comes, they need cars to leave Florida, when autumn arrives, they needs cars driven there).
I did a trip last year from Tampa Bay to Seattle and the car rental cost me under $200! And that was for a big Toyota Highlander, not some little compact car.
Hi Red,
Thank you for writing such a comprehensive review – back in 2012. My boyfriend and I are moving from Toronto to Vancouver this summer, sending our belongings with a moving company and were hoping that HTR might be a good option for us. We may still sign up but I think we would be apprehensive to go through with a trip through them.
I agree with others about the tone setting off alarm bells. Reading over the drivers page on the CanadaDriveAway website made me feel condescended to: “Please be advised that phoning our office will not improve your chances of being selected as a driver. It will demonstrate that you have difficulty following instructions.” Ouch. It would be interesting to hear from the other side, the individuals having their cars driven from point a to point b. It seems to me that more care is given to the relationship with them than with the drivers but perhaps that is not even the case.
I will also be signing up for TorontoDriveAway but did not know that you had to be 30 to drive and we are 26 and 27. Darn. At the moment we are considering buying a cheap car to drive across because at the very least we can avoid crazy drop fees from car rental companies. We would hope to sell the car once in Vancouver and recoup some of our money. If you have any other suggestions about one way cross country travel, we would love to hear them.
Thanks again for your thorough review
Hey Julia! You are 100% right that the car owners who pay for their car to be driven for them get all of the care and attention they need. There is only 1 reason for this total disparity of treatment between owners and drivers – the owners are paying money to HTR, you are not. It’s all about profit.
One-way rentals are a pain in the butt. There are ways around it. For example I have saved up 10 “free” car rental days right now with National car rental. I can use them for one-way rentals (sometimes they’re blocked out, but not usually). The trick is you can only use 3 “free” days at a time.
I have those free days from renting cars about 20 times last year during different promotions. So, unfortunately for you dont have to luxury of having saved up such free days.
You can check sites like vroomvroomvroom.ca for one-way prices and might get lucky if your dates are flexible.
Ultimately, buying/selling a car for the roadtrip may be your best option.
Be wary of trying to sell a car from “out East” in BC. You’ll have to go through a 100$ inspection, and they always find something from an out of province vehicle. It’s not as easy as just selling a car in Vancouver… the cars here are in good shape and have no rust. The cars you grew up with are the ones on the road. Selling a car here from elsewhere in Canada will be at a loss… if it’s a beater and it gets you here, perfect.
Also, thank you Red. You’re the only one that’s posted a true review of HTR and to go in the depth that you did, they must have been really frustrating.
I tried to drive for them a couple of times but they couldn’t get their act together. I bought a van and just drove westward, it was a hassle to sell it here but you get 3 months with out of province plates before you have to register the car in BC. Overall, you get a lot more flexibility on the road (eating in your car!) and when you arrive.. you’ll need something to get around Vancouver.
My advice to the owner.. step back, hire someone that actually knows what they’re doing and watch your customer and driver satisfaction go up. Oh.. profit will too. Either that or someone will step in with a solid Canada Wide option… thanks for ‘saving’ me from HTR.
Hey Dave,
Thanks for chiming in. I am happy to hear that I wasn’t the only one who had issues with Hit the Road. Sadly our consumer society these days always wants the cheapest, fastest, best deal…and drivers and car owners seem to get lured into this trap with HTR.
Almost 5 years later and look how many people are reading your post and deciding NOT to go forward with either driving a vehicle for HTR or shipping a vehicle with HTR!
I was going to hire this POS to have my car delivered to me but there’s no way I would endorse someone like this.
Not only did you prevent me from giving him money but in return also prevented someone else from going through the hassle driving my car that you encounter with HTR… Your post was a “Two birds with one stone”
Did you ever think a negative review would cost acompany so much income?
Thanks!
Red,
Thanks a lot for your review, I was planning to be a driver for HTR but now I’ll look for other options.
Thank you for your story. I should have read it before I have decided for the trip with them.
Want to add my word of warning.
I had my ride with them in 2016 from Calgary to Halifax and I did over miles above the allowance that was in the contract. It was due to works on the highways as well as Canada is huge country and for hundred of kilometers you drive in the middle of nowhere (forest, preries etc.) and you need to go through the cities to do any basic shopping and for sleeping.
My over miles was not like I went for a trip to Alaska, or to have fun riding someone else car.
It was around 5% of the total distance. However he has decided to punish me by taking 250 C$ from my deposit for it. Quite high amount as the car was in perfect shape, no scratches and delivered before the time.
Two months later I still did not receive remaining of the deposit. When I called him, he said that now he has decided to keep all of it and started screaming at me and blaming me for many things.
When I calmly one by one explained all his concerns and was able to put down all his false arguments, then he had only one remaining: that I did not thanked him for the ride, that’s why he is going to keep full deposit.
Then I have forwarded him email I have sent him before, the day after the ride with my big Thanks for the ride to him. Since then there is a silence and I did not receive my deposit yet. After 3 years I know this money is already gone.
If you still want to ride with them consider this:
1. he is not keen do give you back your deposit and will do anything, just finding any
reason to keep it.
2. the car owner can also be a problem as in my case the owner did not wanted to pay me the expenses for the trip for petrol that was stated in the contract.
3. they are not honest because they change their mind about how much they will give you back
4. very often car is full of privete stuff of the car owner – you are responsible for that too,
it can be stolen in the night and so on. You have to pay for secure parking lots.
5. if you want to travel then is better to do it like other Working-Holidays travellers (buy a car for 1500 CA, travel ,sell it back later)
This is very risky trip as you are third party between car owner and the company.
AND you take all the responsibility on you – police tickets, accidents, over mileage… you have no insurance and you cannot trust the company bec. he will not help you.
Hope this comment will help somebody to take proper decision in this subject.
Thanks for providing more information on your experience Bart. Sad to see this bad business still operates the same way.
This post, which has been discussed for eight years, is still shining. Thank you, Red.
My pleasure Jefferey. I haven’t checked in on Hit the Road recently, wonder if they’ve improved their ways??
Its December 2020 and I almost agreed to be a driver with HTR but like MANY OF YOU who wrote on this forum, I got a Strange feeling from David (the owner) as well. His attitude while talking to him on the phone was very “KNOW IT ALL” mixed with “I’m always right” & “how dare you even ask me this “. At one point he actually said to me “Let me Dumb down my answer for you” Not knowing I graduated from U of T with Honors ( But I let him speak ). H’es shockingly rude and condescending when it comes to answering legitimate questions which makes me feel like he’s either hiding something or he’s going to be VERY HARD TO WORK WITH. I also thought it was weird that he would try to schedule meetings with me and literally NOT CONTACT ME ON THE DAYS WE HAD MEETINGS SCHEDULED. Now as I read the reviews I’ve come to realize that he’s just unreliable and hard to reach. Why would anyone want to work for or with someone who is so SkETCHY? What would you do if something were to go wrong? Lastly, I asked David a question about The security deposit, which can now be done by presenting a credit card… I ask “Would you be releasing the hold/ authorization on the card once the car is delivered safely?’ He said “ITS TECHNICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO RELEASE a hold”. I Then told him that I used to work for a Hotel and we definitely COULD RELEASE Holds on people’s credit cards after they’ve checked out. He then said well Hotels are large businesses and I’m a small business. I cannot. In order to end a continuously condescending conversation I agreed, hung up and then called My Credit Card Company to ask the same question. Both Credit card companies said “Even if the merchant can’t physically release the hold with a machine WHICH THE CAN ALL DO in 2020, The merchant can call us here at AMEX/ MASTERCARD and we can release the hold on funds at any time”. I KNEW IT! This guy is not an honest human being by any MEANS and you can tell he’s SCAMMING both the Clients and his Drivers. HIS NASTY ATTITUDE is a dead giveaway anyhow. DO NOT DRIVE FOR THIS COMPANY. I did NOT PROCEED WITH THIS APPLICATION even though i was offered the position.
Hi Keke!
So sorry you had the displeasure of dealing with Hit the Road. I am glad you went with your feelings and did the right thing by not supporting them.
I drove for them twice.
The first time, it was fantastic. I drove across Canada from Ontario to BC. Everything was quick and efficient, but it was a last-minute grab. I had my documentation within a few days and it was done. When I delivered the vehile, the owner threw in a very large tip. He was fantastic.
The second time I drove for them, I was to drive a Jaguar down to California from Alberta. Well, driving in Canadian winter, the tires weren’t just regular season tires, but they were worn down to almost nothing. So, the damn thing slid all over the place and was unsafe. I cried in my car thinking that I was going to risk my life driving in a car that was unsafe. I messaged the owner and told him my predicament, sent pictures of the tires, and got a response that I wasn’t used to driving a high performance vehicle, and they drive differently. He knew nothing about what cars I have driven. In fact, I had driven a few very high end vehicles. They don’t slip in the snow….sorry. There is another team that is driving an Audi down to the states – for the same owner, so we end up swapping cars. The Audi drove fine. I was told I would be paid in Canadian dollars upon delivery, and when I got the car there, was paid in American dollars, and with the exchange was short changed by $30. The owner responded with “I’m sorry I don’t have any Canadian money left”.
I drove for them before they required a deposit, and so I haven’t provided a deposit in the past. I wasn’t happy with my response from the company with my safety in question, and about being short changed by the owner of the vehicle. If I ever consider driving for them again, I will never do it in winter, and I will never pay a deposit.
Wow, sounds like things started off good for you Jennifer, but then quickly turned bad. Definitely look out for yourself first!