How to make money from a trailer that sits in your driveway half the year

What a parked trailer can earn

Start with the day rate and count days, because days are what you sell. Take $150 a day, the middle of that range. Four rental days a month is $600. Eight days is $1,200. Over a six month season that is $3,600 to $7,200 before your costs.

A utility trailer earns less a day. The two listings we have seen are $70 and $100. More vehicles can tow one, so more people can rent it.

Your costs are the ones you already know: tires, bearings, brakes, lights, and the wear from strangers loading it. Add insurance and your own time, which is the one most people forget to count.

Many yards post a cheaper price for a week than for seven single days. A contractor who needs it Monday to Friday will ask for one.

Call about insurance before anything else

Renting your trailer out for money is commercial use, and that is the first thing an insurer asks about a trailer. Under a personal auto policy a trailer usually has liability cover while it is being towed, and does not automatically have cover for damage to the trailer itself.

The rules are different from province to province. So call your broker before the first rental, say exactly what you plan to do, and ask for the answer in writing. It is one phone call, and it is the one that matters most.

Put it in writing, and hold a deposit

A handshake works until the day it does not. A one page rental agreement settles the arguments before they start.

• Who pays for damage, and for a flat tire.
• When it is due back, and what a late day costs.
• What it can carry, and what it cannot.
• That the renter's vehicle is insured and rated to tow it.

Take a damage deposit and hand it back on a clean return. The yards we have set up hold $300 to $500. Take photos at pickup and again at return, with the renter standing there. A photo settles most arguments.

Check the hitch before they leave: the ball size, the wiring plug, and a brake controller if your trailer has electric brakes.

Where the renters come from

Start with a Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji ad, and put the price in it. An ad that says to message for the price turns every rental into a conversation, and the person who wanted it Saturday can have rented someone else's by the time you answer.

Put a sign on the trailer itself, with a phone number or a web address. A parked trailer is a billboard, and the neighbours already know where it lives.

A free Google Business Profile puts you on the map when somebody nearby searches for a dump trailer rental.

The part nobody mentions: the messages

The trailer is the easy part. The work is the messages. Is it free Saturday? How much for the weekend? Can I pick it up at seven? Did my e-transfer go through?

Every one of those is a small job, and they arrive in the evening when you have stopped working. It is the part of renting that nobody counts when they work out what the trailer earns.

So decide early how a stranger finds out the price and the free days without asking you. A calendar you keep up to date and a posted price will cut most of it.

Keep records from the first rental

The money is income, and the Canada Revenue Agency expects a record of it. Keep every sale with an invoice or a receipt, keep the receipts for what you spend on the trailer, and keep them for six years.

You do not have to charge GST/HST until your sales pass $30,000 over four calendar quarters in a row. One trailer rented on weekends will not get you there. A second and a third might, and once you pass it you have 29 days to register.

That is what the CRA's own pages say. It is not tax advice, and an accountant can tell you how it applies to you.

Where Haulbase fits

Haulbase is rental software built in Nova Scotia for yards in Canada, and it starts at one trailer. It takes the back and forth off you.

• Your trailer gets its own page with your price and the days it is free, so nobody has to message to find out.
• The customer picks their dates and signs your rental agreement on their phone. An agreement written for your province is built in, for 12 provinces and territories.
• A damage deposit is held on their card and released when it comes back clean.
• They can take the pickup and return photos themselves.
• Every request waits for your yes.
• Every payment has a receipt, and your payments download as a spreadsheet at tax time.

It is free to start, with nothing monthly. Haulbase keeps 10% of what a customer pays online by card, and nothing on cash or e-transfer. Card payments and deposit holds run through your own Stripe account, and Stripe's card fee is separate.

We set the page up with you, from your ad and your photos.