Team-BHP - Converting Private Car to Commercial Registration

Hi Friends

I have got a van which is registered as a private vehicle. Well the problem is that I want to start a business for which this van will be used commercially. Now I want to know is it possible to convert a private registered vehicle into a yellow plate registration. If yes then how do I go about it.

Well also I was thinking if it is possible to register it as a commercial vehicle if I "transfer/sell" the vehicle to someone else, So the new owner should be able to get it re-registered as a commercial vehicle right?

This is mostly a question of taxation; the govt. will be very happy to do this - they get extra cash from a public transport vehicle. The caveat being the vehicle is not too old.

The big question is, why do want to do this? You obviously are not going to carry people; what you probably want is to transfer goods; and a passenger vehicle to goods version too? Not impossible, there are provisions in the rules (IIRC), enabling this.

BTW, I was in GA recently, and was surprised to find white board vehicles parked in taxi stands. The taxi I hired was also a white board one. Obviously, there ain't any problem (from the practicality POV). So, why do this?

Conversion is possible to the best of knowledge, atleast in AP, provided the car is not too old(I do not know how old exactly). This is basically how some people get their used cars a new number of their choice. First they convert the car to commercial, then after a day or so they convert it to private and then go for a number of their choice. This was the practise till two or three years back when AP had quarterly tax for commercial vehicles. Now that this tax has been changed from quarterly to life tax, people are not doing this any more. This is because they have to pay full life tax while registering as commercial vehicle(before it was only Rs.800 per quarter). Also the process for claiming back the road tax has become very difficult now and will take its own time.

In your case, you have to pay the commercial road tax for your car and then go for commercial registration. Once you change to commercial, the road tax you have paid for private registration is refundable on prorata, but the process will take its own time.

All the information I've given above is w.r.to AP as we have life tax for vehicles here, I do not know if it is the same tax system in other states. Whether life, yearly or quarterly tax, the conversion should be possible.

-Vinay.

Well the thing is that the van will be a public display/sale vehicle for products (just like the xenon by uninor and the likes) so it will be completely vinyled,and I guess that can attract "problem" that is why I wanted to do this but anyways I found out that it can be changed into commercial registration but only to be used as a taxi and not goods so I am going to get a omni cargo instead. Anyways thanks for your views backseatdriver:thumbs up

AFAIK, even goods to passenger (and reverse) conversion is possible. Probably, they changes the rules? I suggest you take a second opinion.

Spending 200K on a new vehicle which will not run for more than X KM is not worth the pain.

You can, in the alternate, covnert the vehicle as taxa, and then take permission for the vinyling / display ads. This (permission for display ads) is required only if the ads will be stuck / painted on teh vehicle body. If you are just festooning / banneris which will be taken off, then, the permission would not be required.

I have done a conversion from white to yellow in 2007 and back to white in 2010. This was done basically as the car used to be stationed in other states for long periods, and it is possible to pay short term tax at the border and prevent harassment from local police and RTO.
Once done you have to pay annual tax, annual fitness, and annual permit authorization in case of all India permit, or get temporary permits in case of state permit.
You can either fill up the form D to get refund of OTT, or let it remain and use it when you reconvert the car to a private vehicle.
You get back your original registration no when you do the re conversion process.

Rahul

Quote:

Originally Posted by invidious (Post 3522325)

Hi,

I would like to convert a private vehicle to a T registration. This needs to be done in Mumbai. My RTO agent is dragging his feet. It is a 2 year old Vento. Can someone please guide? Thanks.

I am not sure about the mumbai rto. But recently I had converted a white board to taxi in kerala. The major advantage was that no tax had to be paid as the life tax was now converted to taxi permit and tax. Only the fitness test and pollution and some minor regulation of the rto had to be dealt.

There probably exist threads similar to this in the forum, but I couldn't find anything recent , and one that specifically talked about Delhi.

To my knowledge, if any vehicle is to be used for any commercial purpose, such as a Taxi, or a Car-for-hire, or a Charter vehicle, they need a Commercial Permit, which comes along with Yellow plates. However in my recent visit to Mumbai-Goa in March, more than Half the Ubers I ordered had White plates, and AFAIR, so did the one I ordered in Delhi from the Airport, and then in Goa all vehicles put up for Daily Hire had White plates.

So, does anybody have any recent information if Cars with White Plates are allowed to serve commercial purposes (even with a specific permit), or were all the above illegal?

Also, I have a spare Corolla with me, which instead of selling for a dirt-cheap price on the Used Market, I was contemplating to put with Uber. But I obviously can't have a car with Yellow Plates in my driveway. So, is there anyway that I can legally put one of my "White Plate" cars on Uber or some Charter?

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikhilj (Post 3729652)

So, does anybody have any recent information if Cars with White Plates are allowed to serve commercial purposes (even with a specific permit), or were all the above illegal?

As far as I know, taxis - whether Uber or otherwise - must have a yellow plate only. As hserus posted, white plate cars on hire are illegal. The taxi union has lodged several protests against this practice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hserus (Post 3729663)

What is going on is not legal. Police may not bother to sieze broken down indicas used for such a purpose but they will definitely stop and check papers if they think an expensve car like a corolla is being used as an unlicensed taxi.

On the contrary, I think the Police will not stop bigger cars. AFAIK, policiyas always try to exploit the small guy, the big they avoid to touch.
But anyway, if it's illegal, then there isn't much to discuss.