[srinath34]

Had my first experience with Zoom Cars in Pune yesterday thanks to my company recommended taxi service having no cars free to ferry me around. Rented a Honda City from the pick up point near Viman Nagar/Pune airport at 7.45 AM and drove to MIDC Ranjangaon and dropped the car off at the same place at 7.30 PM. Overall good experience. The journey was around 100 kms two way.

What went well

1. Booking through Zoom mobile app was seamless. Did the booking at 3AM from Bangalore airport for pick up at 7.45 AM.

2. Finally drove the 4th gen Honda City I-DTEC over a long distance. Got a good feel of the car. Diesel engine is a tad noisy. 6th gear useful in cruising.

3. Brand new clean car. Had done just 1655 kms when I picked it up. So followed a sort of run- in policy (speeds less than 100 kmph, constant variation in RPM). Avg mileage at time of drop showed 18 kmpl.

4. Drive on the Pune-Shiradi highway.

What did not go well

1. Checklist was not going through on the mobile. Called up helpline and asked them to send it on my behalf. Did not have to unlock or lock the car process using the app due to this.

1. Mobile in the car was not working. Highlighted this in the pick up checklist by calling the helpline.

2. Mobile holder started to disintegrate during the trip. Highlighted this while return checklist was done.

The Zoom car representative was kind enough to drop me off at my hotel in Nagar Road as he was going to fill diesel in the car.

Now awaiting final invoice from Zoom car.

Looking forward to drive the Mercs in around Bangalore next time.

[GTO]

Some interesting facts about Zoom Car on Livemint:

Zoomcar India Pvt. Ltd is seeking to double its fleet to 2,000 cars in the next five months and expand its business to 10 cities in pursuit of a threefold jump in revenue by the end of 2015.

logs close to 15,000 bookings per month.

Launched in 2013, the company is expected to roll out its services to other metros and tier-1 cities such as Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Goa by December

We expect Delhi and Mumbai to be the biggest markets for us going forward

The Indian regulations required the company to have at least 50 owned cars to start the business. They finally financed their first 50 cars through bank loans and by tying up with a car rental company in Bengaluru.

Even today, the company buys 75% of the cars in its network via bank loans while the remaining 25% are leased from large companies such as Avis Budget Group that owns ZipCar or local tour and travel firms.

Few see a big opportunity in the self-drive businesses in India, given that many consider driving too strenuous.

“Driving is not a pleasure in India unlike some of the other countries. Given the traffic conditions, people prefer to be driven around rather than drive themselves as there is hardly any cost difference,” said Vineet Toshniwal, managing director of Equirus Capital.

[pankaj_sachdeva]

Originally Posted by djpeesh

Hey Pankaj,
The car was yellow on black board. Now, it WASN'T an HSRP but the registration documents were for rent-a-cab scheme and they even had the relevant sections of law in the folder about how the scheme works (probably for cops who are unaware)

Also, had an accident with the ZoomCar. Need to write up what happened.

Thanks for confirming on the number plate scheme. Hope everything is fine !!

[//M]

Zoom has updated their website with Mumbai and Chennai locations.

Source: Zoom

Currently they have 7 offices in Navi Mumbai, none in Mumbai as of now.


Three offices in Chennai currently.


Also, Zoom has added the Maruti Ciaz to their Bangalore fleet.

[Soumyajit9]

Something to cheer about !!

[Chetan_Rao]

Had my first Zoomcar experience yesterday.

Booked a Figo for an airport run. BLR airport being where it is, is a 100-odd km roundtrip from my house in South Bangalore. Booked the car for 13 hours (130 kms allowance), but completed the run within 100kms, so returned the car 3 hours early. Got 50% refund for the unused booking (as per their rules) as credit in my account, so the whole trip cost me 1150 INR at weekend rates (cheaper during weekdays). That's much better than hiring a cab or trying to use the shuttle services.

Pick-up and return were seamless, submitted checklists from my phone app both times without issues. The car was decently maintained, 4 months old with 22k on the ODO. The engine had a weird shudder while idling sometimes, nothing unmanageable. Clutch understandably on the harder side due to varied usage.

Decent experience and I'd definitely use their services again, given I'm car-less for the time being

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by chiragpatnaik

The Yellow on Black Scheme was part of Motor Vehicle Rules 1989, which was amended in 2001 to introduce HSRP.

Originally Posted by pankaj_sachdeva

I know we are dragging it, but my point is if this was illegal / not allowed, Zoom wouldn't have been able to ply vehicles with this color scheme in the Delhi NCR.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Zoom cars in pondicherry (saw over three weekends) have the same scheme and despite the "crackdown" (lol) on the IND number plates, these guys were running around like usual.

OT:

Just to quote the available MVD docs:

Zoom operates under the "1989 Rent a cab scheme"
http://transport.bih.nic.in/Guidelin...A-Cab-1989.pdf

Since this is a central MVD rule, the states have to implement it. AFAIK Delhi and Karnataka implemented it. (The initial Zoom vehicles in Pune were bearing KA numbers, not sure about current situation). While the central act does not talk about the plate format, the state act does mention them.

Here is the Delhi MVD website link referring to this scheme/number plate format:
http://delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/...+registration/

Other state police/mvd folks are generally ignorant about this number plate, and I was once flagged down by Kerala police for driving with illegal number plate. They let me go after I showed them the documents of the (Zoom) car.

[gungax]

Had a query regarding the reliability of cars.
Have any zoomcars customers experienced major mechanical breakdowns?

I just completed a 3k Km road trip between Hyderabad, Banglore, Coorg and Udupi.

In Karnataka, I crossed a lot of zoomcars. It is difficult to describe how badly the cars are being abused.
On one rough patch in coorg where even the Inova taxis where doing about 30 Kmh, we were over taken by zoomcars branded Honda Amaze and XUV 500 doing at least 60-80 kmph!
That is just one example of abuse I observed the entire 2 weeks I was in Karnataka.

[drmohitg]

I am having trouble trying to understand Zoom's pricing. I was looking to hire an XUV in Delhi for a day's drive to Jaipur covering a maximum distance of 500 kms and will return the car to them in 14 hours. Now as per my understanding from their tariff chart they will charge me 140 Rs for each hour which comes to Rs. 1960 for 14 hours. This will allow me to drive the car for 140 kms according to the 10km per hour rule. So beyond this I will be charged for remaining 360 kms at the rate of 15/km which comes to approx Rs. 5400.

So all in all a trip of 500 kms & 14 hours will cost me around Rs. 7500. This is a lot of money. My own Innova with a FE of 10 kmpl will cost me aaprox Rs. 2500 for the same trip. A hired Taxi Innova ( usual Delhi rate is Rs. 12/km) will cost me around Rs. 6000 and has the added advantage of a driver.

Am I making some mistake in the maths? If not then why will anyone choose Zoom over a regular taxi?

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

So all in all a trip of 500 kms & 14 hours will cost me around Rs. 7500. This is a lot of money. My own Innova with a FE of 10 kmpl will cost me aaprox Rs. 2500 for the same trip. A hired Taxi Innova ( usual Delhi rate is Rs. 12/km) will cost me around Rs. 6000 and has the added advantage of a driver.

Am I making some mistake in the maths? If not then why will anyone choose Zoom over a regular taxi?

If you need the car for 500kms, rent for 50 hours not 14 hours. This will be 140*50 = 7000 bucks.

Now you return the car in 14 hours. You have returned it 36 hours before your actual return time. Zoom will add credit in your account for Rs.70 (50%)*36 = Rs.2520. Effective cost is Rs.4480.

This is what I do with them.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

.......
Am I making some mistake in the maths?

You aren't mistaken, Zoom doesn't make sense for small-duration-high-usage scenarios. With Zoom, it makes sense to hire the vehicle based on your distance usage requirement, not duration. Only downside is you'll need to park it unused for the remaining time to avoid paying overuse charges.

In your case, hire the car for 50-odd hours, use it for your trip, park it for a day and then return it.

If not then why will anyone choose Zoom over a regular taxi?

Not having to depend on a chauffeur and his quirks is Zoom's USP, and you pay a bit of a premium for that.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Now you return the car in 14 hours. You have returned it 36 hours before your actual return time. Zoom will add credit in your account for Rs.70 (50%)*36 = Rs.2520. Effective cost is Rs.4480.

That's not how it works. Refer FAQ point 22. The kicker is in point (b).

If I bring the car back ahead of my reservation time, do I receive a credit?
a) Credits worth 50% of billed hourly rate will be given for the remaining hours of your booking.
b) Free KMs will be given only for the hours for which you did not get credits.

You get credits for your unused booking, but your allowance kms are marked down to your actual usage hours. In the scenario you mentioned, the kms allowance will be marked down to 140 kms (14 hours).

Long story short, you can earn credits only if you booked for longer time duration/kms allowance than you really needed, then returned the car with unused kms ahead of return time. Unused time alone doesn't earn any credits.

E.g. I booked a Figo a few days ago for 13 hours/130 kms. Returned it in 10 hours with 100 kms on the trip-meter. Got credit for 50% of unused booking (INR 150). The credit is money-based, not kms as hourly rentals vary by day of the week.

If I'd driven the whole 130 kms and still tried to return in 10 hrs, I'd be billed per km for 30 kms.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

That's not how it works. Refer FAQ point 22:

You get credits for your unused booking, but your allowance kms are marked down to your actual usage hours. In the scenario you mentioned, the kms allowance will be marked down to 14o kms (14 hours).

Long story short, you can earn credits only if you booked for longer time duration/kms allowance than you really needed.

E.g. I booked a Figo a few days ago for 13 hours/130 kms. Returned it in 10 hours with 100 kms on the trip-meter. Got credit for 50% of unused booking (INR 150). The credit is money-based, not kms as hourly rentals vary by day of the week.

If I'd driven the whole 130 kms and still tried to return in 10 hrs, I'd be billed per km for 30 kms.

Ah ok. this has been changed recently. I think they picked up on people doing this. Cause I booked for longer time and returned earlier and got the driving credits for the unused hours even though kms were as per actual booking hours. This was a couple of months back.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by //M

Zoom has updated their website with Mumbai and Chennai locations.

Here's the Navi Mumbai locations:

• Belapur Railway Station
• Khargar Railway Station
• Sanpada Railway Station
• Seawood Railway Station
• Turbhe (Hotel IBIS)
• Vashi Railway Station
• Vashi Sector 16A, N.M.M.C Parking

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Here's the Navi Mumbai locations:

• Belapur Railway Station
• Khargar Railway Station
• Sanpada Railway Station
• Seawood Railway Station
• Turbhe (Hotel IBIS)
• Vashi Railway Station
• Vashi Sector 16A, N.M.M.C Parking

I was looking forward to renting a BMW but they don't seem to have any luxury options in Mumbai. Also all the locations are in Navi Mumbai

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

.....I think they picked up on people doing this......

You bet! Given how you described it, one could theoretically drive unlimited kms and gain credits while doing it, not that I'm against such perks

Jokes apart, Zoom should really do away with the kms capping, probably for an additional charge. Current setup really restricts people who want to drive longer distances over shorter times.