The get paid to drive concept was at the height of its popularity during the Internet bubble of the late 1990s. Roadside advertising was near capacity leaving the many companies that wanted to advertise their service or product to those driving in their cars without a place to do so. At this time, billboard and other traditional advertising space along busy roads and highways was severely limited and prices for such space was rising fast.

One solution to this advertising shortage was addressed with car wraps. Basically, the advertiser would wrap their advertisement around a car (instead of on a billboard) for everyone to see. This way companies could advertise their products or services to reach people driving along the roads in areas where they couldn't get advertising space on billboards.

The car wrap gained popularity through the 1990s when traditional billboard advertising remained tight, but when billboard advertising softened in the late 1990s, this took a heavy toll on the car wrap advertising companies. Today, only a fraction of those that were once in business remain so.

Most car wrap companies that remain have had to reinvent themselves as niche advertisers for specialty campaigns and that is where they remain at this point. For certain advertising campaigns, the auto wrap still has an appeal of being different than typical advertising campaign.

From time to time there will be a company that is looking for a unique advertising campaign, and the auto wrap can offer a cost effective way of getting their brand name out there. In this case, a company would "rent" space on individual private citizen's cars. In return for letting the company "wrap" the car with their advertisement, they'll compensate the car owner with a monthly payment. The payment can be as high as $400 a month for a full car wrap and lesser amounts for a partial car wrap or a window wrap.

The catch is that there are far more drivers wanting to be paid to drive than advertising campaigns available. If you don't drive a lot of miles (typically over 800 miles a month) or live in a highly populated area where the advertisement will be seen by a lot of people, your chances of being chosen are slim.

While the chances of getting paid to drive today are not very good, they are still better than playing the lottery. If you believe your car and location would be desirable to advertisers, it could be worth contacting auto wrap companies directly to see if you can get on their list. If you are lucky and do get picked, you will significantly reduce your driving expenses with little effort on your part.