Be your own chauffeur

Be your own chauffeur

This concept is also making self-drive holidays more popular in India. Photo: R. Ravindran

You are all set for a weekend journey to Puducherry with your gang of best friends. Your hatchback seats just five. But an SUV can snuggle in an extra. So you book a cab. Oh, but it comes with a driver. Does that mean, you now have to say goodbye to one of your friends and take just four along anyway?

Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about violating your head over which friend to leave behind, thanks to the unexpected expansion of India’s rental car market. Now, you can rent a ‘self drive’ car for the weekend. Additionally, this facility lets you choose from a list of vehicles that you can drive, from an hour to even a month. It’s a trend that’s getting increasingly popular in the car rental space, and today, the market is competitive, with a range of companies such as Myles, Zoomcar, Revv and Selfdrive.in, suggesting these services.

The rates vary according to the service provider. It starts as low as Rs. Seven hundred seventy five per day. Cars can be booked in advance, and in some cases up to three months in advance. In case of last-minute cancellations, you will have to pay a fee. You can either pick up the car from a destination specified by the company or have it dropped to a specific venue at an extra cost.

Myles, which launched in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai in 2013, entered the Chennai market in early 2014, with one hundred cars. “Initially, we eyed only twenty to thirty per cent utilisation of our cars in Chennai. Now, the number has soared to eighty to ninety per cent. Weekends are crazy and there have been times when cars have been unavailable due to high request. It’s also economical when compared to hiring a cab. I would say it cuts cost by about fifty per cent,” says Sakshi Vij, founder of Myles. He says that they plan to add another three hundred cars to their fleet in the next four months.

“Since there is no driver involved, you have privacy, independence and plasticity,” says Greg Moran, who commenced Zoomcar in Bangalore, in February 2013. They are now in six cities across India. While their popularity is growing little by little in Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad, they say it is Bangalore, followed by Mumbai and Delhi, that requires the most number of cars. “In Chennai, we have one hundred cars. Most common destinations for the Chennai market are ECR, Madurai, Pondicherry and Tirupati,” says Greg.

This concept is also making self-drive holidays more popular in India. Often a preferred mode of exploring countries abroad, self-drive holidays are finding takers in the 23-to-35 age group here. While some of these customers rent cars to drive to relatively predictable destinations like Goa, Ooty, Coorg and Kabini, there are the adventurous ones who head to Ladakh and other less-explored locations. “We are permanently learning about fresh places from our clients,” says Sakshi. He adds, “Someone took a vehicle to drive to the last Indian village near Badrinath. One of them rented a Nano for a month and drove from Delhi to Kanyakumari, as he desired an economical way to explore the country.” And how much did he have to pay? Rs. Five,500 as rental charges, minus the fuel, of course.

Most of these companies work on a tank-full to tank-full basis. (The car is given to them with the tank utter and that’s how they are expected to come back it.) Since they also suggest luxury models like Mercedes, BMW and Audi, there are instances when clients rent them out for a duo of hours, just to get an idea of how these high-end cars feel. Then there are customers who hire luxury cars just to attend weddings and parties. “At the same time, there are those who are apprehensive because they are worried about bruising the car. The lack of awareness on how to manoeuvre these automatically-advanced cars is a reason why many don’t drive them,” says Soham Shah, founder of Selfdrive.in, a company that commenced out as a chauffer-driven rental car company. By 2010, Soham noticed that there were more requests from customers for self-driven cars than chauffeured ones. Adapting to the market needs, in 2011, the company worked on redefining itself, and has since rented out only this category. Their services are available in three locations now — Pune, Mumbai and Goa. “Pune has slew of nice destinations nearby like Shirdi and Lonavala. Many clients go to Goa, and every day, at least twenty to thirty of our cars are headed there,” he says. He plans to shortly launch in Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Another interesting facet of this service is that increasingly junior working professionals are choosing to rent cars for a month or two, instead of actually buying fresh cars. There’s no hassle of EMI payments, maintenance or insurance. This also enables them to switch the car model as and when they please. “All the cars are covered under insurance. Extensive harm will cost the client Rs. Five,000, and less harm, around Rs. Two,000,” says Greg. Most companies equip their fleet with tracking devices, so if you’re stranded or the car violates down, be assured, help will reach you wherever you are.

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