TBEX is on this weekend in Toronto, which is the world’s biggest conference for travel writers and bloggers. While I don’t really consider myself a travel blogger, I really LOVE to travel and want to figure out a way to do more and incorporate it into my blogs. And if you are gonna travel, might as well try to save some money in the process as it can be a very expensive hobby!

Wednesday night I attended the GAdventures launch party at Tryst Nightclub in Toronto and met several travel bloggers. One that stood out the most was a young woman by the name of Alouise who runs a blog called Traveler Ahoy. She told me she did some budget travel blogging, but what really caught my interest was how she made her way from Edmonton to Toronto for the conference; a service called Hit The Road.

Hit The Road is a car delivery service that lets travelers use vehicles while getting them to their destination. For example, if Hit The Road has a customer that needs their car delivered from Toronto to Los Angeles (as was on the site when I wrote this), you can sign up to drive the car and they will cover most (if not all) of the gas to get it there! To make it even better, they don’t want people driving more than 800kms per day, so you can stop off at many places along the way and see a lot of Canada and the United States.

Hit The Road

I had a brief chat with the owner of Hit The Road, David Smaller, yesterday and he told me a bit more about the service. Here is how it works:

1) You must apply to be a driver. This involves handing over your information so that they can verify you have a clean driving record and your license is in good standing.

2) Find a car that you want to deliver. You can see the current list of available cars here.

3) Leave a $500 deposit with Hit The Road and pick up the car. This is used to cover the insurance deductible in case something goes wrong. You will be insured by Hit The Road, but they expect you to cover the deductible if you crash one of their client’s cars (same as if you were renting a car).

4) Drive the car to it’s destination. You are expected to drive 500kms per day but can go as many as 800kms but are not allowed to drive at night.

5) Drop off the car at the destination. Alouise told me when she dropped off the car in Toronto the owner of the car even took her to where she needed to go after! You will be given your deposit back after once the delivery is complete.

Remember, this is NOT a paid gig. Think of it as hitchhiking somewhere, but you get to drive someone’s car to get you to your destination.

For trips that go across the border, David ensures me that everything goes super smoothly and they are a recognized business by Canadian & US customs.

Obviously this kind of thing isn’t for everyone, but if you are wanting to see a bunch of places and cut your transportation costs in half, this is an excellent way to do so! You will be responsible for getting home after the delivery is made on your own dime, but who knows, maybe there will be another delivery going back a few days later!

To read Alouise’s Hit The Road experience first hand, check out her post: An Overview of My Epic Canadian Road Trip.

Also, if you are looking to get your car shipped to another North American city, talk to them also as they provide a much cheaper way of doing so!